The ABCs of Doing Business

While some of his peers are still struggling to earn gas money, Adam Tullie, an 18-year-old San Juan Capistrano resident and a senior at Dana Hills High School, has his own successful business.

He’s an artist, but he’s certainly not starving--with buyers in the United States, Europe and Asia paying $60 to $500 per painting.

He has sold about 90 of his works in the last nine months on EBay and he has a studio at home that helps him keep costs down.

But Tullie said his business could have been a mess without the organizational techniques he learned and the business plan he developed in a Regional Occupational Program entrepreneurship class at Laguna Beach High School.

“I used to just put my pictures up on EBay at random,” he said. “Now I file my e-mails, send confirmation letters when I get payment and sell my pictures according to my projected income and how long payments take. It’s all very proper and organized, and everything is up to date.”

Tullie is one of 16 students in the class, which teaches entrepreneurs how to write a business plan, among other skills.

Twelve of the students--an unusually high number, according to teacher Patti Klingenmeyer--already have started, or are in the midst of starting, their own businesses.

Klingenmeyer, who owns Patti’s People, a business that sells synthetic clay sculptures, and who teaches the same class to 21 students at Dana Hills High School through the Regional Occupational Program, said most of her classes have only two or three of these success stories. The class has met two evenings a week since February, and will end in June.

“They are just like little sponges absorbing the information,” Klingenmeyer said. “They are here because they want to be here and they want to succeed.”

Students learn how to choose a business, market it, choose a legal format, choose a location, maintain good customer service, handle competition, handle employees, get the required licenses and permits, analyze competition, deal with worst-case and probable-case scenarios, complete all the financial statements and estimate market share, she said. Students in the Laguna Beach High class range in age from 16 to 40 with business ideas that include fashion shops, a small-claims judgment recovery firm and a laundry vending service.

“I thought I was just taking this class for college credits, but [Klingenmeyer] has really opened up a new world for me intellectually,” said Alicia Pearl, a 16-year-old Laguna Beach High School student who plans to open a clothing boutique that she’ll call Lust. “I saw the opportunity out there and now I know that I really can do this.”

Cyndi Shea, a 35-year-old Aliso Viejo resident who plans to open a vintage furniture and gift shop in the next year, said she has learned about the realities of owning a business.

“It’s innovate or liquidate, as Patti says,” Shea said. “She’s been a businesswoman for a long time and taught us about the hard work, long hours and dedication it takes. She also made us realize the payoff can be worth it.”

Klingenmeyer said one of the reasons students are so interested in her class is that it is more directly relevant to their lives than some other subjects.

“I hear these kids complain all the time about subjects they don’t think they really need,” she said. “This one is relevant, logical and constantly changing. They can see the concepts we talk about actually happening in the world. One day we’re talking about something, and the next day it’s in the newspaper.”

Richard L. Bogart, chief executive officer of Capistrano-Laguna Beach Regional Occupational Program, said it is becoming more common for people to start their own businesses.

“We’ve seen an increase in entrepreneurship opportunities in Orange County, in California and throughout the nation,” he said. “Many people in this community are interested in starting their own businesses but don’t know how.”

The next class is scheduled to begin in September, but the times and dates have not yet been set.

Anyone can sign up for the class, which is free for high school students but costs $45 for others, at the Regional Occupational Program office, 31522 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano.

Information: (949) 496-3118.