What is the state and health of your entrepreneurship program? How do you determine success? Maybe creating an E-Dashboard is the answer!

The answers to the above questions depend upon what is expected to be accomplished and what is considered to be important. The old adage "what is important is measured” is fundamental. So, for your Entrepreneurship Program, what do you consider to be the expected outcome? What is important to realizing that outcome? What are the indicators that enable you to determine progress towards your destination–ultimately success?

After considerable research, this article provides measures for you to consider in determining the current state of your E-Program, progress being made and, lastly, success of your E-Program.

The Entrepreneurship Dashboard (E-Dashboard), similar to the dashboard of any automobile (fuel gauge, temperature, speed, oil pressure, mileage, etc.), consists of a few strategic, simple and meaningful measures. Individually, and combined together, the measures provide intelligent insight into the state and health of the overall entrepreneurship program. Keep in mind, what is measured is a determinate as to what is considered to be important. Measures define what constitutes the definition of success.

You can combine several of these indicators or measures and calculate other meaningful measures to further analyze the health of your E-Program. For example, using the automobile dashboard analogy, combining the mileage or distance traveled indicator with fuel usage, you can determine the miles per gallon of gas consumed. Similarly, you can drill down more deeply into the health and performance of your program with other measures if needed.

So, what might be some insightful measures for your E-Dashboard? Referencing the above graphic, the following provides several key measures that you may find useful in building your E-Dashboard:

1. Market Potential: Size of the target market–those who are or could become involved in small business.

2. Market Impact: Awareness of your Entrepreneurship Program.

3. Enrollment: Enrollment in your first core course on entrepreneurship, e.g., "Introduction to Entrepreneurship Program.”

4. Business Plan: Number of "entrepreneurs” completing Business Plan.

5. Business Activity: Number of businesses launched, acquired, franchised, etc.

6. Sustainability: Number of businesses in business over time (longevity), e.g., 1, 2, 3, 5 years.

Each E-Dashboard measure is a strategic indicator and probe relating to a critical area of the E-Program. Individually, the measures are useful. Linking the Dashboard measures, you are also able to create an assessment of the entrepreneurship pipeline–a "supply chain.” Using the E-Dashboard as illustrated above, you will be able to determine effectiveness and efficiency of each area of your E-Program, including retention and success overall.

For each E-Dashboard measure, consider defining target goals. The goals should be intelligently defined–after benchmarking and research is concluded. Once you acquire some historical data, the data can provide trends as to the direction of your program, thus allowing you to determine trends and forecasts.

Use the dashboard measures to evaluate and assess other entrepreneurship programs for the purpose of identifying and leveraging best practices that will improve your entrepreneurship program’s performance.

The E-Dashboard provides insight that informs and supports decision-making. Ultimately the E-Dashboard defines through these measures what is expected to be achieved and what is important to the user.

Executive Director, Enterprise Campus

Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC

Successful, sustainable offerings of entrepreneurship education will not occur without the active engagement of these resource groups from the community: Participants, Providers, Practitioners, and Partners.

Generating Participant interest in your entrepreneurial offerings is not a matter of magnitude (the interest is strong); what matters is quality ("Does this work?”), timeliness ("I want to act on my idea now, not tomorrow or next week”), and network ("Will the contacts made through this class help my business?”). In most models, measuring the satisfaction of the Participants is our only metric; how we measure the engagement of the other critical groups will vary by community.

Engaging the local community and its resources in their critical role of nurturing this entrepreneurial talent will pose unique challenges, especially in the harsh economic environment prevalent in most communities today. The entrepreneurial Practitioners in your area must be "plugged in” to your offerings. These Practitioners may be presenters in class, mentors to the new companies/businesses, vocal champions in the media, or even clients for some of the new companies. If you don’t know who they are, find them. These businesses are the practical evidence that your community can and will support these new entrepreneurial companies.

Providers administer the programs, pay the bills, do the marketing of the offerings, handle the logistics of the programs (including enrollments, participant fee payments/refunds, etc) and are generally the "go to” groups or individuals inherent in your success. Their role cannot be overlooked or discounted. In our model, the community college fulfills the responsibilities of the Provider, maximizing the reach of these programs through the existing systems and service networks already in use.

Partners in the community come in many forms: Chambers of Commerce, local/regional/state government entities, real estate companies, banks, school systems, law firms, accounting firms. They do have one common denominator: they will be beneficiaries of a vibrant and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in your community. Scholarships, complimentary memberships, and discounts for services are just a few of many forms of support that Partners can bring to the offerings.

Successful and sustainable entrepreneurial development requires more than just the offering of a class. Considerable time and effort from many seemingly disparate groups, successfully championed in the community, will lead to measurable improvements in economic health.

Director, Technical Programs

Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL

In October of 1991, the strongest storm in recorded history occurred off the coast of Gloucester, MA. It was labeled the "perfect storm” because atmospheric conditions allowed the energy of three separate storms to merge into one. A survey of the environment in which entrepreneurship education currently exists bears a striking resemblance. The growing influence of the millennial generation, coupled with a shifting economy, is converging to create challenging but fertile opportunities for all.

