Feed store encourages entrepreneurship

DANFORTH, Ill. — When Doug Hanson returned to his home county to teach high school agriculture in 2001, he saw a trend in the local economy and wanted to try to make a difference.

When he and his wife, Lisa, lived in Waterloo in southwest Illinois, where they taught from 1993 to 2001, they saw a very entrepreneurial community.

“There were people that were my age and younger, people five to six years older than me, some had college degrees, some didn’t, but they had landscaping businesses, they were flipping houses, they were woodworkers building cabinets. It was really a great time if you think about our whole economy,” Hanson said.

“When I moved back here, I was looking at a phone book from the 1980s and it had all these businesses listed for Iroquois County and not even a quarter of them were still open. That was in 2001. So, it frustrated me that our education system had gotten to the point where we were pushing kids to just be academics and take the route my wife and I took, and if you don’t, you’re just hurting yourself.

“I was seeing people my age with and without college degrees who were working really, really hard, but were making really good money.

“So, I just wanted our kids that I had in the ag program to know that I’m all about going to the community college, I’m all about going to trade school, I’m all about going to the service, I’m all about being in the service for 20 years. I’m all about getting a four-year degree, but I’m also about doing some of those working hard and finding the right people to mentor under and build your life career that way.”

Hanson found there was no feed store in the Clifton Central High School District, and he developed a plan to start one at the school that was operated by ag students.

“I wanted my students to learn about getting a customer, keeping a customer, the whole business side of managing cash flow, managing inventories, advertising, marketing, all of those things,” he said.

They teamed up with Kent Feeds to operate a dealership.

“We unloaded our first semi load from Kent Feeds on New Year’s Eve that first year I taught at Clifton Central. We sold $36,000 worth of feed. I was hoping to sell $10,000 to $12,000 and I thought it would be $8,000 worth of dog food,” Hanson said.

“There’s a few livestock people in the area, but people would be surprised, and I’ve learned this, too, with this job. This is my 20th year in seed sales. There’s more livestock than people realize, but as I drive around a lot in Illinois and some of the surrounding states, it still frustrates me the lack of livestock, but I understand why. It’s challenging.”

Co-op Formed

The feed store eventually became so successful, the high school shop was filling up with supplies, and the principal said that something needed to be done.

“We started a co-op, created a prospectus and sold shares. We ended up selling $117,000 worth of shares. The IPO was in October. Our goal was $100,000 worth of shares. We built a 60-foot by 120-foot building on the high school grounds. It’s half greenhouse and half steel. In the middle of the building between the feed storage area and greenhouse the kids had a retail store,” Hanson said.

“When I left there in 2005, they had done $84,000 or $85,000 in sales between the feed and greenhouse sales.”

Students working at the feed store were compensated via a scholarship program.

“It was set up then that when a student worked there they would earn $2 an hour, but they didn’t get the money. If they brought a customer in, there was a percentage the kids would get for any customer they brought in. Once they graduated from high school, that’s when they got the check as a scholarship either for college or to start their own business,” Hanson said.

“The idea had come from Lisa’s dad and he was going to do it back when he was teaching high school ag, but never had the opportunity.”

The Central FFA Co-op continues to operate and run by FFA members under the guidance of their adviser. The retail feed store is located between Chebanse and Clifton behind Central High School.