Hailey is a junior Agribusiness major in the Engler Entrepreneurship program. Coufal got an early start to entrepreneurship and began turning her singing passion into the business “Singing by Coufal!” in the 8th grade, long before she had started her journey in the Engler program. With “Singing by Coufal”, Coufal gets booked to sing at special events like weddings, funerals and birthdays.

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“As I got older, as it went on and time just went on that it [singing] became more than a hobby to me. It became more of a business because of how often I was doing it,” Coufal said.

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Hearing nothing but good things about the Engler program from her brother, Coufal knew that she wanted to get involved in the program. However, she was unsure just how long-lasting her business idea would be, or if she could make the complete transition from singing as a hobby to singing for her business.

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“The hardest part of starting my own business was the fear of failure, and people not accepting me or seeing my passion for music, and seeing my passion for leaving an impact on other people within my community and potentially around the state,” Coufal said.