Biz whiz wins with no-DJ dance

As the winner of Rowan University's 2007 Business Plan Competition, Jay Shoemaker was recognized in Rowan's magazine as a "biz wiz".

Several years ago, business major Jay Shoemaker ’07 concluded that partygoers wanted the music and system that he—the disc jockey—could provide but not necessarily the DJ. That got him thinking. He needed a product and a plan.

After much research and experimentation, he developed the product: the Shoemaker jukebox. The computer-driven machine allows users to program the music they want from among 30,000 songs from the 1940s to today. And then he wrote the plan.

Shoemaker spelled out how he intended to make the jukebox the digital system division of Shoemaker Entertainment, the entrepreneur’s company. And his plan was good enough to take the first-place, $5,000 prize in Rowan’s first Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Rohrer College of Business.

“The entrepreneurship program at Rowan is amazing. I was able to take everything I learned and stuff it into my plan,” Shoemaker said. “Through the plan you know what my business is, how it works and where it’s going.”

The phased competition—open to all Rowan students—included workshops to help entrants develop their business plans. Professor Kimble Byrd, a competition coordinator, said the original 22 entries came from students in four colleges.

Second-place winner Bob Wear ’08, a business major, took home $2,500 for his company, Oasis Illusions. Brian Ruiz ’08, an economics major, won the $1,000 third prize for his business, Strategic Billing Enterprises.” endpoint

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