Barely Out of His Teens, EMU Student Shows Entrepreneurs How It's Done

2599

ANN ARBOR – Kentaro Roy is a final year business student at Eastern Michigan University, but in addition he is also the  founder of Kentaro Web Consulting in Ann Arbor. Along with setting up his own successful business – bringing in around $150,000 this year – this 21-year-old also funded a new annual $500 scholarship this year at his school  for the Information Assurance (Cybersecurity) program at the College of Technology.

Not surprisingly his school is pretty impressed, and Roy has been asked to speak at the SESI Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference (a conference recently endowed by a grant from the family of the Catherine Sesi, co-owner of the Sesi Lincoln Mercury dealerships in Ypsilanti). Roy will talk about how website strategies can convert visitors into sales, something he has had great success with; one client’s sales jumped by 40 per cent year over year due to his website work! “There are hundreds of Michigan businesses doing amazing, innovative things. We help the right customers find them,” said Roy, who graduated from South Lyon High School.

Another area of expertise is reputation management for clients – ensuring that unwarranted negative comments don’t get center stage when a company is searched for on line. “This can make a huge difference to a company, as their prospective clients may choose another company if they read negative reviews online. Many businesses who are under new management are faced with this problem,” explained Roy.

Betty Stremich, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Eastern Michigan University Foundation, says it is extremely unusual for a current student at the university to fund a scholarship; normally it is successful graduates who have made their way in the world who then want to give back to their school. She describes Roy as “a poster boy” for the school.

“I was thrilled to be able to fund the scholarship and would like to do more as our business grows,” added Roy. “Over half of our team studied at EMU and we have highly motivated interns coming through from the University every semester. I believe our relationship with the University is truly mutually beneficial and we look forward to building our relationship further.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.kenta.ro/