Two Binghamton High School seniors have made their mark as budding entrepreneurs, helping to start a successful company from the ground up aimed at helping motorists on the road, while also giving back to the Southern Tier.
Alex Lisio and Stephen Chomyszak were on the sales team for ProTech, the company founded through the New Visions Business Academy. They along with 12 other fellow students from Broome and Tioga Counties on January 9 presented their company and the results of the project at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator to a room full of educators, local businesspeople, friends, and family. The products sold by ProTech were twofold: an emergency car kit and a self-defense/utility keychain called a Shield Key.
The process of bringing the products from a concept to reality was a lengthy one, but was one that taught students the entire process of creating a business. It involved getting seed capital from local businesses, conducting market research, friends and family, finding suppliers for the products, attending sales events, determining methods of and carrying out marketing, and tracking assets/liabilities to name a few.
As part of the sales team, Alex and Stephen were crucial in securing startup money to be able to get the ball rolling on production, as well as determining different ways customers could pay for the kit and selling the kits at sales events, including the Maine-Endwell and Chenango Valley Craft Fairs. "It gave us an opportunity to spread our company's vision and practice selling to a larger community," Lisio noted when discussing the importance of getting out and about to these external selling events.
Now that the campaign has concluded ProTech shared the fruits of their labor. After paying back investors along with dividends, the company netted just over $4,600, which they used to help our area by donating to CHOW, The Broome County Humane Society, the Binghamton Rescue Mission, and Toys For Tots.