Born after 1980, and arriving on college campuses in 2000, the 80-million-strong millennials have been generally characterized as optimistic, collaborative, technically literate, and civic-minded. Their impact on shaping community colleges, both in and outside the classroom, is already clearly evident. The instructor-centered chalk talk of the past is yielding to interactive, group-oriented learning activities. Community involvement, once viewed as an extra-curricular option, is now an integral part of many service learning courses. Yet, these changes signal only the first wave of millennial influence as their enrollment numbers will peak in 2010, and by 2012, they will represent 75 percent of overall college enrollments.

What additional changes can we expect? More importantly, how will we respond? David Bornstein’s succinct characterization of the millennial generation may hold the clues. Bornstein describes the millennials as being driven by two forces: 1) a desire to maintain a balance between work and life, and 2) a hunger for a career and life of impact. A recent Business Week report suggests that the millennial generation’s drive for financial and personal success is already transforming undergraduate business programs as evidenced by their growing emphasis on green businesses, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship.

These programmatic changes are occurring within many of our programs as well, but we must now accelerate the process. For while the millennial generation’s interest in these areas is producing changes in education, there is an equally compelling force at work in the labor market. An October, 2008 report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors suggests the urgency of the matter by projecting that the green economy will generate 4.2 million jobs over the next several decades and could account for 10 percent of new job growth over the next 30 years. In addition, the emerging green labor market demands that we work collectively to develop career pathways for those in the new sectors. Finally, we need to develop success measures for our graduates, and ultimately our programs, that encompass both economic and social impact. To this end, the development of social entrepreneurship courses within a few colleges is encouraging. However, there is much to be accomplished if we are to fill the growing need for creative, skilled individuals who can contribute both to the bottom line of their organization and the quality of life within their community.

In the midst of responding to changes brought on by the millennial generation, we must also contend with a rapidly changing economy. Whereas agriculture, manufacturing, and information successively fueled our economic activity and shaped our educational programs, creativity is now emerging as the next dominant force. Author Daniel Pink labels this new paradigm the Conceptual Age because it will be characterized by a shift in which highly valued "knowledge” workers, or those who possess logical, linear, and computer-like thinking abilities will give way to those who are creative, "big picture oriented” and empathic. Western historian Patricia Limerick is fond of saying that any time you experience a paradigm shift; you should first press in the clutch. So, how do we prepare to shift gears?

First, our entrepreneurship programs should be structured in a way that provides students with strong foundational knowledge in the core areas of business while also integrating skills development in the areas of creative thinking and complex communications (i.e., synthesizing, explaining, and persuading). As Sir Ken Robinson, international creativity expert, maintains, "Creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”

Second, our programs should continue to offer stand-alone courses or learning outcomes embedded in other courses that emphasize transformational leadership styles whereby students develop the ability to relate and personally connect to others. We can be sure that, with the proliferation of on-line social networks, empathic leadership will be in high demand.

In the midst of any storm, the best course of action is to usually "batten down the hatches” and wait for the skies to clear. However, we don’t have that luxury right now. We cannot sit still, and yet we cannot overreact either. Those who will weather the storm will be those who can spot the prevailing winds and set their sails accordingly. For those in entrepreneurship education, that means sticking to the fundamentals while also implementing programs that expand our understanding of entrepreneurship, foster creative thinking, emphasize complex communications skills, and develop empathic leaders.

With busy lives and a multitude of competing interests, it can be a challenge to get students to even identify their options for the future let alone consider pursuing entrepreneurial dreams. Of course, there are always those students who inspire us with their wise-beyond-their-years ability to self-motivate, to commit, and to turn their dreams into reality. Far more common are students who need guidance in how to go about exploring their options and how to build the necessary skills to turn that spirit into success.

In the classroom, students should be encouraged to explore as many ideas, passions, and dreams as possible. The sky’s the limit. The world is full of countless opportunities. There are no boundaries and no limits to their potential. Once the ideas are flowing, students can begin to consider how their ideas might fill a need, meet a desire, or fix a problem. It is important for them to realize that the point of this exercise is not to come out of it with fully formed ideas or business plans, but to begin a process of discovery and eventually understand their entrepreneurial talents.

A recent report out of England’s National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship and The Council for Industry and Higher Education stated that, "Pure business skills are no longer sufficient. To add value to the workplace, graduates will need to distinguish themselves by developing entrepreneurial skills that enable them to seize and exploit opportunities, take risks, think strategically, work flexibly, manage complexity, and acquire the more generic employability skills needed for the workplace, such as team-working, communication skills, and commercial awareness.”

Preparing our students for the workplace of the future means preparing them to be entrepreneurial in their thinking and practice whether they end up working for themselves, for a small business, or for a large organization. We must continue to work together to integrate entrepreneurial concepts into our educational curricula at all levels. Students who are encouraged throughout their educational life to think, dream, and live in possibility and potential are much more likely to be successful in whatever they choose to create for themselves in life.

North Iowa has many ways in which students can be exposed to creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. The Pappajohn Center is educating students in the 3rd and 5th grades with the Entrepreneur for a Day program. Invent Iowa has been a long-running program that challenges young students to identify an opportunity or solve a problem in their day-to-day lives. High school students have several program options that include Entrepreneurial classes, a "Be Your Own Boss” seminar held at NIACC and the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy to name a few. These programs and activities have been invaluable in helping us nurture and grow the entrepreneurial spirit among our students in North Iowa over the past several years.

