Talented Clear Lake teens earn honors plugging into community business needs

(Above) Paige Rolling and Jillian Enke

The NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and North Iowa Area SBDC have recognized Clear Lake High School seniors Paige Rolling and Jillian Enke as the April 2021 Entrepreneurs of the Month.

The founders of Clear Lake Connected, a boutique digital marketing business, may not be what you expected. Rolling and Enke founded the business in August 2020 after attending the NIACC Youth Entrepreneurial Academy. Clear Lake Connected serves the small business owners of Clear Lake, creating brand awareness and engagement campaigns, bringing Main Street businesses into the digital world. 

The pair say they were inspired to start Clear Lake Connected after seeing the effect of COVID-19 on Clear Lake’s predominately brick and mortar shops.

“We live in Clear Lake where there’s a lot of local businesses. With COVID hitting, we saw how hard it was for them and we thought how can we help? And we came up with social media marketing,” explained Enke.  

"There’s never going to be a perfect time, so just jump!"

Jillian Enke

Clear Lake’s businesses have traditionally thrived without the assistance of digital marketing – reliable foot traffic from the town’s well-known status as a bustling tourist destination has often been enough. But as mandated closures and social distancing measures placed limitations on business as usual, many local businesses struggled to adapt. Without a website, or even a social media presence to fall back on, let alone an online store to maintain sales, small brick-and-mortar shops were caught playing catch up. Rolling and Enke determined that there was a need – and they were positioned to help fulfill it.

Clear Lake Connected provides a range of social media and digital marketing services which can be found at their website www.clearlakeconnected.com. These services include social media management, the planning of social media posts, content creation, customer interaction, and the creation and revamping of accounts. The company specializes in Facebook and Instagram management, but also provides services for other platforms as well.

Kelley O’Rourke, of the NIACC Pappajohn Center, said the young entrepreneurs are capitalizing on their technological savvy and understanding of modern marketing. 

“The upcoming generation of entrepreneurs are digital natives who have an innate understanding of how digital technologies, including social media, can be used to 

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leverage business. Now they’re turning the tables to create their own digital marketing business to benefit their own community,” said O’Rourke.

Rolling and Enke credit the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy for helping them get started. The academy is sponsored by the Hanson Foundation and is held every summer at North Iowa Area Community College; the one week camp is designed to provide high school students with the fundamental skills to start a business and become an entrepreneur. Students learn how to take an idea through customer discovery, build a working business plan, and determine startup costs and cash flow, among all the other necessities of building a thriving business. 

“We came up with the idea a little before YEA started,” said Enke. “We came in with the idea and through YEA we set up some of the most important connections we have. Connecting with the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce and the Pappajohn Center to reach clients was really important.” Rolling added. “YEA gives you the path to actually start your businesses. When you go through the program you realize this really is possible for me to do.”

Rolling and Enke pitched their business plan at the regional Pappajohn Student Entrepreneurial Venture Competition, held at NIACC on March 12.  Clear Lake Connected was one of three winning business plans and was awarded $500 in seed money.

As young entrepreneurs, the young women have a few words of advice for their peers.  “Whatever your idea is, just do it. You think you have to wait for the right time, but you don’t,” Rolling said. “There’s never going to be a perfect time,” added Enke, “so just jump!”

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