Students in Entrepreneurship 1 are preparing for their annual Market Days event, which will take place on Mar. 8 and Mar. 15. Market Days are set to take place in the lecture hall during all lunch periods and are an opportunity for students to apply the skills and strategies learned in their class.

“We’ve been preparing for Market Days since before winter break,” senior Hannah Perez said. “In the class, we’ve learned about marketing and different strategies, which I used to promote my cloud slime business.”

In order to prepare for the event, students spent months coming up with products to sell and promote. Each group of students is given $50 to fund their products with the goal being to make a profit.

“[The students] go from having their budget, picking out their products, advertising their products and coming up with merchandising ideas to make [their shop] look attractive,” entrepreneurship teacher Debra Dove said. “It’s a way for students to see how a business operates on a small scale [with] items that they enjoy and things that they think their fellow students and teachers in the school would want to buy.”

Students applied various marketing strategies learned in class to creatively come up with unique methods to promote their products and generate excitement for the event. They were tasked with designing websites, posters and logos to advertise their brands.

“We value customer input, so we put out a survey to get responses and get information on how to cater our product,” junior Diana Skordalakis said. “We also put promotional ads around the school so people could be exposed to our product.”

Pricing, an important part of the curriculum, also played a big role in student preparation.

“It was helpful to learn about pricing because I decided to price my cloud slimes differently based on the polls I made,” Perez said. “After making an Instagram to promote the business, I put up polls to see demand and popularity for each type of slime and how I should price them individually.”

In past years, Market Days have garnered much support from students, with many products specifically targeting student interests and popular trends.

“I’m excited to go visit Market Days because I’ve seen a lot of posts on Instagram about the things I can buy,” junior Karine Khayo said. “I remember it being very popular last year, so I hope I can go early to buy the products from my friends.”

Market Days allow students to take a hands-on approach when stimulating real-life business experiences.

“Entrepreneurship is an entertaining class and a fun way to learn more about what you want to pursue in the future,” Perez said.