Each year, four student-run businesses are chosen to receive a storefront in the MU Student Center. Throughout the year, these students learn how to navigate the business world. They are tasked with sourcing, marketing and selling their products along with managing storefront decoration and staff. 

Students looking to have their own retail space for the next academic year send in applications early in the spring semester. Those applications are read by a variety of entrepreneurs across Missouri, who then choose finalists to pitch an idea in front of a panel. The panel, consisting of Griggs Innovators Nexus staff, US Bank Representatives and Student Unions Entrepreneurship Program staff members, selects the final three or four pitches to receive a retail space. 

Though the concept of student-run stores had been around MU for years, it wasn’t until the Grigg’s Innovators Nexus was founded in 2021 that the stores became the cooperative effort they are today. The Nexus set out to provide more opportunities for collaboration and mentorship to students that were not previously available.

“Students would come in and pitch, they’d get their keys, but there really wasn’t a cohesive effort to see that they succeeded,” MU Executive Director of entrepreneurship programs Greg Bier said of the stores before the Nexus took over. “We took over that concept of the retail spaces, but we added a bunch of programming.”

In addition to $2,000 supplied by the US Bank, a physical room, a Square card reader and an iPad, winners are also given mentoring and opportunities for collaboration. They meet each Thursday over breakfast to discuss their stores with each other. The students share what has been working for them, what they have been having difficulty with and brainstorm possible solutions to their problems.

“We want them to share lessons by forcing them to come together and work as a cohort,” Bier said. “There’s a much more coherent effort to see that they succeed.”

To Bier, the best pitches are from students who have already experimented with selling their products. Whether it be from an online store, pop-up shops or flea markets, having experience in business is more appealing to the panel than simply having an idea.

“Those are the ones [students] that demonstrated to us that they’re truly interested in it. That they’ve already tried,” Bier said.

Kobe Messick, owner of Student Center storefront Columbia Sneaker Exchange, has been interested in business since he was a young teenager. He participated in an entrepreneurship program in his freshman year of high school and started selling sneakers a year later. 

Messick sells vintage and new sneakers, as well as hats and streetwear in his store. Customers are able to trade in their used sneakers for either a different pair that Messick has or cash. 

“I think that the reason I was selected this year was just because I had a pretty well-developed plan for how I was going to operate the business,” Messick said, “I really had just done my homework on all that stuff.”

Messick was one of eight applicants invited to give a pitch last year, a number that Bier describes as “pretty low”. He accredits the small amount of applicants to the commitment level required to run a store. Stores would ideally be open for six hours each day, during which a student or different worker must present. Students also have to invest time into advertising their products outside of business hours. 

“They realize how hard marketing is,” Bier said of prospective student entrepreneurs. “They think that just because they’re open, people will come. And that is not true.”

Messick utilizes social media as a way of marketing Columbia Sneaker Exchange. He runs an Instagram for the business where he advertises new merchandise, hosts giveaways and updates followers on any changes to the store. 

The account lets him interact with people outside of store hours, but Messick stresses the importance of keeping boundaries between himself and customers. He has learned that doing things like changing store hours per customer request is not necessary for success.

“Although you do want to do what’s most convenient for the customer, if you’re only able to be open for a certain amount of time, the business will come to you,” Messick said. “Make sure that you have all of your internal responsibilities taken care of before you try to do too many customer favors.”

Though both Messick and Bier know that starting a business can be intimidating, they believe that those looking to be entrepreneurs in the future should start as soon as possible. The storefronts allow students to make business mistakes without having to spend too much of their own money.

“The hardest part is always getting started,” Messick said. “So the best advice I could give is to just go for it.”

Edited by Alex Goldstein | agoldstein@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Grace Knight and Brooklyn Cross