By André Taylor, Entrepreneur and Author

Howard Community College, Howard County, MD

Howard Community College (HCC) has just completed a four-year Technology Assessment Program (TAP), initiated under an NSF-sponsored Partnership for Innovation Grant. TAP addresses the need to better prepare students for the workplace and increased global competition through an experiential learning opportunity centered on "innovation” as part of the college's entrepreneurial program. The entrepreneurship program itself was initiated as a result of recommendations made by HCC's Commission of the Future, a team comprised of community and business leaders.

Under TAP, students increase their knowledge about innovation and add unique skills – whether in high school, college, or as workers looking to enhance job skills or start a new business. The program has an added value: assisting in the transfer of U.S. government innovations to current or new businesses and creating new jobs and products. HCC's partners included: the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS), the Howard County Economic Development Authority, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS), the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Harford Community College and Frederick Community College.

The Program

The centerpiece of TAP is the course "Taking Innovation to Market,” now an A.A.S. degree program elective in Entrepreneurship and other courses of study at HCC. The curriculum is designed to teach teamwork, critical thinking and decision-making skills through experiential learning coursework. Teams of high school, community college and continuing education students are guided by faculty, mentors, subject matter experts and inventors to evaluate a new U.S. Government innovation. Each semester, projects are selected to provide variety in type, likelihood of marketability, and new business opportunity. Student teams are assigned one of several innovations and asked to analyze the potential for commercialization (technology transfer) and new business formation.

The course uses the technology transfer cycle as the instructional platform and is taught as a three-hour evening session. The first half of the session is devoted to lecture, team activities and skill building centered on one of the cycle's components (e.g., intellectual property). The second half of each class is devoted to the team assessment project as it relates to that instructional component.

Students are instructed in the basics of a wide range of topics, such as: innovation drivers, disruptive technology, patents, the 4 Ps of marketing, valuation, licensing and business incubators. Multi-layer instruction enriches the learning experience, with film clips, activities, and real-life stories adding to student comprehension. Subject matter experts and mentors (assigned to each team) add varied perspectives for the students.

At the end of the course, students participate in HCC's Entrepreneurial Celebration, a public event where teams present their findings and recommendations to a panel of judges and an audience of business owners, entrepreneurs, researchers, technology transfer experts, and venture capitalists. Student technology assessment reports and the presentation materials are submitted to the partner laboratories to provide independent feedback and to assist the technology transfer offices to move innovations to businesses and facilitate new start-ups.

Results and Impact

The course "Taking Innovation to Market” enrolled 143 students (2006-2009), 75 percent of them high school juniors and seniors, and had a significantly diversified student population in gender, ethnicity, and age (ages 17 – 60). So far, the products of the grant include: 25 U.S. government innovation assessments; three new businesses started; one new product on the market, and two in development. Two of the new companies were founded by former students, and a regional entrepreneur founded a third. "Choice Batter®,” the first product of TAP start-up company, CrispTek, won the 2010 Best New Product Award at the 5th annual Maryland Bioscience Awards and is now carried in over 400 grocery stores in the US.

The resulting start-up companies have "added to the mix” of TAP's collaborations, with businesses and local entrepreneurs becoming fully engaged in the program. For example:

• Local law firms have provided pro bono business startup services;
• The Maryland Technology and Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO) has provided $75,000 in commercialization grant funding to each of the two new businesses started from USDA innovations;
• The county's NeoTech Business Incubator has accepted two TAP companies as residents; and
• SCORE counselors have provided guidance to company entrepreneurs.

In partnership with the Howard County Public School System, high school students use the course to complete high school requirements and receive college credit. Most of the students come from the county's Career Academies of Finance and Business. It was anticipated that the inclusion of high schools students in this endeavor would instigate involvement and interest of younger people in innovation and entrepreneurship in general. To measure the impact, a Student Interest Survey was implemented, pre and post course, to determine student career interests in nine different career areas. Pre/post survey results showed eight of the career areas had marginal increases or decreases in student interest. However, student career interest in entrepreneurship showed a significant pre-post survey increase, with 83 percent of the students expressing a high or very high degree of interest.

TAP also developed a course entitled "Young Inventors at Work” directed towards elementary and middle school students age 10-14. This week-long summer experience was intended to increase interest in innovation by providing students with activities that stimulate creativity. The program, taught by elementary and middle school teachers with assistance from HCC staff, has attracted a very diverse student population totaling 80 students.

During the fourth year of the program, the Technology Assessment Program Model, and related Course "Taking Innovation to Market” was documented and disseminated to new two partner institutions: Harford and Frederick Community Colleges. TAP provided training sessions for the college's instructors and the course was successfully run at both colleges.

The TAP program is now self-supporting at HCC through tuition, program fees and community sponsorships. The course "Taking Innovation to Market” and the "Young Innovators at Work” summer program continue to attract a diverse student population. TAP partnerships are strong, adding to the sustainability of the program; 31 individuals have already volunteered as mentors, subject matter experts, invited lecturers, instructors and judges. Local businesses and individuals provide sponsorship funding for HCC's capstone event and net revenue from the summer program is used to offer partial scholarships for the credit course. High school students and teachers are engaged; and the laboratories, community and the public are benefiting from the program. Finally, the USDA/ARS Office of Technology Transfer has cited TAP as a model for partnerships between education, government and economic development entities.

