Vice President of Economic Development and Workforce Training

Hinds Community College, Raymond, MS

Mississippi’s MyBizentrepreneurship training program is preparing to launch its Phase III effort targeting dislocated workers to receive entrepreneurship training through Hinds Community College. With continued funding via the WIRED Grant through The Montgomery Institute of Meridian, MS, and partnership linkages with the state Small Business Development Centers coordinated by the University of Mississippi-Oxford, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security-WIN Job Centers, the Southern Entrepreneur Program (SEP) developed by Dr. Brent Hales at the University of Southern Mississippi-Hattiesburg, and the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (all 15 state community and junior colleges) have teamed together to develop and deliver entrepreneurship training to dislocated workers.

Program Procedures

The pathway to participation in the MyBiz Phase III program initiates with local WIN Job Centers identifying prospective participants for the 33-hour SEP training course. Identified dislocated workers will be presented the SBDC "First Steps” seminar, which provides orientation and assessment as to whether entrepreneurship is a right fit for these individuals in their current situation.

Dislocated worker participants completing the First Steps seminar will be referred to the community college MyBiz SEP instructor. Those interested will sign up for the SEP program training course and pay a $25 registration fee to cover the costs of course materials. The recommended practical working class size is to be 15 clients.

Client participants in the Southern Entrepreneurship Program receive a certificate upon completion of the 33-hour training course. The targeted completion rate is 75 percent. The Hinds Community College SEP trainer then will direct the completed participants to the local Small Business Development Center at Hinds Community College.

The Hinds Community College SBDC enters clients into their small business advisement system and provides needed services requested by the clients. Ideally, some of the participants in the program will eventually develop viable small business plans leading to the opening of a small business in the Hinds Community College district’s region as a stimulus to local economic development efforts.

The SEP Training Curriculum

The Southern Entrepreneurship Program curriculum consists of 14 sections of training in Entrepreneurial Skills and Business Management to include the following topics:

• Orientation/Assessment
• Setting Goals
• Problem Solving
• Decision Making
• Self Esteem
• Values/attitudes/mindset
• Communication skills
• Managing change
• Why businesses fail
• Identifying business opportunities
• Networking
• The business plan
• Record keeping for success
• Is your business legally and financially sound

Again, the recommendation is for a course totaling 33 hours of contact training to be held in three-hour sessions, once a week, or a suitable schedule to be worked out between the clients and the community college SEP instructor. Ideally SEP classes would be conducted on site at the local WIN Job Centers where other support resource services are available to the clients.

Global Goals

The end goal of the MyBiz Phase III-SEP is to encourage dislocated workers to consider entrepreneurship opportunities as an alternative to traditional employment pursuits. This will be accomplished as a result of the SEP training and SBDC advisement. Hinds Community College will continue to monitor the participants in the MyBiz SEP program to address any further training or advisement needs they may have. This could include providing additional skills training in business development and management, computer skills, bookkeeping, business marketing, or other technical assistance as required.

Statewide, the TMI initiative to be delivered through the state’s community colleges hopes to train up to 1,000 dislocated workers in the SEP curriculum. Participants outside of the clients certified by the WIN Job Centers as dislocated workers will be permitted to attend the SEP training course; however, these individuals will be required to pay a course fee of $200. Their participation costs will not be covered by the WIRED grant funding secured by The Montgomery Institute.

The immediate outcomes of the MyBiz Phase III-SEP program will be to increase the numbers of newly trained business owners; increase the numbers of small business owners within the Hinds Community College District; increase workforce training; potential development of new cluster mentors; intergenerational exchange of business skills and an increase in leadership skills. The terminal outcomes would include increased economic development, increased entrepreneurialism, a decrease in brain drain and the establishment of new networks of small business development opportunities.

An additional spinoff outcome may be a reduction in the number of dislocated workers, having encouraged some of these individuals to create a small business as a viable alternative to traditional employability options, which currently are seriously limited.

The MyBiz Phase III-SEP training program commenced February 2010 with an anticipated completion date of December 31, 2010.

Conventional thinkingpaints entrepreneurs as individuals equipped with a high tolerance for risk. That same thinking points to the successful entrepreneur as a business-minded independent who not only recognizes a previously unseen opportunity, but also has the know-how and vision to make that opportunity unfold and flourish in the marketplace.

From the standpoint of entrepreneurship education, the difference between an entrepreneur scaling new summits with a flag or hitting bottom with a shovel is a powerful bundle of skills and knowledge. When delivered with dedication and a strong grasp of real-world conditions, that bundle is the entrepreneur’s lifeline to success.

