Our Town Effingham: Launching Pad for CEO's
Updated: June 6, 2012
EFFINGHAM -- A CEO class is putting business first. Six high schools participate, touring businesses, learning how they're run and writing plans of their own.
In Our Town Effingham two students put their plan to the test. WCIA-3's Erica Quednau tells us about the company they created called "Visto."
"Sometimes people don't really understand all of it. They think its just a kid, a couple of kids doing a lemonade stand business."
But, their big idea is finally taking off.
"It's very exciting. It's also very scary at the same time to think we have all this on our shoulders."
Vince Higgs and Christopher Schultz started their own business.
"I met Christopher in the CEO class. He was telling me how the natural gas business is just exploding, and all the great things you can get from natural gas."
So after a lot of research, and some phone calls, they were up and running.
"There's a tank in the back that holds the natural gas at about 1300 psi and there's a line that runs all the way from the tank to under the hood that gets down to about 15 psi so it's not dangerous and then it dumps it into the engine instead of gasoline."
And, just try to guess their ages? Christopher is 19, and Vince is 20. They made their business plan while they were in high school.
"The class that we went through, creating entrepreneurial opportunities class, really set us up for as soon as we got out and started this we kind of already had a head start versus most people our age."
"If you have an idea, don't give up on it right away if it seems like it's impossible or too expensive because there's always alternatives. Just don't give up and keep striving."
And they don't plan on giving this up anytime soon.
"Our goals in the future are to get a filling station put in Effingham somewhere so people who convert their cars to natural gas have a place to fill up."
"I hope to keep running this until we, I don't know, forever!"
Both men say driving with natural gas is less expensive. You can save nearly $2.00/gallon.
In Our Town Effingham two students put their plan to the test. WCIA-3's Erica Quednau tells us about the company they created called "Visto."
"Sometimes people don't really understand all of it. They think its just a kid, a couple of kids doing a lemonade stand business."
But, their big idea is finally taking off.
"It's very exciting. It's also very scary at the same time to think we have all this on our shoulders."
Vince Higgs and Christopher Schultz started their own business.
"I met Christopher in the CEO class. He was telling me how the natural gas business is just exploding, and all the great things you can get from natural gas."
So after a lot of research, and some phone calls, they were up and running.
"There's a tank in the back that holds the natural gas at about 1300 psi and there's a line that runs all the way from the tank to under the hood that gets down to about 15 psi so it's not dangerous and then it dumps it into the engine instead of gasoline."
And, just try to guess their ages? Christopher is 19, and Vince is 20. They made their business plan while they were in high school.
"The class that we went through, creating entrepreneurial opportunities class, really set us up for as soon as we got out and started this we kind of already had a head start versus most people our age."
"If you have an idea, don't give up on it right away if it seems like it's impossible or too expensive because there's always alternatives. Just don't give up and keep striving."
And they don't plan on giving this up anytime soon.
"Our goals in the future are to get a filling station put in Effingham somewhere so people who convert their cars to natural gas have a place to fill up."
"I hope to keep running this until we, I don't know, forever!"
Both men say driving with natural gas is less expensive. You can save nearly $2.00/gallon.