If you take a close look around, you will begin to see the fruits of these various programs. Visit Bert and Ernie’s Skate Shop in Mason City, owned by Spencer Stensrude, a graduate of the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy. The Britt Lumber Yard is currently owned and operated by Derek and Lizanne Engh. Both are 2004 graduates of West Hancock High School. Derek is also a graduate of the FastTrac® New venture Program and Lizanne was a participant in the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy. Ben Frein, 2004 graduate of Garner High School, is currently attending the University of Northern Iowa and has started several businesses as part of the UNI Student Incubator. Jessica Stenzel, a Forest City native and alumna, is operating out of the NIACC JPEC Business Incubator and has already expanded her business selling college vintage apparel.

These are just a few examples of young North Iowa entrepreneurs who have used and benefited from the various entrepreneurial programs offered through the JPEC. As with all the wonderful programs our schools have to offer, we’d truly like to see more and more students involved in these entrepreneurial programs so we can witness the next generation of young business owners.

Like hurricanes, recessions spawn hardship, fear, and misery wherever their titanic forces make land. No exception, the current recession has been historically brutal, blasting the national unemployment rate to 8.9 percent as of April 2009 with 5.7 million jobs annihilated since December 2007. With job options imploding, people are looking to become their own bosses, which has created a booming shift toward entrepreneurship.

Based in Kansas City, MO, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is the gold standard for nonprofits focused on improving the national landscape for entrepreneurs. Recently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Bo Fishback, Kauffman’s vice president of entrepreneurship, reported that a new surge of businesses will be started by out-of-work people taking innovative paths to survival. "Necessity-driven entrepreneurship can be a powerful motivator,” Fishback said.

Higher education can make a massive difference by equipping future entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge to find traction and flourish. The stakes could not be higher. A 2009 survey by the Kauffman Foundation indicates that any economic recovery depends on entrepreneurial expansion. The survey showed that firms five years old or younger were responsible for all net job growth in the U.S. from 1980 to 2005. A full 70 percent of registered voters believe that successful entrepreneurs are crucial to upending the recession. As educators, we have made some progress, but our work is just beginning.

According to a 2007 study conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana, entrepreneurship education in America found a foothold in the early 1970s, targeting credit and noncredit students along with potential and existing small-business owners. Looking at roughly 1,200 technical and community colleges in the U.S., the survey discovered that 14 percent offered an associate degree in entrepreneurship with 19 percent offering a certificate. Fifty-five percent offered entrepreneurship as continuing education with 20 percent hosting a Small Business Development Center.

Dr. Carl M. Kuttler Jr., president of St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, FL., ranks entrepreneurship education at the top of his college’s list of priorities. Kuttler has built a strong reputation as an "entrepreneurial” president who works hard to establish partnerships with other colleges and universities, businesses both local and national, and government bodies.

"Entrepreneurship is the greatest stimulus for success,” he said. "An entrepreneurial spirit moves countries, states, local government, businesses, professional organizations and empowers leaders.”

College presidents seeking to launch business entrepreneur courses and programs need to fully understand what it means to be an entrepreneur. We should continue to reflect as academicians, but with our intellects invigorated by key entrepreneurial traits.

The term entrepreneur is rooted in the Old French word entreprendre, which means "to undertake.” That undertaking, or enterprise, carries an abstract meaning that dates back to 1475. To be enterprising then and now is to advance with a "spirit of daring” or "readiness to take on challenges.”

Keeping with that tradition, we must leverage our imaginations to think along new lines while countering inevitable problems in novel ways. We must constantly ask questions whose answers will give us the power to make informed decisions. Gains will be minimal if we are hobbled by a systematic dread of making mistakes.

Like all triumphant entrepreneurs, we must trust our intuition and steel ourselves with attitudes that are impenetrably positive. Staying tuned to the big picture, we should allow the best of our staff to handle day-to-day details. Balance is essential in planning our overall agendas as is tracking and comprehending high technology, which will be evolving at a blistering pace in the coming decade.

Effective entrepreneurial programs don’t just happen. Research, cooperation, and innovation at every level are essential for success. This checklist will prove useful for college presidents looking to take on the process.

• Make sure you have secured the 
wholehearted support of your 
administration, staff, and faculty.

• Work closely with area chambers 
of commerce and banks as well as 
local, county, and state governments 
to maximize your resource base.

• Assemble an influential, experienced, 
and knowledgeable advisory board; 
their input, guidance, and feedback 
will be indispensable.

• Hire top-notch faculty with drive and 
business savvy–preferably instructors 
with in-depth experience creating 
and running successful entrepreneurial 
enterprises.

• Formulate a flexible, student-friendly 
curriculum, creating modules that 
will attract students from across the 
gamut of age, experience, and cultural 
backgrounds.

• Explore online combo programs that 
mesh convenient e-learning with vital 
face-to-face classroom time.

• Host a Small Business Development 
Center staffed by experts offering free 
business counseling.