I recently took part in a grant signing ceremony that brought home the concept of entrepreneurial education as a lifeline. The event kicked off a $300,000 training grant from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) to our college, which is teaming up with Capital Safety–the world leader in the design and manufacture of height safety and fall protection equipment–to deliver critical training programs to employees at the company’s state-of-the-science production and testing facility in Red Wing, MN.

True Workforce Engagement

During the course of my career as an educator, I have participated in my share of grant signing ceremonies. All are happy occasions, but many are simply formal announcements populated by the designated signatories, a smattering of guests, a photographer or two, and perhaps a representative from area media.

The event at Capital Safety raised the bar for workforce engagement. I arrived at the signing site with an ample college contingent–one vice president, two deans, two customized training directors and one communications coordinator. We quickly found ourselves outnumbered by more than 350 Capital Safety employees, who had gathered to celebrate the grant.

Capital Safety-Americas President David Thomas, MJSP Director Paul Moe and Red Wing Mayor John Howe mirrored my duties as a signatory. They, along with the DCTC contingent, picked up on the positive energy emanating from the assembled workers, who listened, attentive and smiling, as their president reviewed the company’s superb performance over the past year before describing the DCTC training programs that would augment the skill range of every employee present, streamlining career pathways in such areas as wind energy, mechatronics, green manufacturing, supervisory management and advanced computer training.

It’s no secret that entrepreneurial thinking goes well beyond the lone enterpriser making the grueling ascent to prosperity through the force of a brave, new idea. The revitalizing boons of intrapreneurship can serve as the lifeblood of the largest and most mature corporations, institutions and concerns. At Capital Safety, entrepreneurial attitudes permeate all aspects of the organization. Suggestion boxes at the Red Wing facility generate more than 100 innovative ideas and observations a week. Championed by every contributor to the Capital Safety mission, which centers on saving lives around the world in the transportation, oil and gas, construction, utilities, and wind energy industries, the quest for improved quality and efficiency never stops, evidenced by a creative progression that notches more patents than any other company in the fall protection field.

Capital’s management team includes shop-floor workers in the decision-making process, fostering a workforce that cares deeply about manufacturing the best fall protection equipment possible. They live and breathe the company motto: "Build safe so that they stay safe.”

Three Key Lessons

As two-year colleges across the nation continue to expand entrepreneurship programs, we as administrators can garner three key lessons from the business culture at Capital Safety. First, we should remember that many major companies, including Fortune 500 juggernauts like Apple, Nordstrom, eBay and Electronic Data Systems, started organically from humble entrepreneurial blueprints. Capital itself originated 60 years ago in Sala, Sweden, when the company’s founders introduced the world’s first self-retracting lifeline for use by workers in local silver mines.

Second, we have to understand that teaching entrepreneurship is more than just delivering a smart and relevant curriculum. In every institutional undertaking, we must think and act as highly capable entrepreneurs, constantly searching for new opportunities, purposeful innovations and mutually constructive partnerships. How can we teach effective risk management unless we ourselves are both experienced and accomplished at taking bold yet intelligent risks?

Third, we need to emulate Capital Safety’s commitment to quality, which is founded on the straightforward aspiration to save lives. After the signing ceremony, we took a tour of the facility, ending at a large wall map dotted with flags indicating workers whose lives were saved by Capital Safety products. Entrepreneurs might not be construction workers treading the high steel of 100-story skyscrapers, but they often put their livelihoods on the line pursuing ideas that can take them to dizzying heights.

When delivering entrepreneurship education, we need to develop programs that reduce risk by providing start-to-finish support. We need to live and breathe our mission of educating savvy and agile entrepreneurs. We need to build safe so that they stay safe.

Q:This being your first business, what inspired you to start a business?

A:One of my mentors (Justin Jones-Fosu) told me, "Even if you start small, start now,” so I did. I have always envisioned owning my own company. As a young kid, I used to sell candy in school. I used to cut grass and contracted five to ten individuals to help me.

Being an entrepreneur is better than I thought it would be. I love going to work every day. Half the time it doesn’t even feel like work (unlike the Fortune 500 company I resigned from). I love that I have the opportunity to help people be successful and live out their dreams.

Q:What has been your biggest challenge in starting your business?

A:My biggest challenge in starting my firm was credibility, or the lack thereof. When I started the firm I was 19 and in my second year of college. The feedback I received for why proposals were not being accepted was due to perceived youth and inexperience. Since then I have worked twice as hard as my competitors, if not more, to be competitive. I focused on building my image, organic growth with core clients, and using their testimonies to gain new business. I improved my understanding of how to deliver value to prospective clients.

Q:How long can you see yourself being an entrepreneur?

