Have your crossword and Sudoku too

Memorial-based pastime business draws national opportunity

By Kenny Sharpe

While there are plenty of procrastinating tools available to students, Jason Oakley is stepping up and offering students at two Canadian universities study-time distractions such as crosswords, Sudoku puzzles, and the classic Spot the Difference.

Oakley, a graduating business student at Memorial, is the owner and creator of Recess!, a weekly page of time-passing games.

Recess! is the company and the publication’s name. Having started the publication at Memorial, Oakley recently sold his first franchise. The page is now being offered at Mount St. Vincent University in Nova Scotia.

Having won a few entrepreneurial based competitions, Oakley will travel to Calgary in May where he will present his business model at the 2010 national CIBC Student Entrepreneur Awards. At this competition, Oakley could win the $10,000 first-place prize.

At this point, the majority of revenue to produce the paper has been generated from advertising space.

Oakley says the idea for his business model is pretty simple and so far has been successful. He also says that he wants to make his business available so that any student entrepreneur across the country can use his template and buy a Recess! franchise, bringing the time-wasting puzzles to other campuses.

“Our main goal is that another student on another campus would be able to run this franchise without any graphic design skill, without having to know how to lay out a publication,” said Oakley.

Oakley, a St. John’s native, thinks his franchise is appealing because its material isn’t time-sensitive, and hopes to have expanded with about 10 to 20 franchises in the near future.

Additionally, Oakley says students can expect to see QR codes on the last few issues for this year. These codes will be scannable using most smart phones, through which the user and the scanner receives, as Oakley calls it, “a hot deal or coupon,” to various stores in town.

Oakley says there is no reason for students to doubt themselves just because they are students.

“For any student thinking about starting a business, it is low risk starting a business as a student because you have so many resources open to you compared to someone who doesn’t have the student status,” said Oakley.

“As a student you might as well get out and make all your mistakes now so that you learn, so that when you get out in the real world you have that experience already.”

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