• Energize and publicize your new 
program with a concerted marketing 
effort, marshaling the expertise 
and cooperation of area businesses, 
communities, and established 
entrepreneurs.

• Follow up with a potent networking 
operation that connects your 
program and its students to leaders 
and organizations on local, regional, national, and global fronts.

• Stay cohesive and grow together; 
enduring bonds formed between 
faculty, students, alumni, area 
businesses, and the community are 
the hallmarks of the best and brightest 
programs.

Dr. Susan A. May, president of Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, WI, understands the process of establishing a relevant and effective entrepreneurship program. Her college’s own program is considered one of the best in the nation. "Today’s community and technical college presidents really need to lead and engage entrepreneurial efforts in two critical arenas,” May said. "First, by providing prospective entrepreneurs and small businesses the education and training, support services, and networking they will need to be successful. And secondly, by creating and supporting an entrepreneurial culture within the college itself, which can make a tremendous difference in an organization’s ability to truly thrive and grow.”

Looking to the immediate future, we can already see that assistance for small businesses is on the way. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes loan fee reductions, higher guarantees, secondary market incentives, and new Small Business Administration programs that will help thaw credit markets for the country’s small business sector.

The Obama administration believes that "economic recovery will be driven in large part by America’s small businesses.” The facts are clear: small companies have created 70 percent of net new jobs annually over the last ten years—and jobs form the bedrock of any viable economy.

We’ve all heard the words: Fortune favors the bold. Based on a Latin proverb going back to the Roman playwright Terence, the phrase promises that Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck, will always be inclined to help people who enhance their skill sets proactively and take risks to improve their situations.

Our mission as educators is to deliver the tools and knowledge needed for entrepreneurs and small-business owners to find their own fortune and, in turn, reawaken and embolden the American dream. Our success, by and large, will depend on the strength of our own entrepreneurial spirit.

By Cristobal Valdez

Provost, Detroit Lakes Campus

Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Detroit Lakes, MN

"Building with Support” is the second article in a series of four chronicling the development of the M State, Business and Entrepreneurial Services (BES) in the rural community of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. The vision of the BES is to develop and strengthen entrepreneurial services in west-central Minnesota. Following the development of a solid Core Group in the BES, we sought to recruit and develop an engaged advisory board to provide guidance, vision, and expertise.

Recruiting: Zero to 18 in Six Months

In the last article, we discussed the importance of developing a foundational Core Group. While this group lends direction and oversight, we understood the need for an experienced and engaged advisory board. To be true to the entrepreneurial spirit, we needed to recruit successful entrepreneurs. In this endeavor, we did not limit ourselves to local resources and found that the people we invited were not only willing, but excited, to contribute to continued innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. Additionally, we recruited current business leaders in the community from these areas:

• Financial Services

• Technology and Communications

• Business Management

• Media and Promotions

We recruited educational partners from the K-12 and university systems and placed an emphasis on economic development professionals; we enlisted representatives from the following:

• City:

City of Detroit Lakes

City of Frazee

• County

• Region:

Detroit Lakes Regional Chamber 
of Commerce

West Central Initiative

West Central Small Business 
Development Center

• State:

Minnesota WorkForce Center

Department of Employment and 
Economic Development

• Tribal:

White Earth Reservation

Invested Experience

The accumulation of experience assembled in this advisory board has proven extremely beneficial for our endeavors. The entrepreneurs on the board represent the food preparation, manufacturing, marketing, media, office products, service, technology, and transportation sectors of employment. Collectively, they represent over 60 years of successful business development; they also have experienced a few professional failures, which also provide insights for BES customers.

Diversity by Design

We intentionally recruited a cross-section of economic developers, entrepreneurs, banking and lending professionals, manufacturers, marketing researchers, and business/community leaders. Still, the diversity of perspective and orientation provided some ideological challenges. We sought to build a strong team by actively engaging the individuals in board meetings, providing board training, and familiarizing board members with the BES Services.

We found the following experiences quickly developed a high functioning team, willing to provide diverse perspectives while working towards a like goal:

• Give Meaningful Assignments:

Each advisory board member is extremely active in their business, vocation or employment. Still, we knew they had a burning passion to 
further business development in the area. The entire concept of "giving 
back” to the community and the willingness to mentor, advise, and assist in the creation of new entrepreneurs was almost overwhelming. We found that if we gave members important, meaningful work, they attacked it with vigor.

• Creation of Communication 
Modalities:

− Internal Listserv

− Development of a Wiki

− Academic Program Orientations

− Board member office/site visits 
from staff

• Continual Planning and Development:

We have a continuous model of developing new services ideas, and initiatives. This summer we are establishing summer camps for high school juniors and seniors, and in the fall we will open the doors to six incubator spaces. Also this fall in conjunction with two local city governments, we will begin a Community Based Entrepreneurship planning 
process.

• Development of Sub-committees:

− Promotion and Public Relations

− Angel Network development

− Business Incubator

− Two-year Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition

− Post-Secondary Relations

− K-12 Relations

− Research and Development

It is important to note that each sub-committee is co-chaired by a board member and a staff person from the Core Group. We appreciate that our board members are busy professionals, and we look to balance their valuable time with their willingness to actively engage in our efforts.

