MARQUETTE — Budding entrepreneurs might have grandiose dreams of making it big right away, but that’s not necessarily to way to start a business.

Northern Michigan University’s Intro to Entrepreneurship class in Marketing 215 teaches students the basic tenets of marketing while allowing them to create and promote their own companies — even if they don’t last beyond the class — a choose a charity to support.

Corinne Bodeman, NMU professor of entrepreneurship who teaches the class, called it an experiment.

“I’ve had a lot of feedback from students,” Bodeman said. “They still want to learn how to start a business, and so what we’ve done is, this year, I’m giving them that chance.”

Students were divided into groups to create their business, which she said involved ecommerce and making their own website.

They had only weeks, not months, to accomplish this.

“Then they shut it down, and we debrief,” Bodeman said. “What have you learned, and if you do it again, what would you do differently?”

The students’ company websites and the charities that will benefit are:

≤ canhunter.com, Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy;

≤ dandydesigners.com, Lake Superior Life Care & Hospice;

≤ sunnychargers.com, Noquemanon Trail Network;

≤ knotsofloveup.com, Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter;

≤ positivepolytees.com, Bay Cliff Health Camp;

≤ cleanerearbuds.com, Copper Harbor Trails; and

≤ shorelinestitches.com, Partridge Creek Farm.

Can Hunter works with the community to get cans out of people’s houses and in its hands — and get paid for that. People can fill up a 13-, 30- or 50-gallon trash bag and get back a certain percentage of their money if they wish. Can Hunter also will pick up cans.

“We’re Yoopers after all,” it says on its website. “We don’t mind a quick drive.”

Dandy Designers gives people their own custom designs to use on T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, bags, stickers and more. Its website provides three steps to order and receive a design, then purchase the product.

Sunny Chargers offers a solar-powered charging block, which includes a flashlight and compass.

“This product is perfect for all who love to hike, snowshoe, mountain bike, kayak, ski or even just love to spend hours on end outdoors,” it says on its website.

Knots of Love UP offers dog collars and keychains with different color schemes, while Positive Poly Tees sells polyester shirts that it says are eco-friendly and sustainable, with the manufacturer using less dye in the shirts.

Cleaner Earbuds, as its name says, sells earbud cleaning kits for better hygiene as well as improved sound quality and clarity.

Shoreline Stitches makes hoodies and crewnecks with a special design that includes pine trees, the NMU Superior Dome, waves representing Lake Superior and the Lower Harbor Ore Dock.

Sophomore Angelina Heinzman is working on the Sunny Chargers project. She said she and her fellow students use “drop-shipping” in which goods are kept in stock elsewhere.

“We don’t have to deal with any of the shipping or anything,” Heinzman said. “It just goes right to them.”

At Wednesday’s class, Bodeman asked for an update on the students’ projects. The class also gave students a chance to exchange ideas and ask for advice. For instance, one student wanted a good way to put a short but effective tag line in an outreach email to the campus community.

Should it say “Let us do it for you” or indicate that the company is a student-made business? The goal was to get recipients to not scroll past the email, and in effect be an attention-grabber.

Bodeman discussed with the students various forms of crowdfunding, which solicits capital from individuals. Crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Fundable and Mightycause all have unique features that marketers should consider, she said.

“If you have a fund where you can just get preorders to just bring attention to your cause, yes, it costs you money but the paybacks — and nope, seven weeks in this class isn’t enough time — but $24 a month is pretty cheap, and maybe you could have done some,” Bodeman said.

She also discussed crowdsourcing, which involves obtaining outside help and services, and bootstrapping, which is starting a business without outside investment.

Bootstrappers, she said, should remember this piece of advice: “You start small and you go from there.”

And, Bodeman added, don’t quit your day job unless the business takes off.

However, there is an upside for a business when bootstrapping.

“You can run it the way you want,” Bodeman said.

On the other hand, she said venture capital money is needed when fast scaling, or growth, is needed.

It’s all about marketing

Bodeman said marketing is crucial to business success, even if the product is of high quality.

“You have to be able to put it on your Facebook, your Instagram, your TikTok, your Snapchat,” she said.

Bodeman acknowledged that in her class, students will learn that “failure is an option.”

In fact, one of their assignments is to intentionally do something that will result in failure.

“You have to set yourself up for failure because you have to get used to failing,” she said.

Bodeman pointed out that venture capitalists will not give money to people who haven’t failed because they want entrepreneurs to lose their own money first.

“What happens when we fail? You learn,” she said. “You learn that, guess what? You don’t do it again.”

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.