Students in the Horticulture Club at Millsaps Career and Technology Center are learning valuable business skills as well as horticulture through the program's annual plant sale.
Horticulture teacher Randy Carlisle said the plant sale is an annual fundraiser for the FFA organization that coincides with the Horticulture Club, and because they learn about germinating seeds and raising plants, it is an easy, natural fit to produce mass amounts of plants and sell them to the public.
"The second year students have a marketing and business unit in their curriculum, so it works out to take the products from the first year and second year techniques and turn them into a business lecture including inventory control, profit loss, sales management, customer service and management and leadership skills," Carlisle said.
Carlisle said he sets the prices for the plants, and then the students are responsible for everything else, including money management, dealing with customers and running the cash register, and then he and the bookkeeper double check everything at the each day.
Student Gabriel Middleton said he has learned about money management, time management and customer service through the fundraiser.
"Us as the students, we handle all of that," Middleton said. "Some of the students aren't as good as talking to customers or doing the math involved with selling the plants, so this has helped us with all of that. And (Carlisle) builds our character and integrity with his personality and how he teaches with the lessons he gives us."
Carlisle said he tried to turn even the students' errors into lessons by showing them how inconsistencies can hurt a business.
“On the first day, we had an $11 loss, just on the first day," Carlisle said. "We're open about 25 to 30 days. So we turn that into a classroom lesson of what if Walmart lost $11 each shift, three shifts per day. That's $33 dollars per day, and that loss every day over a year adds up to a really large, significant loss."
Carlisle said he teach students that if they produce a commodity, regardless of what it is, they have to learn how to market it to make it profitable for them.
"You've got to be able to deal with customers, you have to know what to do to be profitable and not at a loss, which are both a very valuable lesson," Carlisle said. "And their time. Time is something a lot of people undervalue, but that's a commodity that you have to get your money's worth out of too."
Student Neil Fortenberry said this program has taught him lessons about horticulture, business and life.
"If I ever go into my own business, I'd have the necessary tools to do that, because he's not only taught us about plants, he teaches everyday life lessons and doesn't hold anything back."