Lakeland Regional High School’s Business Practice Firm class had tremendous success with their startup 1Click, which became more evident when they received a perfect score in their most recent competition during the 2022-2023 school year.

The Business Practice Firm class has started the year strong in their first reporting period. The annually-run competition is an elaborate process whereby schools across New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut report their progress in their respective start-up businesses. Approximately 100 schools were in competition throughout the New York Metro Region, where Lakeland was one of nine schools given a perfect score of five points. For this accomplishment, Lakeland achieved a Gold Level Rank for the Circles of Excellence by the judges with their startup, 1Click.

Moving forward, 1Click is expected to attend the Regional Business Plan Competition on January 17, 2023 at Fairleigh Dickinson University, with the aim to place in the top two. If they succeed, Ms. Geyer explains that they will be able to advance to the national round called the Youth Business Summit at Microsoft Headquarters in New York City in April 2023.

Ms. Jessica Geyer, the business teacher and coordinator for the startup, allows the opportunity for the 11 members of 1Click to run the class’s startup business without much interference. Ms. Geyer states that “students are fully responsible for the Accounting and Financials, Paychecks and Bill Payments for the Firm, Marketing and Sales, Web Development, Human Resources, and our Executives who run the company and establish the deadlines for the organization.”

According to Ms. Geyer, 1Click gets much of its exposure and benefits from its online website, which transfers payments to Virtual Enterprise (VE) software. 1Click also has a social media presence via Instagram and its website, promoting its brand beyond Lakeland. Ms. Geyer says that they’ve “…generated over $133,000 in sales” in the span of two months since they’ve gone public.

Coming up with the name 1Click was a strategic maneuver, one that Ms. Geyer affirms was deliberate. “The name is significant because the directory for VE Firms searches is listed alphabetically, so naturally, numbers come first and 1Click shot to the top of the search directory. This helped us increase sales dramatically.”

When the school year restarts next fall, the Business Practice Firm class will have wiped the slate clean and will start with a brand-new concept and business model. 1Click’s success thus far results from the students who contributed to the startup in ways that exceeded their expectations and goals.