Frater Starts Entertainment Company

"Getting such an early start in the business world, I believe it will help to introduce me to a lot of interesting people and create lifelong experiences that I can learn from to benefit me from in the future," said Booz.

Booz grew up in the movie and commercial industry; his father started his own production company to direct and film movies and his mother who is a professional make-up artist.

"Ever since I was little I thought of myself as an entrepreneur and starting a business was always my main goal," he said. "It all started when I was in third grade and started a lawn mowing business. I saved up money to buy a lawn mower and marketed around my neighborhood. Since then, I have never looked back."

Booz was inspired to start a business and found a passion for throwing events after working with event planning in his fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon.

Events that Booz has helped planned include Freaky Tales with Pance Party, JJ Love with Dev and Teke-E Island with Loverance.

The planning for the company has been going on for more than six months, which was started by his business partner Frater Michael Azevedo (Tau-Beta, Sonoma State Univ.). Their company was previously called M2Entertainment, but once Azevedo graduated, Booz decided to take the company on his own.

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried," said Booz. "But sometimes to be successful, you have to go for it, experience the fear, learn from failure and take a risk."

"What I have learned from others is that successful people have bias for action and there is rarely a ‘perfect time' for anything. What's important is taking action and getting started," he added.

According to Booz, the hardest part about starting his business was the initial start-up, due to the fact that there are a lot of steps and fees incurred during the process.

Booz worked as a full time waiter in high school and has been saving all his money since he was younger.

He also took a lot of the money and invested in mutual funds and the stock market to build more money as well.

Booz will promote his business through shirts, fliers, Facebook and posters, though a lot of it will be word of mouth.

He also started the Entertainment Business Club, where members can learn about the industry and how it works through attending large events in the area.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in college thus far, and have come to realize that the effort I have put forth not only helps to produce fun and successful events, but serves as a very rewarding experience as well," Booz said.

"These events have enabled me to get a glimpse of the entertainment business and what this profession has to offer."

For Booz, his biggest preparation was holding positions in TKE.

"Fraternities are very similar to running a business and directly correlate to real world situations and business," said Booz. "I can't say that this will be something I will do for the rest of my life, but for the next 10 years, I have no doubt. My goals in the future are to just be happy with whatever I'm doing, be successful and hold one of the largest events in Northern California."

Booz's company and recent start-up of the Entertainment Business Club will be similar to fraternity events, but will offer more live performers, larger names, and up and coming artists.

"My plans are to bring concerts, dances, and comedians to the area to put Sonoma State on the map," he said. "I would love to eventually see Sonoma compete with other campuses such as Santa Barbara, Davis, Chico and Cal Poly that constantly have great events and big names performing on campus."

Booz's goal is to create fun, inexpensive events for Sonoma State students to attend in order to make their college experience memorable.

"The most enjoyable part is the night of the events and seeing all your hard work come into fruition," he said. "Looking out into the crowd and seeing everyone have a great time is one of the most rewarding experiences knowing that all of your hard work was well worth it."