Projects

Small business/ entrepreneurial/ non-profit Consulting

Golden Roast

In short, SIFE will be working with the owner of the Golden Roast in the areas of Marketing and Strategic Planning. Our goal will be to educate and empower the owner with the skills that we have learned to aid in the increased success of this small enterprise, by whatever means we feel applicable and necessary; in return, students will gain valuable hands-on knowledge of this industry, applicable experience in the area of strategic business planning and guidance from well-experienced professors and businesspersons.

Promotion of Sustainable Free Enterprise

‘Buy Local – Go Green’ Knoxville Business Directory

Excerpt from article written for Hellbender Press:
“In Knoxville, we are replicating this approach [national directory of businesses that businesses adopt principles, policies, and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, their employees, communities, and the environment] to create a magnified directory of local environmental business stewards that have either gone unnoticed by Co-op America, have not yet applied to the national directory or had no prior knowledge to the subject. ‘We’ are comprised of two proactive student organizations at the University of Tennessee: Students in Free Enterprise and Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville, in addition to the Hellbender Press. At EarthFest 2005, the first edition of Buy Local – Go Green was released to the public, with appreciative reviews. While our effort is independent of Co-op America, we have and will be further replicating the mission of The Green Pages. However, our effort will differ, in that, each listed enterprise will have coverage exceeding what would otherwise be noted, given the intimate scope of our project; additionally, placing a greater emphasis on local businesses in our community, as they are they life-blood of our micro-economy. The first edition of Buy Local – Go Green had every aspect of a grassroots handout, but looking to the future, we will be expanding our operation. By enlisting a design team, a screening team (comprised of local environmentalists, businesspersons and professors), an advertising team and a corporate outreach team (to work with each listed business), we will revamp this small effort and make an impact on our local economy and community.

Business Ethics

Discussions with Marketing II classes at local high schools

This program is designed to be an educational outreach program in the high schools of local communities. The concept is based on a class discussion involving certain case studies on deceptive advertising and unethical business practices. Their response has been much greater than expected, considering these students are able to express their opinions and thoughts in an open-minded atmosphere about issues they typically just read about. Last year we visited three high schools, Farragut, Bearden, and Central. This year we hope to increase this number to about eight different schools. If you are interested please contact Brian Strutz, at bstrutz@utk.edu.

International Social Development

Project Live Action

Project Live Action (PLA) is an international consulting project where certain members of UT SIFE will be traveling to Ghana, Africa to promote free-market economics. This program is designed to implement some form of free-market economics in a struggling African community through a unique process of soap making. While there, SIFE students will teach this local community how to extract palm oil from their overabundance of palm trees. The palm oil will then be used to create soap. UT SIFE along with SIFE Ghana will aid in the process of soap-making while teaching the members of that community the process of manufacturing, packaging and selling their product. Our intentions with this project are simple; we hope to improve this economy’s standard of living while implementing a practice that will sustain further economic growth.

Opportunities for this project are numerous and varied, ranging from, but not limited to: Ghana action team; marketing and sales channel analyst; creator of business plan; socio-economic-political researcher; grant writer; facilitator of project sustainability at UT in future years; consultants; etc.

Community Outreach

Business oriented Workshops

In the past, UT SIFE has led workshops such as Business Plan Development, Micro-Finance, among others. We plan to continue this as a service to local would-be and practicing entrepreneurs to ensure their success and sustainment as a vital part of the Knoxville business community. UT SIFE’s goal is to complete at least one workshop per semester. As mentioned previously, we hope to partner with SCORE for these workshops.

Youth-based Financial Responsibility Development

This will involve communicating with at-risk youths about the importance of conscience spending and saving for college, by leading discussions at various locations. We find this to be of the utmost importance for the future success of these under-privileged children; and, a project that we are thoroughly proud to encompass in our list. Project leaders are needed to start and continue this endeavor.

Yet to be conceived…

As we have mentioned before, the quantity and depth of UT SIFE’s projects are only limited to member participation and creativity. Students are encouraged to create and implement any community and philanthropy-based project that has yet to be mentioned; this will be of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of their college education. If you are interested in starting your own project, bring it up at one of the weekly meetings or email the idea to sife@utk.edu.