Founders Natalie Cheng, Zach Beattie, Devin Kelsey and Kate Gallagher stand outside Quirks Consignment.
A group of University of Missouri students is kick-starting its entrepreneurial journey and providing a marketplace for its artistically inclined peers in the process.
Quirks Consignment, the newest addition to the MU Student Center, is proving to be the perfect training ground for ambitious college students looking to experience the real-life training of owning a business.
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Started and owned by students Zach Beattie, Devin Kelsey, Kate Gallagher and Natalie Cheng, the consignment store sells handmade goods created by Mizzou students, faculty and alumni.
Through the Missouri Student Unions Entrepreneurial Program, the group was able to secure the free location in the Student Center. After submitting a 10-page business plan in January and presenting before a panel of judges, the team landed the spot in April.
“We had about a summer to get everything together,” Beattie said. “We had to get a point-of-sale system, order all of our supplies, build our furniture, contact all of these artists, set up marketing plans and make contacts with organizations. So tons of work for a three-month period of time, and to make it even tougher on us, we were all doing our own things over the summer.”
Since the winners are permitted to occupy the space for only a year, starting a business that required buying a large amount of inventory in advance was not a viable option.
Instead, tapping into the creativity of friends and peers turned out to be the answer. The founders drew from a diverse network of connections across campus, signing on friends as many of the initial consigners, Kelsey said.
Once artists start selling through the store, they benefit not only from the on-campus opportunity, but also from the low commission taken by the store—33 percent compared to the 50 percent taken at traditional consignment stores.
Potential consigners are free to apply online or in the store. If an idea piques the interest of the storeowners, the applicant is invited back for an interview.
Although Quirks is not tied directly with the program, the university’s Entrepreneurship Alliance provided a lot of help in the early stages of the idea’s execution. Only Beattie and Gallagher are members of the organization. Nevertheless, EA director Greg Bier has been extremely supportive of the group along the way, according to Beattie.
“We pitched our idea to him actually before we pitched it to the Students Unions,” Kelsey said. “We went and pitched it to his class actually and they all gave us feedback, he gave us feedback, and that helped really get the ball rolling, because even at that point we weren’t exactly sure what we wanted to do and pivoted a lot from where we originally had been to where we are now.”
Quirks has capitalized on the ubiquity of social media to more effectively market to university students. The store mainly utilizes its Facebook page to get the word out about daily promotions and the arrival of new products, along with Twitter and Pinterest.
Outside of those who contribute with their handmade goods, there are others students who hold internships with the store as representatives and marketers.
In the short time Quirks has been selling student-made goods and custom T-shirts, managing every aspect of the store has already provided a worthwhile education.
“As far as expanding comfort with all elements of business, it’s definitely been eye-opening,” Kelsey said. “It’s a lot more work than we thought it would be, but it’s definitely been a lot of fun and very rewarding so far.”
Credits: Photos from Quirks’ Facebook page.