A:I will be an entrepreneur for the rest of my life! Even now, I’m thinking through my next several ventures in the future.

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

A:I owe my success to the Entrepreneurial Studies Institute (ESI) at AACC as a whole. If I had to narrow it down to one program, it would be the Student-Business Owner Incubator program. I was given office space, meeting space, computers, and everything a start-up would need to be successful. But the most important benefit was the access to experienced advisors. My advisors are experts in the areas of accounting, business law, marketing, human resources and management. All of my advisors are successful entrepreneurs.

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

A:For community colleges to effectively help entrepreneurs, they need interactive and relevant curriculum. The classes have to be set up in a way that it’s not so much about a grade, but student specific and focused. Everything done in class should focus on a student being able to form an idea, create a plan and execute. At AACC you work on your idea and form it into a business plan. Then the professors help you develop strategies that will help you be successful.

Q:What advice would you give to a community college student who has no entrepreneurship experience and wants to start a business?

A:The advice I would give to someone looking to start a business would be to plan. Writing a business plan is the most important way to better your chances of success. When you plan out what you want to do, it allows you to prepare for pitfalls that may come. For example, you think you need $20,000 and later you discover you actually need $40,000. You would have found this out through your research and not six months into operation.

James Olliver, Provost, Seminole Campus, and

Sharon Setterlind, Dean, Business Technologies

St. Petersburg College. St. Petersburg, FL

Entrepreneursand small businesses create the jobs where most Americans work, and where an increasing number of young people see their future. St. Petersburg College is expanding its entrepreneurship efforts by offering programs and services to different audiences. We are very excited about the promise and the opportunity to support and serve our community’s economic growth.

St. Petersburg College (SPC), located in St. Petersburg FL, was the first among Florida’s 28 public community colleges to transition to a four-year institution. In August 2002, SPC began offering fully accredited baccalaureate programs leading to bachelor’s degrees. However, SPC’s commitment to its two-year curriculum and program remains as strong as ever.

The goal of the entrepreneurship program at SPC is to provide entrepreneurial business fundamentals needed for success in starting a business. The program will have components that help students generate and sharpen their entrepreneurial/intrapreneural mind set, idea generation, analysis, opportunity recognition, value creation and management of a venture using communication, marketing, sales and financial skills.

Although SPC has experienced growing success in its existing entrepreneurship offerings, recently SPC has launched an initiative to extend entrepreneurship education to support potential entrepreneurs through degree and certificate programs, as well as by offering services through an Entrepreneurship Center. Building on the work underway in SPC’s Corporate Training’s Practical Entrepreneurship Academy and the entrepreneurship sub-plan within the bachelor’s degree program, SPC will create a new associate-degree-level entrepreneurship degree option. Thus the entrepreneurship model will encompass all facets of entrepreneurship education: credit/non credit courses to provide "on demand” training, certificates, a two-year A.S. degree, and the four-year B.A.S. degree with the Entrepreneurship Center at its core (see fig 1).

The Process: Focus on Pragmatic Education

At SPC we used a formal process to develop curriculum for training students for entrepreneurship ventures and intrapreneural thinking while working in large organizations. We collected data on students’ interest and conducted a needs analysis by surveying the industries in Tampa Bay. This was followed by a formal DACUM (Designing a Curriculum) session attended by key "potential” employers of graduating students. The outcome of this session is a list of traits, attitudes and skills needed for the degree. These are carefully populated in both core and elective courses for the program, thus providing students with the knowledge needed to succeed in the field. This process has helped in designing other programs and keeping a pragmatic focus.

"On Demand” Corporate Training

In December 2006, an entrepreneur approached SPC about the need to offer a practical, mentor-based program for new local businesses and potential businesses to get the assistance they needed to succeed. With a gift of $25,000 (that was matched by the State) SPC launched the Practical Entrepreneurship Academy–a 16-week, non-credit program designed to be offered as credit or non-credit courses in future programs.

Additionally, Corporate Training at SPC hosts numerous six-week classes under Business Solutions: Entrepreneurship/Small Business. These courses are designed for specific entrepreneurial venues such as: how to start and operate your own publishing business, catering service, consulting practice, interior design, and arts and crafts. Also offered by Business Solutions are foundational courses in creating a business plan, Internet business writing, marketing, and business law.

Associate Degree Program and Certification Options

In 2009, a study was conducted to review best practices in entrepreneurship education among community colleges to determine where SPC might better serve the Pinellas County community. The study found that SPC could play a pivotal role at the associate degree level to provide an integrated package of education coordinating with the program offered in Corporate Training, and the existing entrepreneurship sub-plan offered at the four-year level.

