Off-Farm Income

INTRODUCING ELYCE BURZALAFF!

Cleary my favorite aspect of the FFA is that it exposes students to entrepreneurship.  I have a lot of favorite aspects, but it was entrepreneurship that introduced me to the FFA, and that is the aspect that I have been profiling for six years now.

I like this aspect so much because a lot of students may have never been exposed to the concept of working for themselves.  If they are like me, they knew entrepreneurs and understood that some people were self-employed, but nobody ever told them that was an option for them.  With that being the case, there are lots of potential entrepreneurs sitting in classrooms across America that will never try out that path because they are unaware of it as a viable option for them.

Today's episode highlights how the FFA can put another tool, the tool of entrepreneurship, in a student's arsenal.  Elyce Burzlaff is mid-way through her sophomore year of high school.  Last May a guest speaker came to her school and spoke with the FFA students.  During that discussion, Elyce and her classmates were challenged to come up with an entrepreneurial idea.  This led Elyce down a path of thinking of ways she could create revenue and determining what resources were at her disposal.  Then she remembered that her mom had some equipment that could be used for making shirts.

"Elyce B's Tees" was born at that moment.  Elyce started creating shirts and selling them at her local farmer's market.  She started seeing good results and kept doing this until the market closed for the season.  When the market closed she started developing her Facebook Page, Instagram Page, and her own website, elycebstees.com.

Elyce is certainly on the way with her business now and is learning all about entrepreneurship.  She has another two and a half years in high school to hone her craft and learn about business, and we will see where this takes her!


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