{"id":503,"date":"2025-11-04T13:44:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/?p=503"},"modified":"2025-12-15T15:54:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:54:05","slug":"building-business-from-scratch-inside-butlers-real-business-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/2025\/11\/04\/building-business-from-scratch-inside-butlers-real-business-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Business from Scratch: Inside Butler\u2019s Real Business Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You walk into a classroom, and it hits you: by the end of the semester, you won\u2019t have merely learned about business \u2013 you\u2019ll have built one from scratch. That\u2019s the challenge sophomore students face in the Lacy School of Business\u2019 Real Business Experience (RBE)<\/a>, a program that doesn\u2019t just teach entrepreneurship \u2013 it throws you into it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teams of six, randomly assigned across majors, take on CEO, CFO, and CMO roles. Over the next few months, they brainstorm ideas, prototype products, manage budgets, handle suppliers, and sell to real customers. Mistakes aren\u2019t hypothetical; they\u2019re costly. Every decision matters. Every setback teaches a lesson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s innovative in a way that Butler does it,\u201d Brenda Geib-Swanson<\/a>, Lecturer of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, said. \u201cAt the start, it\u2019s a class. By the end, it\u2019s a business. And the learning comes from what goes wrong. Teams will face chaos, they\u2019ll hit walls \u2013 but those moments are the ones that teach them the most.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Toni Jazvic<\/a>, CEO of PawPrints Flags,<\/a> those lessons came fast. Her team\u2019s idea, a Butler-themed garden flag, seemed simple at first. But when their initial design failed, they had to scrap it completely and started over. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot knowing what you don\u2019t know until you\u2019re doing it, it looks so easy on paper,\u201d the exploratory business and biology major said. \u201cEvery decision mattered. And the moment we sold our first flags? That\u2019s when I really believed our idea could work.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Emily Clark<\/a>, CEO of Butler Cases & Co.,<\/a> faced her own real-world obstacles. Her team wanted to produce three different styles of Butler-branded eyeglass cases but quickly realized their budget couldn\u2019t cover them all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe had to drop one style to stay within budget. It\u2019s the kind of thing textbooks don\u2019t prepare you for \u2013 you live it,\u201d the accounting and marketing major said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RBE isn\u2019t just about making a product \u2013 it\u2019s about experiencing every facet of running a business. Butler provides each team with a $1,000 loan to start their business, and students are responsible for repaying it, managing sales, and donating 10% of profits to a local charity. Faculty and professional mentors guide \u2013 but never take over \u2013 letting students make the big decisions and live with the consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI try really hard to give them bumpers at the beginning, but they\u2019re wide. I want them to have room to make mistakes, pivot, and problem solve,\u201d Professor Geib-Swanson said. \u201cThat\u2019s where the growth comes from.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the semester, these teams have more than a grade \u2013 they have businesses they\u2019ve built themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toni reflects on what she\u2019s learned about leadership: \u201cThe value of delegating to a good team \u2013 you can get more done. Seeing my team execute ideas I couldn\u2019t have done alone \u2013 that\u2019s been incredible.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emily echoes this: \u201cI\u2019ve learned I cannot do this on my own. It\u2019s about finding your strengths and building around them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of that effort culminates at the RBE Marketplace<\/a>, where the Butler community can see and buy what these students have created. On Friday, Nov. 14, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM in the lobby of Dugan Hall, 28 student-run businesses will showcase their products in person. This is the chance to see that ingenuity, creativity, and perseverance in action. For those who can\u2019t attend, online storefronts<\/a> remain open until Sunday, Nov. 30. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past year, RBE students have started 63 businesses, generating more than $59,000 in profits \u2013 $6,000 of which went straight to local charities. It\u2019s proof that these are real companies, built and run by real students, with tangible impact on both the community and their own experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s not about the products they sell or the profits they make \u2013 it\u2019s about giving students the tools to think critically, solve problems creatively, and lead with confidence,\u201d Professor Geib-Swanson said. \u201cThey leave this class not just knowing business \u2013 they know themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The PawPrints Flags Team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Butler Cases & Co. Team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You walk into a classroom, and it hits you: by the end of the semester, you won\u2019t have merely learned about business \u2013 you\u2019ll have built one from scratch. That\u2019s the challenge sophomore students face in the Lacy School of Business\u2019 Real Business Experience (RBE), a program that doesn\u2019t just teach entrepreneurship \u2013 it throws you into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Teams of six, randomly assigned across majors, take on CEO, CFO, and CMO roles. Over the next few months, they brainstorm ideas, prototype products, manage budgets, handle suppliers, and sell to real customers. Mistakes aren\u2019t hypothetical; they\u2019re costly. Every decision matters. Every setback teaches a lesson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2812,"featured_media":535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,29],"tags":[],"coauthors":[38],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation-enterprise-innovation-enterprise","category-innovation-enterprise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}