In developing the curriculum to support the entrepreneurship model, it was decided to focus on a four-course certificate–an industry-driven model of 12 credits that could be offered as a sub-plan to the A.S. Business Administration degree, which in turn could articulate with the College’s bachelor’s degree offerings. This decision was based on the fact that a college credit certificate consists of a program of instruction of college-level courses that is a part of an A.S. degree program that prepares students for entry into employment. This decision was based also on the fact that the business degree provides the foundation to give students skills in management, marketing and finance as the four courses are expected to focus on practical skills and engagement with experts in their respective fields. This will be accomplished using simulations, group work and other media-based and electronic tools to appeal to the "entrepreneurial personality.”

The courses in the Entrepreneurship certificate program will include: "Introduction to Entrepreneurship” (to focus the business idea and examine the various components of starting and running a business); "Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing” (to address topics ranging from advertising options to new social media);"Entrepreneurial Management” (to address topics such as taxes, bookkeeping, legal issues, etc.); and "Planning the Entrepreneurial Venture” (culminating in a complete business plan).

In addition to being part of the business associate degree, it is anticipated that the courses, individually or as part of a certificate, will be valued additions to the other A.S. degree programs, thereby providing students in programs such as photography, digital arts, hospitality, insurance, financial services, computer programming and music with the skills to start their own businesses.

BAS-Entrepreneurship Sub-plan in Management & Organizational Leadership

The Entrepreneurship specialization has been offered as a sub-plan in the Bachelor of Applied Science in Management and Organizational Leadership degree for the last two years. This program has been expanded. It now consists of four three-credit-hour courses: Principles of Entrepreneurship; Innovation & Value Creation; Sales, Negotiation & Relationship Management; and Entrepreneurial Finance. The sub-plan also includes a three-credit-hour senior capstone course that makes use of skills learned in the courses in planning and early execution of a business. The program offers hands-on entrepreneurship incubator experience and contact with entrepreneurs and successful businesses by hosting a series of seminars. It also offers additional support through working relationships and articulation agreements with local universities.

Entrepreneurship Career Center

Providing courses in practical entrepreneurship alone is vitally important, and its value increases when paired with an integrated series of services and activities. SPC is adopting the model successfully developed at the University of Miami, where extended entrepreneurship services are housed in and coupled with the work of the Career Center. At SPC the traditional Career Center offers many services to current students in selecting career direction, developing a career plan, and obtaining occupational, industry and labor market data. The traditional Career Center also provides information on how to find employment, develop a resume and prepare for the interview. The role of the new Entrepreneurship/Career Center will be to extend those services and complement and supplement the academic programs by working with students in the entrepreneurship courses and programs to identify mentors, make referrals to community resources, and promote activities, events and host seminar series.

In the next few months, SPC will bring local small business entrepreneurs and representatives from area organizations together in a collaborative lab environment to help develop the Entrepreneurship/Career Center. The group will examine the services of the Center and help develop the structure, activities and partnerships to complement the curriculum to maximize success. The group will also discuss where SPC should look for support and methods of identifying the students who would benefit from participation. This will be a good opportunity to begin an advisory committee for the center.

An advisory committee plays an important role in maintaining and expanding the programs of SPC by assessing how the program meets employer needs; reviewing and making recommendations on the program curriculum; providing input to help prepare students for the workforce and in building community relations.

By expanding the scope of entrepreneurship programs at SPC, we are able to offer a full range of alternative options to our students in earning BAS, AS, certificate and on-demand training using credit and non-credit courses. The proposed entrepreneurship model will be accomplished by a solid foundation of applied skills including developing ideas and creating value by assessing problems and opportunities; gathering funding for a start-up; managing capital and forecasting sales; managing business operations; and the ability to strategically plan, assess risks, and negotiate and balance customer demands.

Our entrepreneurship graduates will serve both new and existing businesses, large and small. As entrepreneurs, they will start and grow new business; and, as intrapreneurs, transform businesses into higher quality and more profitable units though their entrepreneurial thinking. The model will articulate a path of educational opportunities for current and future entrepreneurs from non-credit workshops through a bachelor’s degree. Also, the program will connect students to the community through the Entrepreneurship/Career Center and offer an alternate training program for non-degree seeking students interested in certificates. SPC is excited to forge partnerships with students, entrepreneurs and successful businesses via this connection of academics, business and community. We are very optimistic!

As the U.S. economy beginsnavigating itself out of the most significant economic downturn since the Great Depression, it appears the course set for recovery may be one that demands endurance and requires a significant restructuring of the country’s labor force. With so much emphasis over the last few years on the Labor Department’s figures on unemployment, less attention has been paid to another major factor stifling economic recovery–underemployment.

