Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship: Helping high school seniors consider a future in small business

With only a few weeks of school to go before graduation, Van Wert City School seniors were offered yet another option to consider for their future:  becoming an entrepreneur and owning their own business.

Members of the Van Wert City Schools senior class are required to take Senior Government which includes a segment focused on Financial Literacy within the overall curriculum. The Financial Literacy portion of the class offers several aspects of personal finance, from car loans to credit cards. Missing in the program was an opportunity that involved owning your own business. Last year, Ohio State University Extension and the Wright State Lake Campus Business Enterprise collaborated with school administrators to teach students about starting their own business.

Van Wert HS EntrepreneurshipWith the program finishing its second year, Senior Government teacher, Bob Priest, was again impressed with the students’ interest and excitement about owning their own business. “Van Wert High School government students had the good fortune of participating with two universities at the local level for a three-day introduction to entrepreneurship, business planning and financing,” stated Priest. “I was impressed with the ideas the students created for the betterment of Van Wert, and then they had to put the numbers to their business plan. That was the difficult part. I think students now have a better understanding of how expensive and time consuming it can be to own a business.”

The program involved personal entrepreneurship assessments, identifying local market opportunities, and creating a business plan. In addition to a visit from local entrepreneur and business owner of Firehouse Pizza in Middle Point, the students learned about start-up expenses, on-going operating costs, pricing and break-even analysis.

Post-program evaluation results indicated that 98% of the students felt the program was suitable for graduating seniors and 95% recommended Van Wert High School continue to offer the program. Surprisingly, 48% of the students responded they would be interested in owning their own business in the future. “Because of this, I may now think about starting my own business while I may not have wanted to before,” remarked one of the participating students.

(Submitted by Cindy Leis, County Extension Educator, Van Wert County & Maumee Valley EERA and Van Wert City Economic Development Director)

Shale Development Brings Economic Changes to Eastern Ohio

Financial Changes in East Ohio 2015-05-21The past four years have seen a world of change in eastern Ohio. With the ongoing development of oil and gas in the region, some of the most historically impoverished counties in the region and the state have begun to experience a significant increase in investment. The corridor stretching from Carroll County to Noble County is the prime development area with 83% of the Utica/Point Pleasant drilling permits issues by ODNR in this six-county region (as of April 25, 2015 – Carroll, Harrison, Belmont, Guernsey, Monroe and Noble).

The recent decrease in oil prices and current low cost of natural gas is cause for concern with local residents and leaders who are hoping for a continued drilling boom. However, even with a potential drop in drilling, the region is likely to see a continued short-term increase in production as midstream infrastructure and pipelines continue to come online.

The drilling activity has been occurring long enough to see some patterns in a variety of local/regional governmental receipts. Consider the following statistics concerning Noble County and the six surrounding counties (Morgan, Muskingum, Guernsey, Belmont, Monroe and Washington).

Lodging Tax:

Lodging tax receipts in the region increased from $1.8M in 2010 to $2.9M in 2013. Revenues increased by 19.2% between 2010 and 2011 and an additional 33.9% between 2011 and 2012. These figures do not include any values from Noble or Monroe counties which did not have a lodging tax in that time period.

Sales Tax:

Within the region, sales tax receipts increased from $30.9M in 2010 to $48.1 M in 2014. Annual increases were 5% from 2010 to 2011, 11% from 2011 to 2012, 12% from 2012 to 2013, and 19% from 2013 to 2014. Belmont increased by 56% between 2010 and 2014, Guernsey by 68%, Monroe by 105%, Morgan by 40%, Noble by 141% and Washington by 32%. The largest dollar increase was in Belmont County from $11.3M to $17.7 M. In Noble County, sales tax receipts increased by 0% between 2010 and 2011, 21% between 2011 and 2012, 56% between 2012 and 2013 and 29% between 2013 and 2014. Dollar increase in Noble County was from $1.1M in 2010 to $2.7M in 2014.