Committed to Excellence

In the previous article, we discussed our commitment to succeed. We have found that our advisory board members insisted on this. Again, we have recruited highly successful individuals and extremely committed business professionals. I am convinced that if we do not maintain a high level of commitment and outcomes, we will not be able to retain the current board in the game. Our initial intent was to develop a group that we could mold into a great group. We have discovered that, they in turn, have moved us to another level.

For more information about Business & Entrepreneurial Services of M State, contact Cristobal "Cris” Valdez at (218) 846-3778 or via email at cris.valdez@minnesota.edu.

Beacon Alliance has formed a preferential access network that links more than 35 academic, medical, and corporate interests. Beacon operates primarily as a facilitator, connecting its members with the full complement of the joint resources available through the network.

"The entrepreneurs who come to us are technically sharp but often have little or no experience in business,” says Joseph Bronzino, Ph.D., P.E., who founded Beacon Alliance in 1997. "We help them understand the pieces they have to put in place to set up a company and move through the various stages of commercialization, including getting a patent. Then we put them in contact with a network that can help them put those pieces together.

"We provide a very important service in the form of due diligence,” explains Bronzino. "Entrepreneurs really need an analysis of their idea in terms of what’s already in the marketplace and whether their idea is novel enough to become marketable and profitable. We assemble a committee to conduct that kind of analysis

"When we think there is a sufficient market for the device an entrepreneur wants to develop, we steer them towards attorneys who can help them protect their intellectual property,” Bronzino adds. "We encourage them to develop a business plan and an executive summary, and we arrange meetings with angel investors and with venture capitalists to see if those funders would be interested in investing in this product and this company. Finally, we help them apply for a grant to build a prototype through the federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research Program.”

Entrepreneurial opportunities abound in the biomedical technology field, which is one of the 21st century’s growth industries. Typical of the projects that Beacon Alliance has been involved with is a wound closure device; the nonprofit helped the group behind this product link with a hospital to do animal studies and once those were completed, Beacon helped them write an SBIR grant request to support preclinical trials. Another project has involved a dental product that improves the efficacy of antibiotics injected into the gums for the treatment of infection. Beacon helped the entrepreneurs behind this idea set up a company and is now looking for angel investors to help the company do part of the product development.

Beacon Alliance operates primarily in the Knowledge Corridor that runs from Hartford north through Springfield and Northampton, MA, but also has links with resources in Philadelphia, Boston, New Jersey, Ohio, and Puerto Rico. Bronzino welcomes the opportunity to consult with people from other parts of the country on how they might set up a similar organization to promote biomedical entrepreneurism in their area. To contact Bronzino, e-mail him at joseph.bronzino@beaconalliance.org or call toll-free 877-723-2266.

Interim Dean–Business and Computer Information

NorthWest Arkansas Community College, Bentonville, AR

Ten Arkansas community colleges have signed a memorandum of understanding in which they agreed to collaborate and offer a core set of entrepreneurship courses using the same course titles and course numbering system, as well as a common set of course outcomes. The curriculum and course outcomes were initially developed at NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) in Bentonville, AR. The courses are part of an AAS Degree in Business Management with an entrepreneurship option; a technical certificate is included as part of the AAS degree in entrepreneurship. The courses cover introduction to entrepreneurship, funding, opportunity/feasibility analysis, professional selling/advertising and the capstone course, small business management. While initially designed for credit, the courses can be used for non-credit and seminar classes.

The Arkansas Association of Two Year Colleges (AATYC) has taken the lead in the continuing development of an entrepreneurship consortium. Under the leadership of Ed Franklin and Steve Lease, the AATYC facilitates and promotes the vision of a unified curriculum and a group of two-year colleges going forward to foster entrepreneurship and economic development in each area of Arkansas.

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines consortium as "an agreement, combination, or group formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member.” Wikipedia indicates that "a consortium is an association with the objective of participating in a common activity or a pooling of resources for achieving a common purpose.” In late February, 2009, NWACC and the nine other community colleges in the consortium moved beyond their memorandum of understanding and made substantial progress towards becoming a true entrepreneurial consortium.

On February 26th and 27th, North Arkansas College hosted The Arkansas Association of Two Year Colleges Entrepreneurship Conference at the impressive L.E. "Gene” Durand Center on North Arkansas College’s Center Campus. The purpose of the conference was to articulate a vision for boosting entrepreneurial education across all of Arkansas’s 22 two-year colleges and to provide a forum for discussions on how the consortium members should go forward. Tim Putnam of North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, IA, was the workshop facilitator and gave participants a vision for creating comprehensive entrepreneurship centers on their campuses.

As a result of the conference, the original 10 member schools agreed upon curricula issues and agreed to share resources so each school could fully integrate entrepreneurship into their business programs by the Fall Semester of 2009. Some schools have already begun offering the courses and degree programs, and each of the others will be on board by Fall ‘09.

To help roll out these new courses, NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Entrepreneurship program, under the direction of Dean Tim Cornelius and George Tanner, lead Entrepreneurship professor, have agreed to work with the other schools in the consortium to assist in providing alternative delivery of courses. This alternative delivery may include webinars and/or compressed interactive video. This arrangement will allow each school to offer a consistent set of entrepreneurship courses and will solve the potential start-up problems of securing qualified instructors or sufficient enrollment numbers at some schools.

