| Mooo-ving Forward |
|
|
From "Future CEO Stars" Magazine - August 2007 by Lacy Friestad 
Being born just five miles from each other in rural North Dakota, Tyler Lang and Kari Heaton aren't strangers to the farm and ranch life. Tyler's family has been ranching since 1906, mainly focusing on Simmental Cattle, while Kari's family raises the Black Angus breed.When the two ended up in the same Agribusiness class at Bismarck State College, they decided to pair up to create a business plan, never thinking it would win a state competition. Were they ever wrong! Tyler and Kari's business plan, H & L Feedlot, took the grade prize of $3,000 in the Business Opportunity and Self-Employment Search (B.O.S.S.) Business Plan Competition, help at Marketplace for Entrepreneurs in January, 2007. "B.O.S.S. encourages all students to consider self employment, to start an enterprise or to commercialize an idea or innovation," said U.S. Senator Kent Conrad and North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, the Organizing Sponsors of Marketplace for Entrepreneurs. "Learning to write business plans helps young people exercise their creativity and develop critical thinking and organizational skills, they very skills they will need most, no matter what their future occupation." Over twenty teams from colleges and universities in North Dakota and Minnesota competed in the B.O.S.S. Competition. Tyler and Kari were surprised at their win, because they are students at a two-year college, and were competing against teams from four-year universities. The competition consisted of an oral round and an elevator round, and Tyler and Kari had their business plan well prepared. "We may have won because our plan would help the whole state, and the feedlot would employ about 15 people," Tyler said. H & L Feedlot is still a work in progress, with the cost of land and materials a setback, but Tyler and Kari are determined to succeed. Tyler even used his winnings to add to his growing herd of cattle. "The key is to not do something because someone else wants you to do it, but to do it for yourself," Kari says. "Even if it seems like a far-fetched idea, go for it," Tyler said. |