The underemployed are defined as members of the labor force working part-time, when they would prefer to work full-time, as well as those individuals working below their respective skill level or outside of their area of expertise. The computer engineer working at Starbucks, the laid-off factory worker with two part-time retail jobs, and the registered nurse working as a home-help aide all represent the underemployed class. As a recent Wall Street Journal article pointed out, the effect of the underemployed should not be minimized. With consumer spending making up such a significant part of the nation’s economy, the underemployed, with their lower incomes and higher expenses towards benefits they once received in fulltime positions, simply cannot spend as they once did.

Perhaps as one response of employers to the recession, this class of workers continues to grow as recovery remains stalled. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, since the recession began over two years ago the number of people involuntarily working part-time jobs has more than doubled to 9.3 million. Recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke raised the issue of underemployment in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. Bernanke pointed out that the rate of underemployment is rising at a rate faster than during previous recessions, while the average workweek has dwindled to 33 hours. How to address the under-utilization of labor in this country is an important question, and its answer is directly tied to the future health of the U.S. economy.

A Solution

Entrepreneurship can provide part of the solution to the underemployment problem. Noted author and business thinker Peter Drucker summed it up succinctly, "Entrepreneurs innovate and innovation is a central ingredient to economic growth.” But hasn’t the current economic climate stifled entrepreneurship? Some indicators suggest this premise to be false.

The Kauffman Foundation’s 2009 Index of Entrepreneurial Activity shows a rather steady level for business formation as the recent recession unfolded. In fact, the rate of entrepreneurial activity actually rose, albeit by the small percentage of 0.30 percent, from the previous year. During 2008 this rate translated to 530,000 new businesses every month. Additionally, the Kauffman Foundation found in a recent study that nearly all net job creation in the United States between 1980 and 2005 occurred in firms less than five years old.

Maybe it should come as no surprise that entrepreneurial activity is not dramatically affected during economic downturns. Recessions disrupt the business world’s "status-quo” and change the way businesses operate and prioritize their practices. Often during these times businesses not only shed jobs, but also reduce risk and abandon innovation. A recent Deloitte Consulting survey found in its polling of more than 450 companies that even in the best of times business innovation is lacking, with 31% of surveyed companies responding that innovation happens "by accident” in their company. Contrast this with the fact that, according to the Small Business Administration, small technology companies produce 13 times more patents per employee than large firms.

A Critical Advantage

Simply stated, during both deep recessions and economic boom periods, entrepreneurs are in a unique position to transform ideas into tangible (and hopefully profitable) innovation. Many of the workers classified as underemployed are in a unique position as well. Now, perhaps for the first time in their careers they may seriously examine the possibility of starting their own small business. Using their experience and individual skills they may be able to stabilize their personal financial situations, while playing a significant role in promoting economic growth within their communities.

As recent history shows, businesses founded during weak economic times have been instrumental in the development of many significant innovations on the market today. Companies such as Sun Microsystems, Compaq Computer Co., and Adobe Systems all had their beginnings in the recession of the early 1980s and today stand as examples of entrepreneurs who searched for opportunity, responded to it, and concentrated their efforts on effective innovation.

It should also be noted that one crucial advantage for potential entrepreneurs exists for the unemployed and underemployed of this recession that was not in place 30 years ago– education. Five hundred colleges and universities currently grant entrepreneurship degrees. In today’s economic climate, with reports that over 6 million of the currently unemployed have been searching for gainful employment for six months or longer, these entrepreneurship programs are poised to produce today’s entrepreneurs who will be better prepared to drive tomorrow’s economic growth.

The Entrepreneurship Expert Assist program provides Simmons students with an opportunity to transfer their knowledge and skills to Bunker Hill Community College. The fellows provide direct counseling to entrepreneurs in areas such as opportunity analysis, development of business plan, and use of technology in business. They also develop and deliver training programs for small business owners on topics such as opportunity identification and marketing.

The students are supervised by Simmons Entrepreneurship Director Dr. Teresa Nelson in collaboration with the Dean of Professional Studies at Bunker Hill Community College, Dr. Bogusia Wojciechowska. Dr. Nelson writes: "This is a win-win proposition not just because the Certificate students are compensated for their work, but because giving back is often the best way of learning; becoming the teacher solidifies and strengthens the lessons.”

Dr. Wojciechowska adds: "Collaboration between Simmons and Bunker Hill is mutually beneficial. Simmons students have the opportunity to mentor our students and work as advisors in the Center. Our students not only benefit greatly from their experience, but are encouraged to explore higher degrees.”

