As a Carmel Catholic student, Ben played on the baseball team and, at the same time, started his ventures into business. He studied hard, he practiced hard, and he worked hard. No hours were wasted during the day or evening. Ben was determined, even as a high school student, to start finding ways to earn an income. His work experience covered a wide range of sales and marketing roles. Some roles were successful, but most were not in the beginning. However, he stayed true to himself and continued to think, “I could be doing more.”
Through his experience with multiple companies across different industries, Ben was able to sharpen his skills in determining client needs and fulfilling them, whether it was marketing support or business strategy. He offered his services for free in order to establish proven successful results to share with other potential clients. And in doing so, he gained the appropriate skills to establish a marketing agency.
Six months ago, Ben launched his own Marketing Agency called WIGZ Marketing Solutions. He offered advice to the students in class, including focusing on the value their product/service is providing and what problem it is solving. He also noted that failure is a part of the process and encouraged the class to learn from failures and to use it as motivation to work even harder. Ben spent additional time with each of the student teams and offered advice and feedback on their projects.
The Business Incubator Class is an elective course available for sophomores and juniors. It is structured to teach students how to develop a new product or service and market it (similar to how business entrepreneurs approach the show “Shark Tank”). Unlike other classes with a structured curriculum, the Business Incubator Class starts with the challenge of creating and selling a product or service and deciding on every aspect, from color and cost of materials to marketing strategies and channels, projected profit and revenue, and investments needed.
Thank you to Ben Wiegman for coming back to Carmel Catholic and giving back to the students!