Rasheed Thomas
Staff Writer

The Pierce business program is not only teaching and preparing Pierce students for the future but is also assisting them and their businesses now. There are many Pierce students who are small business owners and entrepreneurs while still studying and honing their business skills.

Patricia Avery and Tanya Powell are students and small business owners with great business concepts and strategies. They both understand the power of education and how it can make them better business owners. They are applying the first-hand knowledge that they are learning from professors like Dr. Gerhardt and Professor Edison on a daily basis in their personal businesses.
Patricia Avery, who has a mobile spa business called The Posh Princess Spa Party, has been in business for several years and has had many customers and clients who seek her services.

Posh Princess Spa Party was born when Avery did a spa party for her daughter’s birthday party, where she offered a plethora of pampering to her daughter’s friends. She did everything from facials, makeup, hair and nails to massages.
Since then she has not looked back.  She enhanced her business by finding what business professionals would call a niche. Not only is she running a spa company but it’s a mobile spa company as well, available for all events and venues.
Patricia can come and set up on-site and cater to all the little princesses. Her company’s motto is “wear your invisible crown everyday.” She believes it’s imperative that little girls know that they’re special and that they walk with an air of royalty.

Patricia uses her own organic creams, lotions, and oils that she hand makes with all-natural products, which have also gained high praise.
Fellow student Keyshia Marlena, who has very sensitive skin and has searched high and low for products that would be gentle on her skin stated as testament to the products quality. “Oh my God, it was amazing!”  she shared. “It was an exceptional product and [I] need more.”
Fellow student Tanya Powell also has been having a great time in the Pierce business class and spoke about how the business classes have helped her to grow as a small business owner. She candidly shared that she started her business backwards by focusing on the actual business without focusing on her business plan. She said that the Pierce business classes help her to gain understanding about that portion of her business.

Powell’s business is called Queenz Incorporated. It is a business that makes gift baskets inside of balloons. She has been in business for three years. She started making gift baskets for her family and friends and she received so much good feedback that she was inspired to start her own business. Her company’s motto is “inspired gift baskets for every occasion.” It’s her desire to bring smiles to people faces through the power of giving.

Powell’s gift baskets are custom and can be designed to fit the customer wants and needs. For example, she can accommodate a Seahawks fan with a custom Seahawk gift basket and a Seahawk balloon. Tanya went on to state “I do it all.” She also stated that “education is key in business and fellow

Pierce students should network together during the learning process and after learning on business ventures.”
It is young women like these that show fellow students the possibilities that open up if students don’t treat school as a hassle but as a stepping-stone to bigger and greater things.

This success happens when business students actually apply the knowledge that professors like Dr. Gerhardt and professor Edison deliver in class every day.

Avery and Powell will be showing their products in the Cascade building on May 6 from eight a.m. to three p.m.