Entrepreneur and Author

While we appear to be rebounding from our recent economic downturn, the consensus is we have miles to travel before we reach solid ground. Unemployment remains high, but with rent, mortgages, car notes, and tuition to pay, many are thinking seriously about how they can jumpstart their own economy by starting a business. Even young people-notoriously focused more on getting jobs than creating jobs-are showing interest in writing their own ticket. This has made the community college a powerful hotbed of entrepreneurial economic opportunity.

This exciting movement in the marketplace begs the question: "Are we giving those desperately searching for economic opportunity the best chance at success?” In other words, are the entrepreneurship programs springing up all across the country at community colleges really making the grade? Are we helping or hurting the budding entrepreneur?

Those who study small business at community colleges have always been eager to put their new knowledge to work right away. Most have to. But this environment has placed new demands on community college small business programs. Let’s be frank. Theory won’t cut it. Your students want to know what they learn in the classroom will really work in the real world. And many are doing their own homework, long before the college professor gives an assignment.

I have long been concerned about the quality of entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities because of the realities of teaching something many believe you can’t really teach. The problem is compounded by the resumes of those leading the charge. Most professors have not run their businesses, and many do not want to. And if they have, they are often removed from the day-to-day nuances and developments in the marketplace, meaning they may not be giving the best "stuff” to entrepreneurship students.

Entrepreneurs can really help in the classroom, but many entrepreneurs are unwilling to devote lengthy periods of time teaching aspiring entrepreneurs–particularly in a classroom setting. Most are concerned about how best to use their creative time to make more money and the semester format doesn’t lend itself to the entrepreneur’s ongoing involvement.

With these realities in mind, I thought I would share my view on how you might make entrepreneurship education more real at your institution during this critical time. Here are three tips:

Begin with a "Create A New Life” Plan

Whenever we speak about programs aimed at helping others start their own businesses the first thing we gravitate to is the standard refrain, "Let’s write a business plan.” I would like to suggest this is the wrong place to begin. I believe educators should do a better job of helping entrepreneurs think more about developing their own life plan, which will shape and be influenced by the business. What kind of lifestyle do they want? How do they want to operate? How much time are they prepared to devote to business building? How big do they want to grow? What kind of business culture do they want to have? How will the business change their life? While business plans can be very valuable, they can become so abstract that the new entrepreneur never really understands the implications and opportunities of the new business and how their life is about to change.

Continue with a "Win The Customer” Plan

Until you have a customer, you are not in business. Yet I find many entrepreneurs are more concerned about logos, Web sites, and the latest technology than serving those living, breathing human beings known as customers. I personally think the surge in dismal customer service can be traced back to the absence of a good grounding in what it means to have and keep a customer. I would challenge educators to spend considerable time with new entrepreneurs in helping them understand how to market to and service customers. The new entrepreneur must have a clear sense of who their customers are, how they think and why they would want to take advantage of their product or service. There is absolutely no replacement for in-depth customer knowledge and this is far more meaningful to the typical entrepreneur than what winds up in most business plans.

Develop a "Make Money” Plan

Once you know what you want, and what your customer wants, it’s time to really nail how you’re going to make money satisfying yourself and your customer. So often the answer to this question is buried in a 200-page business plan and the new entrepreneur never really understands how they will make money. I’m suggesting here working with the entrepreneur to develop a one or two pager that the entrepreneur can get their arms around: "If I sell this many of my product here is what we’ll gross. If I sell at this price, here is my margin and here is my profit.” The entrepreneur must have a clear understanding of the results of each transaction. You must also make sure the new entrepreneur understands that in most cases a sale is not the same as cash flow. Not understanding that can be disastrous for the new business owner.

If we help aspiring entrepreneurs understand these key elements, it will go a long way to helping them understand what it takes to succeed in the real world.

André Taylor is an entrepreneur, consultant, and author of the book You Can Still Win! He’s chief executive of Taylor Insight, a New York-based leadership development firm, serving entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies. He’s a regular contributor to ABC News Money Matters, and a community college graduate. More at www.andretaylor.com.

What is entrepreneurship?

What does it mean to be entrepreneurial?

Ask a roomful of NACCE members to agree on a definition of entrepreneurship and you are bound to have a lively and lengthy discussion. But will this definition of entrepreneurship be the same one you’d get if you asked state legislators, business owners, program funders, or traditional and nontraditional college students to hold a similar discussion? Possibly not.

And therein lies the challenge. If NACCE members and their key constituencies do not share a common understanding of what entrepreneurship is, how can we be sure our message about the importance and application of entrepreneurship education at community colleges will be understood by these critical audiences?

