VOLUME 120 ISSUE 38
ENTREPRENEURS
A crash course in innovation
Contest winners find there's always a market for ideas
BY SACHIKO MIYAKAWA smiyakawa@kansan.com
With the struggling U.S. economy presenting obstacles to business owners, some KU students are challenging the business world with their own ideas.
Ann Fitzgerald, Southlake, Texas, graduate student, and her business partner, Jana Silverman, 2008 graduate, are preparing to sell shower chairs, while Adam Hofmann, Overland Park senior, runs a photography business targeting high school seniors.
The three won the Mark L. Morris Jr. New Venture Development competition, a contest sponsored by the School of Business, in Spring 2008. They now compete with businesses that have more money and more experience than they do.
TAKE A SEAT
Fitzgerald and Silverman, who both earned their bachelor's degrees in industrial design, started their business plan for a senior design project in 2007. The project involved doing marketing research as well as designing.
The pair eventually decided to sell shower chairs for people who were unable to stand in the shower.
Fitzgerald said she and Silverman wanted to design a chair that was both practical and aesthetically pleasing. They also decided to use 3Form, a recyclable plastic, to construct the chair.
"Most people have a negative connotation about shower chairs," Silverman said. "When you think of one, you think of just a plastic seat with steel legs."
Fitzgerald and Silverman tried several designs and materials to refine the prototype, asking their relatives to use the chairs and displaying the chairs in front of Wescoe Hall to get feedback.
"Good design reaches the gap between what the industry offers and what customers want." Fizerald said.
Silverman said protecting their ideas from competitors was always a challenge. The pair is looking for investors and manufacturers to sell the chairs within a year.
Silverman works for a Web site design company full time. Fitzgerald said she also planned to seek full-time employment after completing her master's degree in industrial design. But Fitzgerald said they would both continue their own business.
SHOOTING FOR EXCELLENCE
For his project, Hofmann combined business with his interest in photography, which began in high school while taking pictures for yearbooks and sport teams. He said he didn't consider starting his own business until Summer 2007, when he took several portraits for high school students and recognized an opportunity to make money in the photography business.
"It definitely pays off," Hofmann said. "If you break down per hour, it's a pretty good hourly wage."
At first, Hofmann talked to his high school principal and faculty members about his business and sent advertising flyers and letters to personal connections to find customers. His high school-aged brother also helped him. He said once he took some portraits, it was easier for him to find other customers through word of mouth.
He said he made his business stand out by providing more convenience for customers.
He talks with customers for a few hours to pick the best places and outfits for the portraits, then picks up customers from their homes and takes them to photography locations. One of the most interesting ideas he had ever helped come up with, Hofmann said, was to shoot a photograph of a boy playing the guitar in a tree.
"I try to find out things that will make it, more personal," Hofmann said. "I ask what kind of music they like, where they like to go, who they hung out with."
SEE ENTREPRENEURS ON PAGE 4A
Julianne Kueffer/KANSAN
Jana Silverman, 2008 graduate, and Ann Fitzgerald, Southlake, Texas, graduate student, are industrial designers who designed a shower chair from a material called Form, an environmentally safe recyclable plastic. The patent is currently pending for the dishwasher; safe shower chair.
ORGANIZATIONS
Group attends showing of play
Queers and Allies attended a production of "The Laramie Project," on Friday in Manhattan. The play depicts Matthew Shepard's murder and events surrounding it in 1998 in Laramie, Wyo. The 10th anniversary of Shepard's death was Sunday.
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
Future uncertain for bus merger plan
TRANSPORTATION
If the city manages to keep its bus transit system through a sales tax initiative on November's ballot, University and city administrators will have to decide on whether, and how, to merge the two bus systems.
LAWRENCE
FULL STORY PAGE 4A
Town ranks No.15 on list of top sports cities
BY B.J. RAINS
rains@kansan.com
The '07-'08 sports season, one of the best years in the history of Kansas athletics, brought the city of Lawrence a special honor.
Now, the city of Lawrence has received an award of its own. The Sporting News released its annual list of the top sports cities in America and Lawrence has checked in at No. 15, the highest college town on the list.
The football team went 12-1 and won the 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl. The basketball team beat Memphis 75-68 in overtime to win the NCAA National Championship. Students, fans and citizens of Lawrence flocked to Massachusetts Street to celebrate all along the way.
"I'm not surprised at all," said Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director. "It's a reflection of the great student athletes we have, the coaches that we have and the fans that we have."
The list of top sports towns goes from
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
SEE LAWRENCE ON PAGE 4A
Thousands of Jayhawk fans celebrate on Massachusetts Street after last year's men's basketball team won the NCAA Championship against Memphis in overtime. 75-68. Lawrence was the highest ranked college town because of the basketball and football successes from last season.
index
Classifieds. 3B Opinion. 7A
Crossword. 6A Sports. 1B
Horoscopes. 6A Sudoku. 6A
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2008 The University Daily Kansan
WILDFIRE TEARS THROUGH L.A.
Firefighters evacuate more than 1,200 people while wildfire burns through 750 acres.NATIONAL |8A
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P.m. T.Showers
TUESDAY
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