The entrepreneurship consortium envisions an interactive collective sharing of resources across the state, with some courses originating from a member school and beamed to any of the others that wish to receive them while others will be self-contained on campuses. This unusual commitment to sharing and collaboration will help each school to focus on its strengths to overcome potential obstacles. NWACC has also offered to share the same arrangement with any of the other non-consortium community colleges in Arkansas. The ultimate goals of the consortium are to add additional members from community colleges not yet committed to the curriculum and to become a resource for students, entrepreneurs, and educators across the state of Arkansas.

Q & A with Daniel Wilson

Q: What programs at your school were the most helpful in starting and growing your business? Why?

A: I think the Entrepreneurship classes made the biggest difference in growing my businesses. The classes I took were Analyzing Business Opportunities, Business Plan Writing, & Legal Issues for Entrepreneurs.

I learned many things about how to correctly operate and plan for business growth, which has played a big role in the businesses that I own today. For me the biggest hurdle to cross was actually sitting down and facing my fear of doing sales. When a customer came to me I would have no problem taking care of them. However, when I had to actually make a call and follow up with any customer I would always put it off. Being in class and having assignments that required me to go outside of my comfort zone helped me grow tremendously. As a student I really didn’t like being pushed out of my comfort zone. In business if you are in your comfort zone, then you’re not growing and moving forward.

Q: What do you think are the most important things community colleges can do to help encourage and support young entrepreneurs? Why?

A: I think one of the biggest things that community colleges can do is to put real world information into the hands of their students. Books are an excellent tool, but I believe they are relied on too heavily. Also, I believe a more creative and less structured system allows potential entrepreneurs to see if they really have the discipline and drive to run their own business.

Q: What were the critical success factors that helped you succeed?

A: The thing that was critical to my success was the ability to continually fail many times and yet be able to get up and start again! Without being able to accept failure I would not be where I am today. The other thing is that the people around me are positive and optimistic.

Q: How did you learn that failure was okay? How can professors teach their students to be the same way?

A: I learned that failure was acceptable when I started my first business at age 12. The business ended up not being the success I thought it would be. However, I learned that failure is not only acceptable, it is exciting! Professors can help their students accept failure too by:

• Showing role models who failed and got back up. Thomas Edison did not get 
discouraged when he failed time after time when creating the light bulb. He knew that it was simply one more way that wouldn't work.

• Rewarding failure. In a classroom setting, students who go out of their comfort zone and attempt but fail should be rewarded if they can analyze  why they failed and what they could have done to succeed. This emphasizes the analysis of the process and learning from failure.

• Reframing failure. I look at failure as a learning experience. You will always learn more from a failure than success. Without failure most of the successful people in this world would not be who they are today. When you fail at something, it gives you an opportunity and challenge to succeed. Embrace failure, it is your key to success!

Michael Simmons Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour brings the country’s top young entrepreneurs to college campuses to spread the entrepreneurial mindset during a half-day conference. Started in 2006, the tour has visited over 60 schools nation-wide and has received the Innovation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations and the Program of the Year award from Northern Michigan University.

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of profiles of young entrepreneurs prepared for Community College Entrepreneurship by best-selling author Michael Simmons, co-founder and CEO of the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour (EET), http://www.extremetour.org, and a past keynote speaker at NACCE.

Chair of the Management Department

Baruch College, New York, NY

Students are creative forces bursting with ideas and ambitions. Many students dream of being entrepreneurs and building successful businesses. For most entrepreneurs, the transition from the idea stage to reality begins with a business plan that tests the idea’s feasibility, presents the idea to others, and convinces investors, bankers, and partners to participate. A business plan project can be an effective part of an entrepreneurship or business course, and it can be structured to fit the interests and abilities of students at any level. By marshalling the students’ interests, goals, and motivations in the process of writing a business plan, you can truly create a great learning experience and a course your students will remember forever.

Entrepreneurship is a team sport and bringing a venture to reality requires the support of others such as bankers, investors, and partners. With a structured curriculum, students at any level of financial and quantitative skills can create complete and convincing business plans with high-quality financial projections.

A business plan integrates skills and issues from various disciplines including marketing, management, finance, and law. In an era when so much business education stays in separate silos, a business plan project breaks down these divisions and shows students how their goals, skills, and knowledge can work together. Because a business plan is a complete and professional document that establishes the viability of their business ideas, the students get to build both their writing and presentation skills.

At the heart of a business plan is financial analysis. This includes estimating how much money is needed to start a business, what revenue and expenses will be, and how much profit the company will make. Working on a plan answers questions such as "How will I obtain the financing I need?” and "What will it cost me to operate this business?”

The tools used to answer these questions can be matched to the abilities, skills, and background of the students. Students who are comfortable with Excel can create their own financial statements; students can also use any of a number of templates that help them through the process more easily. For students who are less comfortable with quantitative work, the plan can use worksheets to answer key business plan questions such as start-up costs, revenue projections, and operating costs.