NACCE Executive Director Heather Van Sickle, puts it this way: "To provide clarity to members and to the communities our members serve, we are beginning a dialogue seeking to define entrepreneurship and its application in the community college setting.” That’s the task NACCE has set for itself–developing a shared definition of entrepreneurship that members can communicate to their key constituencies. If everyone is using the same "game plan”, then helping others understand the value and scope of entrepreneurship education as it is being practiced on community college campuses nationwide will be easier.

In the Beginning–

Who Is an Entrepreneur?

So let’s start at the beginning. The word "entrepreneur” originated with the French word "entreprendre,” which means "to undertake.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

Joseph Schumpeter, a noted 20th century economist expanded on this when he wrote that an entrepreneur is "an innovator who implements change in an economy by introducing new goods or new methods of production…Schumpeter emphasized the beneficial process of creative destruction, in which the introduction of new products results in the obsolescence or failure of others.”2

In the late 20th century, management guru Peter Drucker differentiated between small business owners and entrepreneurs: "Admittedly, all new small businesses have many factors in common. But to be entrepreneurial, an enterprise has to have special characteristics over and above being new and small. Indeed, entrepreneurs are a minority among new businesses. They create something new, something different; they change or transmute values.”3

"One of my favorite quotes from Drucker is that ‘the purpose of a business is to create a customer,’” says Les Ledger, professor and Sam Walton Fellow of Free Enterprise at Central Texas College in Killeen, TX. "Drucker, in my opinion, is stating that an entrepreneur has to provide a good or service for which the customer has a need. Risk, as well as innovation, is involved in trying to create goods and services for the customer. If the customer sees no value, then there is no exchange of money between the entrepreneur and customer. The customer has to see that the good or service is worth the money that the entrepreneur needs to stay in business.”

"I think NACCE is on to something to want to define entrepreneurship,” says Melissa Crawford, director of the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara, CA. "I find that people use the word ‘entrepreneur’ very loosely–and the general public sometimes mistakenly believes that an entrepreneur is any business owner. I disagree. I believe an entrepreneur invents a new way of accomplishing an old task to make it more efficient, or a way to meet an existing need that hasn’t been met yet. An entrepreneur spends time critically thinking about or analyzing how to fill that gap with a new service or product. An entrepreneur improves the way services and products are delivered.”

From all of this,NACCE’s proposed definition of an entrepreneur is:an individual that develops a new or improved product, service or way of doing things that can exist independent of the creator, and bears the financial responsibility for risks in bringing their development to market.

So what of the oft-used terms entrepreneurship, self-employment, small business owner, entrepreneurial, and intrapreneur? There is a place for those terms in the community college setting as well. Let’s look at where they fit in.

Entrepreneurship

Writing in their report "Entrepreneurship in American Higher Education,” the Kauffman Panel on Entrepreneurship Curriculum in Higher Education defined entrepreneurship as "the transformation of an innovation into a sustainable enterprise that generates value…entrepreneurship merges the visionary and the pragmatic.”4Therefore, the education of entrepreneurship is the exposure to and understanding of the skills, knowledge and process of innovation and new venture creation.

The Babson College definition of entrepreneurship is "a way of thinking and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach, and leadership balanced.” Students in their entrepreneurship program "develop a broad-based entrepreneurial skill relevant to any organization–start-up, established, and for and not-for profit–in an industry.”5

For NACCE’s definition, entrepreneurship involves consistently thinking and acting in ways designed to uncover new opportunities that are then applied to provide value.The scope of this definition is precisely why entrepreneurship education belongs cross-campus and not only in the business department or as one non-credit course. Entrepreneurship provides a lens to view each discipline through and offers an application beyond traditional employment. The real world application of entrepreneurship education will result in: entrepreneurs, the self-employed, small business start-ups, and intrapreneurs.

What all these individuals have in common is that they have an interest in creating something that didn’t exist before in their community or in a broader market. And for those who are not traditional entrepreneurs (i.e., not focused on innovation and market transformation), they will still benefit from learning skills, such as opportunity recognition and capture and how to write a business plan that will attract funding, that are inherent to the traditional definition of entrepreneurship.

"These definitions recognize the broad range of students who turn to community colleges for knowledge that will enable them to add to the economic well-being of their communities either now or in the future,” says Van Sickle.

Self-employed/Small Business Owner

So are self-employed individuals and small business owners entrepreneurs? Based on the above NACCE definition of an entrepreneur, the answer is "no.” They are rather "replicative” entrepreneurs, "those producing or selling a good or service already available through other sources” or whatNACCE will define as the self-employed or small business owners. Notice that they do bear the financial risk for their enterprise which sets them apart from an "intrapreneur” or someone acting in an entrepreneurial way inside a corporation. So they too can benefit greatly from learning the basic skills of entrepreneurship that are being taught on NACCE member campuses. And it may well be that in some cases, learning these skills will prompt the self-employed and small business owners to embrace innovation, either with new products and services or in the processes they use to operate their companies.

