Willis named Student Entrepreneur of the Year

(originally published May 4, 2009 in The Point Weekly)
by Phillip Moyer

Jacob Willis saw a demand.

He found that wedding photographers needed to spend excessive amounts of time and effort designing wedding albums, but often cannot due to the requirements of their businesses.

By creating a business plan though PLNU's 2008-2009 Entrepreneurial Enrichment Program that took these requirements out of the hands of the photographers, Willis, who graduated from PLNU last spring with a major in Managerial and Organizational Communication, was named 2009 the Student-Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Entrepreneurial Enrichment Program (EEP), which first started at PLNU in 2007, guides PLNU students through the process of turning their business ideas into workable business plans. At the end of the seven-month process, the best plan, as determined by a panel of 15 judges from around the country, wins its creator $3000 for the business, and the title of Entrepreneur of the Year.

“Nearly all of the other competitions that I see everywhere else, students present, they're judged, and the very best one gets additional care.” said Randy Ataide, the Director of both the Fermanian Business Center and the EEP. “Ours is the complete opposite. All of our students get the care all the way through the process of building a plan, and yes, we do select an entrepreneur of the year, but all of the plans are rewarded for the two-semester-long entry process.”

Willis' idea for the company, which he calls Allure Album Design, came to him while working as an intern for Bauman Photography during his Senior year. The photography studio, working with its customers mailed its photographs to a company in Washington, which sent a draft back for the studio and customer to make corrections to. Willis figured that if the design company, not the studio, worked directly with the customers, valuable time would be saved.

Eventually, the photography studio realized it would take less time to use Willis' talents to produce the albums in-house.

“Album design used to take our studio anywhere from four to six months. Now, with me handling it all, it takes about 2 months,” said Willis. “It's nice, because we have a studio manager and two other photographers, and it doesn't consume any of their time, because I handle all of it.”

After signing up for the EEP in April, Willis prepared his idea for the first step in the process—the September presentation. A total of 13 students, including Willis, set up presentations to explain their ideas to potential mentors, who judged the plans and decided if they would be willing to work with the students.

Willis' idea attracted the attention of Suzi Grunau, a self-employed property manager.

“Jacob is very talented in graphic design, and putting together all the technology that it takes to put together the album,” said Grunau. “I just liked his concept.”

Willis' now-full-time work for Bauman kept his schedule busy until January, when he could finally find the time to work on his plan. He communicated with Grunau by email about once per week, who helped him with aspects of the plan he had not yet focused on, such as marketing and researching his competition.

“I went to a big wedding photographer in Vegas,” said Willis. “ I talked to other album design companies, and basically pretended that I was an interested customer, and got all their price points. Feeling out the industry was a huge thing that really helped me shape my plan.”

The months of work spent on the project all culminated at the awards banquet held last Friday, April 29, where Willis was named Student-Entrepreneur of the Year, receiving the $3000 prize.

As the wide-eyed, smiling entrepreneur stood up to receive his award, it was clear that he was excited to have won.

“I never did the competition to win,” Willis said later. “I got involved because I knew I needed to write a business plan if I wanted to create an album company. [...] But as you put more effort and time into something, you get more attached to it. When the banquet came, I really did want to win.”

The creators of the eight other business plans involved in the project all received $500 for their business. Several students also received scholarships for their work, including Amanda Kleen, who created a lightweight bear-proof food container called LIGHTER1.

“This was probably the most valuable experience I've had at Point Loma so far,” Kleen said after the banquet. “I've been treated like an adult, and put in the real world with real equations and real problems to solve, with real people that hold you accountable.”

Along with his work for Bauman, Willis already has one client that is outsourcing its album design to him. He plans on expanding his company, starting with the creation of a website that allows for clients to create accounts and submit requests. He estimates that raising capital and creating the website will take eight months.

For the 2009-2010 EEP, 27 students have applied. Though the deadline for submissions was April 15, Ataide says he'd possibly consider late submissions. Students from any major can submit a plan, along with seniors graduating this spring.