Business plans can be done as individual or team projects. Because many plans require research about the industry, competition, and expense items, there is more than enough work for a three- to five-person team. A team also becomes a forum for discussion of the many decisions about the business that need to be made. Individual projects work best when students have businesses they have already decided to pursue and have carried out a great deal of the preliminary work.

A business plan course should be structured around achieving interim goals such as generating ideas, establishing the viability of the idea, completing industry research, and developing operating plans, marketing plans, and financial statements. These steps make the overall project more manageable and less daunting. Reviewing their interim pieces or drafts of the entire plan gives you the opportunity to provide feedback so the students can integrate your comments into their final project and produce the best final plan possible.

I also believe in having students do two presentations to the entire class during the term. The first presents the idea and elicits everyone’s feedback, which helps involve the entire class. The second presentation is of the full plan as if the class were potential investors or bankers.

When the business plan is completed, students will have:

• Brought their business idea closer to 
reality or figured out how it must be 
changed to make it viable.

• Learned how knowledge and skills from 
their other courses can be used 
together.

• Seen how all business decisions 
and various business disciplines are 
interrelated.

• Gained greater understanding and 
respect for people who build and 
manage their own businesses.

• Seen how a business is the result of 
many decisions made by the 
entrepreneur and the consideration of 
many external factors.

Students who participate in a business plan project build their skills and knowledge. They experience the process of generating and testing ideas. They learn how to inspire others about their concepts, and when the plan is completed they have a strong sense of accomplishment–and a project they will never forget.

If you have any questions feel free to email me at Edward.rogoff@baruch.cuny.edu.

By Louis Lautman

Executive Producer of the YES movie & Founder, Young Entrepreneur Society

I woke up last year on my 30th birthday and thought to myself that there had to be more. I knew I was an entrepreneur, but wondered if I was still a young entrepreneur. I had always gravitated toward other young successful people and others always wondered how I did so much at such a young age, but I knew I had more in me. I thought about all the amazing young people I had met over the years, then started researching more and thought that there were some amazing stories out there that most of the world didn’t know about and would love to hear.

I wondered what would be the best way to get the stories out about these amazing young geniuses, then it hit me…make a movie. I loved the idea, only…I had never made a movie before. But I knew I could do anything in this world and if I let this chance pass me by, I would never get over it. I am all about taking action and seizing opportunity and I knew that this is where my path was meant to go…or at least I said so! I believe you don’t find your destiny, but de-fine your destiny.

I began to intensely research every aspect of the film world, from pre-production to post production to marketing to distribution and everything in between. After about two months of research, I began the pre-production phase of "The YES Movie.” I could have been nervous, but I decided to be excited, at every step of the way from interviewing production companies to arranging our shots to setting up a three-month tour of the U.S.

I was fired up and ready to meet the nation’s most successful young self-made multi-millionaires. As the production crew and I took off around the country, we met amazing people along the way and each person taught me so much about business and life and true happiness. As a first-time film producer, I felt very happy that I made it to the production phase. Many filmmakers and people who want to start their own business never see their dream come to fruition for many reasons, but the biggest excuse I hear is that they don’t have the money.

I can tell you that whatever your dream is, there is always money out there to make it a reality! If you want coaching on how to find the funds, you will have to watch our movie. I can tell you that everything went perfectly, because I believe that everything did…however, that is not to say that things didn’t go over budget, we got lost, we missed appointments, we missed flights, equipment broke, we were stuck in traffic, blah, blah, blah, blah!

None of that matters. What matters is that I spent three months on the road and got the footage that I needed and it rocked. As we went into the post-production phase, I was fortunate to hook up with Emmy-Award winning writer Robyn Symon and Lifestyle Production guru Bernard Bonomo. With this awesome combination, our film was sure to be world class.

Again, I could tell you about the challenges in the relationship or re-arranging our schedules or losing data in computer crashes and the challenges of setting the strategy to make this the best film ever made on the topic of young entrepreneurship, but as you will learn when you watch the film, successful entrepreneurs all go through "stuff” and it’s not the "stuff” that matters, but how you react to that stuff that matters. What I did was make a world-class film despite all the "stuff” that happened along the way.

"The YES Movie” had its premier in Las Vegas this past spring and will be screened in select theaters and on specifically targeted high school and college campuses to reach young people as directly as possible. The film is already inspiring a global audience via online viewing and DVD sales of the film. For more information about "The YES Movie” or to view the official trailer, go to: www.theYESmovie.com.

*For more information on business incubation, visit www.nbia.org

In the study of the economic impacts and federal costs of EDA construction program investments, researchers found business incubators to be a more effective means of creating jobs than roads and bridges, industrial parks, commercial buildings, and sewer and water projects. In fact, incubators provide up to 20 times more jobs than community infrastructure projects like water and sewer projects.

The study showed that EDA investments on average produce between 2.2 and 5.0 jobs per $10,000 in federal spending, for a cost per job of between $2,001 and $4,611. But business incubators create between 46.3 and 69.4 jobs per $10,000 in federal investment, for a cost per job of between $144 and $216.