Intrapreneur/Entrepreneurial

"Here at Southeast Community College, we have added ‘intrapreneur’ to our definitions to include those that are entrepreneurial in their career, i.e., willing to take a risk in their current position to help the company succeed all while receiving a paycheck,” says Tim Mittan, director of the Entrepreneurship Center at Southeast Community College in Lincoln, NE.

"Intrapreneurs are people working within corporations who approach their work in an entrepreneurial fashion,” says Van Sickle. "Speaking at one of our conferences, Michael Hennessy of the Coleman Foundation noted that in today’s complex and challenging environment, businesses need employees who are entrepreneurial. So while not all students who study entrepreneurship will start their own businesses, their careers as employees, and the businesses they work in, will thrive if they exhibit an entrepreneurial mindset.

In the community college setting, this is where the term "entrepreneurial president” or "culture of entrepreneurship” can be applied. The president, for instance, is not an entrepreneur as defined above, but within the structure of the bureaucratic college, they can act entrepreneurially, trying things that have never been done before. While they have not assumed personal financial risk, they can create something that didn’t exist previously.

The Implications

So what are the implications of delineating the definitions involved with entrepreneurship? For one thing, entrepreneurship can be embraced by the entire institution creating an empowering environment where recognizing and seizing opportunities can help turn around fragile local economies.

"It will require greater cooperation among disciplines and departments,” says Sherry Tshibangu, assistant professor of Business and Economics at Monroe Community College (MCC) in Rochester, NY. "The dominant view on campus may be that an entrepreneur is a business student; however, innovation comes from various disciplines and a strong curriculum will need to draw from multiple resources—inside and outside—the college. We must develop relationships outside the college that will benefit students, for example, with lenders and the local community of entrepreneurs, the self-employed and small business owners.

"Entrepreneurship Across the Curriculum (EAC) must be embraced by the leadership of the college,” adds Tshibangu. "To give students adequate support, it also requires workshop/seminar development of non-credit courses to complement current credit-bearing courses. At MCC, we have Auto Tech students and students in the Massage Therapy program who do not view themselves as "entrepreneurs” even though many expressed an interest in working for themselves. Embracing EAC will be a great benefit to these students, the college and the community.”

"The NACCE definitions challenge us as administrators and faculty to step away from the safety net of the traditional teaching model and become more experiential in our teaching and continued learning,” says Melissa Garcia, area program manager at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, NE. "Entrepreneurs evolve with changes in their environment, and to successfully encourage students to do so, we must practice what we preach—a forwardthinking mindset. For the curriculum, it allows us an opportunity to ingrain it across trades and into liberal arts as an essential 21st century skill.”

"Curriculum must also be created to be delivered via continuing education and into the workforce. The potential entrepreneurial strength of a community lies in the intellectual property that resides in the community,” says Tim Putnam, Director of the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at North Iowa Area Community College, IA.

Regarding the curriculum implications Les Ledger says, "The effort must be collaborative across the campus. No discipline can exist without creating something of value for the consumer, and private enterprise is the machine that delivers the product or service. Every discipline needs to see its part in creating value for the consumer in America and more especially for the consumers of the world market. Disciplines need to show the student how that discipline will help the student gain a job, become an entrepreneur, and produce new, better goods or make the price cheaper.”

"We welcome members to share their views on these definitions and their implications,” says Van Sickle. "We’ve set up a blog on the NACCE Web site to continue this important discussion.”

Join the Conversation!

As we evolve the NACCE definition of entrepreneurship, we’d appreciate your thoughts on these questions:

• Do you agree/disagree with
  NACCE’s definitions of
  entrepreneurship?
• What are the implications of these definitions for community college administrators and for faculty? For the curriculum?
• How are community colleges going to innovate to provide an educational experience that serves these definitions of entrepreneurship?

Please visit www.cceship.blogspot.com to share your ideas.

References

1.Russell S. Sobel, "Entrepreneurship,” Concise Encyclopedia of Economics,http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Entrepreneurship.html

2. Ibid, Sobel.

3. Peter Drucker, "Systematic Entrepreneurship,”http://www.smarterhomebusiness.com/entrepreneurship

4. "Entrepreneurship in American Higher Education, Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2008, p. 5.

5. Babson Web site:http://www3.babson.edu/Offices/ug_ccd/Entrepreneurship.cfm.

6. William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan, and Carl J. Schramm, Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2007 p. 3