~ Area students start own businesses to gain an edge when they finish college.

Forget McDonald's.

This summer, a handful of area college students are getting a jump on their business careers by starting their own companies.

Instead of flipping burgers for quick cash, the budding entrepreneurs say they want real-world training that will give them an edge once they enter the work force for real.

Dan Presson, left, Shad Burner and Emily Sikes worked on the Southeast Creative Communications' goals for the summer and fall during a meeting at Southeast Missouri State University on Wednesday.

"This is not just in-class stuff," said Emily Sikes, 22, a public relations major at Southeast Missouri State University. "This is real stuff. These are real clients. This is real money."

Sikes is one of several mass communication students who created Southeast Creative Communications, a public relations, marketing and advertising agency. The company was formed with the aid of a faculty adviser so that public relations majors can gain practical experience while still in college.

Shad Burner, general manager of the agency, said they've already got several contracts in hand, including putting together brochures and a business logo.

He said they're petitioning for space in a university building, similar to what the college newspaper, the Capaha Arrow, has.

"We're serious about this," Burner said. "We really want to get our name out there."

But this is no ordinary internship, said Doug McDermott, director of the university's marketing and constituent relations as well as the faculty adviser for the agency.

Here, the students are learning to run a business rather than just working as part of one.

"Experience is key," McDermott said. "Students who leave their academic programs with experience like this will have tangible evidence that they are so far ahead of those who don't have this experience. It's hard to learn in the classroom and then just get thrown into the world of PR."

Some of the material the agency produces is business cards, letterhead, fliers, posters, brochures, newsletters, PowerPoint presentations, speeches, logo design and Web page design.

Other students in the area are starting their own businesses, too. Will Browne, a 20-year-old student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has started a company that paints houses. Browne is home in Cape Girardeau for the summer and wants to earn money to help pay his tuition at MU, where he is majoring in biology and minoring in business on the way to becoming an orthodontist.

"Every dentist I know told me that I needed to learn how to run a business," Browne said. "They said I needed to get as much experience as I could possibly get. Running a dental office is running a business. So that's what I'm doing."

Browne has started the business as part of College Works Painting, a national internship program that gives local college students the chance to do what he wanted -- run a business. As part of the program, Browne has hired his own painting crew, done estimates on homes and drawn up work orders. He and his staff went through many hours of training, using "practice houses" in the St. Louis area.

He's also marketed his business by going door to door, placing informational material on doors and putting up lawn signs.

"Ninety percent of this job is prep work," he said. "They also trained us all to paint a house well. But it's up to us to get our foot in the door."

As part of his prep work -- he and his staff of six start a job next week -- he's done 47 estimates and has 18 clients lined up. Some of the potential customers he's talked to seemed nervous about having college students paint their homes.

But then Browne kicks into businessman mode, assuring them that College Works has a 97 percent satisfaction rate.

An average College Works business can earn $7,700 in one summer.

"But I hope to make a lot more," he said. "That's the point."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137