Two more entrepreneurs have emerged from BYU's nationally ranked Marriott School of Management.

Business partners Ethan Parker, a junior from Phoenix majoring in accounting, and Benjie Martineau, a native of Mesa, Ariz., who is in his first year of the graduate accounting program, designed a pocket-sized planner based on the planner LDS missionaries currently use.

Similar to the missionary planner, which lasts for six weeks in accordance with the length of a transfer, the Parker Planner aligns with a four-month semester.

"It's great preparation for those who want to get used to the planner who are going to serve a mission," Martineau said, "or who have served a mission and are used to it."

The Parker Planner is undated to avoid unusable days, but contains a two-year calendar in the back so consumers can still keep track of the date.

The planner also comes in ten different cover options, "for those who like to plan in style," Martineau said.

Megan Murdock, a BYU-Idaho student who served a mission in Ventura, Calif., said she likes the planner because of its small size and she particularly enjoys the note section.

"For me, it's kind of like a journal in a way, like a portable journal," she said.

The Parker Planner is currently sold at the BYU Bookstore, BYU-Idaho, Utah Valley University, Weber State, Utah State, Day's Market, and the Missionary Mall. It has been most popular among college students and especially returned missionaries, but Parker and Martineau plan on expanding their market in the future.

Parker said their long-term goal is to get the planners into more and larger retail stores, such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Parker designed the planner in November 2006 after he ran out of the missionary planners he'd been using to organize his time.

"I had to have the same kind of planner," he said.

Parker and Martineau joined forces a year later, after Parker learned that Martineau shared his interest in entrepreneurship.

Parker said they hope for their planner to one day be used by those who receive microcredit loans.

"The product is very low-tech, very inexpensive and a great capturer of ideas. You can write it down right then and there," Parker said. "Those three things make it perfect for entrepreneurs in developing countries. Benjie and I feel strongly about entrepreneurship and we want to promote that worldwide."

Parker and Martineau plan on being in business together for a while.

"In an ?ber-connected world," Parker said, "it won't be hard to keep track of each other."



Copyright Brigham Young University 29 Oct 2008