Here at Georgia Southern, a new generation of entrepreneurs are demonstrating that the campus serves as an encouraging environment for businesses, not just a place for education.
Jason Rhoden, also known as, Smoove Jay, is the owner of the clothing brand Smoove Apparels. He turned the disaster of losing all of his clothes into a success story.
“I ended up taking a trip, I was going back to Jamaica for some months. I packed up all my nicest clothes and when I left, the airline lost all my luggage. I could not get it back, they didn’t have no refund, no compensation. They gave $500 and I used that $500 to facilitate my first drop” said Rhoden.
Smoove Jay launched Smoove Apparels in 2021 with the saying it’s all about being confident not conceited.
“Everybody’s focused on the lifestyle behind the brand, but I’m more focused on the mentality. So I’m not in the same league as the other clothing brands because I’m preaching more than just the clothes but more so the confidence that comes with it and how you express yourself,” said Rhoden.
Cameron Burks is a junior at Georgia Southern but is also the owner of Five Star Detail. He starts his mornings at 8:00am in class as a regular student and by 12:00pm he’s managing a business for the rest of the day.
“When I started looking up car detailing, I seen it was a low overhead. So then when I just thought about it, I should do car detailing when I go back to Statesboro and I looked up how many car detailing was in Statesboro and it was like three or four and I said yes, this is the business for me,” said Burks.
Cameron started detailing just eight months ago and since last August has picked up so much that he plans on hiring employees this year. His advice for student entrepreneurs is to, “just keep going, the journey is probably going to get hard while you’re in it, but in the end, you’ll definitely see what you work hard for.”
If you’re a student and want assistance with starting a business, check out Eagle Entrepreneurs. Te’ara Marshall, the president of the organization, expressed that their main goal is to help with the groundwork of creating a business and connecting students with local business owners.