If you can do it, teach it.

Regina high school teacher Gerry Harris has a problem most businesspeople would love to contend with--he's seen a 400 per cent increase in demand for his product.

Harris, who teaches entrepreneurship at Luther High School, is a somewhat unusual educator. Along with his classroom duties, he manages a couple small businesses that he established over the years. One is a truck wash operation and another is a tour company that specializes in guiding summer cycling trips in Europe.

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Perhaps it's that background in enterprise that landed him at the head of the entrepreneurship class but there's no doubt he is a chamber of commerce dream. For years business groups like chambers of commerce have longed to have entrepreneurship education in Saskatchewan classrooms. While it's a notion many schools have embraced but there's one problem that's nagged the business community--few, if any, teachers are grounded in business so it made teaching entrepreneurship challenging.

Harris filled that gap nicely--he has both business and teaching credentials. Nonetheless, even he found the challenge of bringing the world of business to life in a classroom for teenagers formidable. After years of trying different approaches, last year he hit the treasure trove.

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In earlier semesters he tried a traditional approach--classroom lectures on the concepts of business ownership and operation. Sometimes he brought in business-people as guest presenters so the students could interact directly with entrepreneurs. It worked alright but seemed to be lacking the pizzazz that would allow him to attract more than the dozen students per semester he usually saw.

So last year he decided to make the program more interactive and practical with the 10 members of his class forming their own business. After kicking around different ideas, the young people opted to establish a chocolate making enterprise. They wrote a business plan, came up with some novel marketing ideas and developed a recipe for their product line.

They then set about raising some operating capital, selling 100 shares to schoolmates for $3 a piece.

Working on their own time, they began making high-quality and distinctive chocolates complete with individual packaging. The students also developed a marketing strategy--on days when they had product for sale (usually on special days featuring a school dance or major event), all members of the enterprise would dress in black and work the hallways to peddle their wares.

Throughout the process, the students were required to attend their twice weekly entrepreneurship class but, to give them a more realistic feel for running an enterprise, Harris set them up to run like a board meeting.

Harris continued to invite local businesspeople to participate in the class but, instead of outsiders providing lectures, the students were required to make presentations on their enterprise to the visitors. The president provided an overview while committee chairs reported on their areas of responsibility in the business.

As the year and the business evolved, the students' established a loyal clientele who often were demanding more of the unique chocolate products than the students had on hand; a practical lesson in inventory management. And, members of the team who just happened to wear black to school were bombarded by students asking: 'is this a chocolate day?'

At year's end the class prepared an annual report, distributed it to shareholders and outside business-people who had made a guest appearance in the class, and then liquidated their business assets.

All shareholders got their initial investment back along with a 50-cent per share dividend. That left $450 in excess cash, which the students forwarded to one of their teachers, a reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces who had established a literacy program while serving in Afghanistan. The money was used to buy books and school supplies for the Afghan children in the makeshift Canadian forces school operated by one of their own teachers.

While that is a solid business story in its own right, the legacy of Harris's innovative approach will be seen this fall. Already 40 students have signed up for next year. Clearly, creating and running a business of their own has captured the teenage imagination but it's all about making the experience real.

Harris has belied the adage--if you can't do something, teach it. He's done it and taught it.

Paul Martin is heard daily on 980 CJME and 650 CKOM as well as on the radio stations of the Golden West Broadcasting network in Saskatchewan.