Student works toward dream business
Business plan competition winner Robbie Loehr has his new business all twisted up, but he’s hammering things out.
Fact is, twisting and hammering are the essential dynamisms for creating his product—jewelry made out of old bicycle parts.
It’s almost six months since he won $10,000 in the annual Statewide Business Plan Competition. “Things have been progressing slowly, which is fine,” he said. “That was always the plan. Right now I’m selling at five or six dealers around the state, and we’re working on getting my website set up.” Last April, Loehr, a mechanical engineering student from Ritchie County, and James Kearns, a multidisciplinary studies student from Virginia, each won $10,000 and support services to help them realize their dreams of creating new businesses.
Loehr, a bicycle racer and repairman, hopes to see his hand-crafted jewelry worn everywhere by outdoor enthusiasts. Kearns, who has had to suspend
his work temporarily because of military training, has a novel way to reinforce buildings with faulty foundations.
“I’ve spent a lot of time making the tools to make a real consistent product I can make faster, and I’m trying to balance doing this with my school schedule,” said Loehr, who graduates in December 2011. “When I go to a bike race, I take my product with me, and before and after the race, I promote it, and I am going
to probably start sponsoring events this year.”
He has begun distributing his bracelets to dealers in bike shops, rock climbing stores, and rafting venues. “We’re focusing on outdoor enthusiasts,” Loehr said. He’s building display racks for his jewelry, too, that look like art pieces. “I’m still more the artist than the business person.”
The annual competition began in the WVU College of Business and Economics in 2003. Its purpose is to encourage students to think like entrepreneurs and to create new businesses for the state. The competition has made a world of difference, Loehr said, and not just because of the $10,000 prize. “I’ve realized that the (competition) money was great, but the knowledge, connections—all that was worth way more than the actual prize money,” he said.
The competition was supported by: Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation; Branch Banking & Trust; Chesapeake Energy Corp.;The Dobbs Financial Group/Northwestern; Dixon Hughes, PLLC; Spilman, Thomas & Battle, PLLC; Core Concepts, LLC; West Virginia University Business Incubator; West Virginia University Research Corp.; and Morgantown Printing & Binding.