"It’s important to note that the jobs created by incubator tenants are long-term jobs,” says Deborah King, director of the Springfield Business Incubator (SBI) at Springfield Technical Community College. "Also companies that get their start in incubators have a significantly greater chance of succeeding than non-incubated startups do. The SBA reports that only 40 percent of business startups are still in business after six years, but our success rate at SBI is 90 percent.”

To view the complete EDA report, visit http://www.nacce.com/?statistics  

In communities of all sizes across the country, business incubators on community college campuses are fostering economic development and job growth. With strong community connections and a long-standing dedication to supporting small businesses, community colleges seem especially well suited to house business incubators. Here are a few examples of the results being produced by business incubators located on NACCE member campuses:

• The Business Innovation Center at Salt Lake Community College’s Miller Business Resource Center is Utah’s largest publicly-funded incubator. Since opening its doors in 2003 as a mixed-use incubator, it has tripled in size and changed its focus to attract software development companies responding to needs in the medical, financial, and information technology industries. The 14 companies now in the incubator employ over 35 people full time and generate combined annual revenues of over $17 million.

• The Center for Business and Technology Incubation at the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville, NC, is home to 51 companies that have generated $12 million in revenue and $10 million in investments and created and sustained 138 full time jobs with an average wage of $14.46/hour. The expansive 141,000-square-foot, mixed-use incubator opened in November 2006; about 44 percent of the space is now occupied.

• At the Springfield Business Incubator (SBI) at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) in Springfield, MA, current tenants employ 50 people and generated annual payroll and subcontract wages during 2008 of more than $2,011,000. Taken together, current tenants and the companies that have graduated from SBI employ over 250 people.

Home-grown Businesses

Exactly how many business incubators are linked with community colleges is not known, but the National Business Incubator Association (NBIA) estimates that as many as 30 of its members are located on community college campuses. NBIA members have reported that 84 percent of incubator graduates stay in their communities. This fits right in with the mission that many community colleges set for themselves when they establish an incubator.

"It has become extremely difficult to recruit large companies to your area as they have the option of moving anywhere in the world,” says Amit Singh, dean of Business and Computer Science at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA, where work is underway on creating a business incubator that will open in December. "The economic growth needs to come from small, home-grown businesses. And there is no better way to produce local business leaders than having an incubator and training future entrepreneurs right in your own backyard.”

Tracy Kitts, vice president and chief operating officer of NBIA, says, "A business incubator can help strengthen the ties between local businesses and the college. The college can provide resources (space, labor, equipment) that the small business needs, and the small business can provide financial support and placement assistance to the college and its students. For instance, an incubation program can help link small businesses with students and provide those students with a real-life learning lab to supplement their classroom education. Also, an incubator company can provide the school with immediate feedback on their entrepreneurship curriculum.”

"Community colleges work closely with the business community and can customize a business incubator to reflect the economic drivers of that community,” says NACCE founder Tommy Goodrow, who oversaw the creation of STCC’s incubator. "You have to establish that there is a need first. Then to succeed, you have to have the funding, you have to have knowledgeable management and you have to have an advisory board and community business support. Those are the keys to success, along with support from the leadership at the institution and the board of trustees.”

While there are obviously financial hurdles for big ticket items such as construction or renovation of existing space that need to be overcome when establishing a business incubator, some key resources are already readily available in many communities. For example, incubators typically have advisory boards made up of local business people who are eager to support business growth. Russ Yelton, executive director of Entrepreneurial Ventures and Business Incubation at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, reports that they have been able to establish a professional services office where local volunteers, including attorneys, CPAs, specialists in patent law, and marketers, provide 120 hours a month of free counseling to incubator tenants and other area businesses.

Businesses operating in community college-based incubators can’t say enough positive things about the support they receive. "The guidance of experienced business professionals at the incubator is invaluable,” says Ashlea McLeod, CEO of MotoDuds, Inc., a designer and distributor of quality leather riding and racing gear for women motorcyclists located at the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center Business Incubator at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC). "Without their help with finances, business strategy, global trade, international business practices, and marketing, we would still be at square one.”

Todd Gordner, CEO and president of ProLogic, a software firm located at the Springfield Business Incubator at STCC, describes another incubator benefit. "The atmosphere is very positive and motivating,” he says. "You can walk down the hallways and everyone knows you and is there to support you. This just feels like a place where you want to work.”

On the Drawing Board

With communities everywhere scrambling to respond in positive ways to the economic downturn, a number of NACCE members are moving forward with plans to create new incubators or expand existing ones. At the NIACC incubator, which opened in 2007 and now hosts six companies with several others preparing to join soon, expansion plans call for creating satellite incubators across a nine-county area.

Connors State College in Warner, OK, started with a two-space incubator that was certified by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce in the spring of 2008. Their idea was to start small and prove the concept before expanding. Plans have already been developed to turn a former dorm into incubator space, possibly for companies interested in creating value-added products based on the region’s extensive agricultural industry.

When the incubator at Montgomery County Community College opens later this year, it will be the first incubator serving the county, which is north of Philadelphia. "We’re capitalizing on what’s already established here and tapping into our existing resources,” says Ayisha Sereni, coordinator of the school’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. "We’re a community college; we’re about the community. We have people walking through these doors every day who have dreams of having their own business. There’s no reason why we can’t provide them with the tools to open those businesses.”