Noble County General Fund:

The general fund balance in Noble County increased from $3.5M in 2010 to $5.8M in 2014. By year, the increase was 7% between 2010 and 2011, a decline of 3% between 2011 and 2012, an increase of 26% between 2012 and 2013 and an increase of 27% between 2013 and 2014.

Noble County Recorder’s Fees:

Recorder’s office receipts as well as sales tax receipts are component parts of the general fund. Recorder’s receipts increased from $4,944 in 2010 to $397,160 in 2014. Annually receipts increased by 3,054% between 2010 and 2011, by 126% between 2011 and 2012, declined by 3% between 2012 and 2013 and increased again by 16% between 2013 and 2014.

Banking Deposits in Noble County:

In addition to these government receipts, banking deposit activity in Noble County was also robust in this time period. Deposits in the county increased from $151M in 2010 to $226M in 2014. Annual increases were 3% between 2010 and 2011, 19% between 2012 and 2013, 19% again between 2012 and 2013 and 3% from 2013 to 2014.

(Submitted by Mike Lloyd, Assistant Professor, County Extension Educator and County Extension Director, Noble County & Buckeye Hills EERA)

Note: Mike will be retiring from OSU Extension on June 30. The impact of his work in Noble County and throughout Ohio has been significant. Extension is pleased that the Noble County Commissioners have continued the partnership and funded the position that will enable this high-value work to continue.

Toledo Local Government Leadership Academy celebrates 13th year and over 300 graduates

Toledo Local Govt Leadership Acad 2015Are leaders born or are they made? While the philosophers debate that question, consider this:  For over a decade, Extension and the Ohio Sea Grant College Program have partnered with the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce to provide training focused on leadership skill development to more than 300 aspiring, new and experienced public officials.

This educational offering, now in its 13th year, is the longest running local government leadership academy in Ohio. The Academy curriculum includes materials that support eleven face to face workshops and is designed for elected officials from county, municipal and township governments, and for appointed individuals who serve on local government committees, commissions, boards or task forces. The 2015 class graduated twenty-five participants from a variety of local government backgrounds.

For more information about Academy offerings, including general and elective workshop topics, click here. To read more about this program’s impact, click here. To weigh in on the question (born or made?) feel free to post a comment!!

(Submitted by Joe Lucente, Assistant Professor and Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension and Ohio Sea Grant College Program)

Be a local food superhero

Many of us are familiar with TED talks, the now ubiquitous storytelling venue that has attracted over a billion viewers to thousands of talks worldwide. In the 1990s, their “ideas worth spreading” mission led to granting independent licenses called TEDx events, often hosted by cities, universities or non-profits. Once the talks are published online, they become tools that can make impacts in our community development work. A TED talk (or any well-done, brief, online YouTube video) can be used to jumpstart a conversation on job creation, our environment, our health, our future or virtually any topic we may be teaching.

TEDxDaytonOn October 17, 2014, I presented a TEDx talk to nearly 1,100 people at the historic Victoria Theatre in downtown Dayton, Ohio. The talk was entitled, “Be a Local Food Superhero.” My original aim was to inspire attendees, their friends and families to get more involved in supporting local farms and economies by purchasing local foods… noting that they could become virtual superheroes by making simple, deliberate choices in their food purchasing habits.

As I began to think about our work in community development, I quickly realized Extension workers can become local food superheroes as well. Aside from personally participating in the purchase and consumption of local goods, we can use our teaching and partnership platforms to encourage diverse programming around local foods, food security, food justice and a myriad of other food-related topics regardless of our individual program area focus.

The local foods idea cuts across all four program areas and spans rural, suburban and urban populations. Whether serving as youth educators, in agriculture, community development or family and consumer sciences, the opportunities are there. Extension workers have immense potential to positively impact local food consumption through their work. As noted in the talk, the social, community, personal health, environmental and economic impacts are not manipulated statistics. The added value comes through a collective impact. And collective impact can change our world.

The talk was published on January 12, 2015 and may be seen online at: u.osu.edu/raison/local-food/.

(Submitted by Brian Raison, Assistant Professor and County Extension Educator & County Extension Director, Miami County/Top of Ohio EERA)