The Technology Assessment Program was funded by the National Science Foundation, Partnerships for Innovation Grant # 053875.

Professor & Department Chair, Entrepreneurship
Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS

Identifying growth strategies that work for our entrepreneurship programming at Johnson County Community College has been a hallmark of the faculty team for many years. We have always believed that our innovation in the development of courses, certificates and programs is a prerequisite for driving the innovation of our students. As a result of today's economic and political climate, we recognize that the student profile coming to our community colleges and to our entrepreneurship courses and programs is changing. As our student profile evolves, so must our course, certificate and program offerings evolve to meet their needs.

Let's look at this evolving entrepreneurship student profile. As a faculty team, we asked ourselves "Who are today's entrepreneurship students? Are the student profiles changing and, if so, how? What components of our product offerings appeal to this student profile?” One of the first observations is that a single student can fit into multiple student profiles. We are certain you will find this to be true on your campuses as well. In no particular order, here are our top ten student profiles today:

1. Just out of high school – the aspiring entrepreneur.This student group is primarily attracted to our Associate of Applied Science Entrepreneurship degree program (64 credit hours). Some of these students have participated in entrepreneurship programming during their high school years. Others simply have a mindset driving them to "make” a job, not "take” a job. For some, their motivations have been molded by distrust or disappointment in large corporations. Others seem to always have understood that they will "be their own boss.”

2. Dual enrollees – students who are enrolled in high school and college concurrently or enrolled in multiple colleges concurrently. This is a growing category of our student population. For those still completing high school coursework, they are taking advantage of the "extra” time in their senior year (perhaps motivated by their parents!). In greater numbers, however, we are serving students who are creating the collection of coursework they feel they need from multiple institutions in the area. Those who have an "intent to graduate” plan to simply transfer credits to the institution from which they plan to graduate. Others are more interested in acquiring knowledge in areas they find relevant to their needs and goals and amassing the credits that result from their choices. For them, seeking knowledge is more important than seeking a degree or certificate.

3. Completers of associate's, bachelor's and/or graduate degrees but not finding acceptable employment opportunities – they have now decided they need to "make” a job, not "take” a job.Recent Kauffman Foundation research indicates that today 70 percent of college seniors want to start their own businesses. For some of these students, entrepreneurship has been introduced to them along their academic journey as a "career choice.” For others, the current economy has made them realize that entrepreneurship may be a "career imperative.” This student group is attracted to two of our certificate offerings: the Entrepreneurship Vocational Certificate program (30 credit hours) and the Business Plan Certificate (7 credit hours). Students attracted to the Entrepreneurship Vocational Certificate generally have non-business related degrees; this certificate contains both business and entrepreneurship courses but does not contain any general education courses. Students attracted to the Business Plan Certificate generally have business coursework in their academic background but none specifically related to entrepreneurship.

4. Employed in the corporate world in a position described as "intrapreneurial” but not finding acceptable recognition or appreciation for their skills and talents.These students seem to possess an entrepreneurial mindset and, as a result of their "intrapreneurship,” now have increased experience, and often, better financial standing to launch their own business venture. This student group seems to be attracted to the Business Plan Certificate or merely select an Entrepreneurship course or courses that address their perceived need.

5. Employed in the corporate world but not finding self-gratification.While employed, this student group is dissatisfied and seeking entrepreneurship curriculum to identify if self-employment is the more correct career direction for them. The majority of these students have family and financial commitments. Some have previous academic credentials beyond high school while others do not. Their focus is on finding a "reinvention” route for the balance of their working years. For some, the reinvention answer is entrepreneurship; for others, redefining their role within a corporate structure is more appropriate. As the student group profiled above, this group seems to be attracted to the Business Plan Certificate or merely selecting an Entrepreneurship course or courses that address their perceived need.

6. Displaced workers and/or soon-to-be displaced workers looking to "re-invent” themselves.Some of these persons are unemployed while others are employed but consider themselves under-employed. These students have often spent significant years in the employment of others and have generally never considered entrepreneurship as a career direction. If this student's mindset about entrepreneurship and their career "re-invention” is a positive one, they bring great experience and value to the classroom. Assuming the student has allowed appropriate time to study and develop their "re-invention” this student audience can be highly successful. We market the Business Plan Certificate (7 credit hours) to this specific audience. Some students in this category also take the Franchising course. Additionally, we are researching the potential of serving this audience with coursework that will lead them to "re-inventing” themselves as independent contractors for direct sales companies.

7. Retired persons seeking to un-retire (often referred to as the "multiple retiree”). Some of these persons took "early” retirement packages and some retired at what seemed to be the appropriate time but, common to all, they now wish to un-retire. For some, they have become bored in retirement. For others, their financial status has plummeted or has not held up to their expectations. Members of this group are commonly early Baby Boomers. They are generally not interested in "taking” another job as their next life chapter, but rather to re-invent themselves through entrepreneurship or "boomerpreneurship.” As the group above, the Business Plan Certificate (7 credit hours) is interesting to them as well as other Entrepreneurship specialty courses (i.e. Franchising).

8. Family members living in a household operating a family business and/or students wishing to start, grow or sustain a family business. While following in a parentor other relative's footsteps has not been particularly popular among previous student audiences, we are finding an increased interest among family members in growing and sustaining existing family businesses. Younger students who are family members and even working within the family business are more interested than in previous years in expanding their role and contribution to these existing family businesses. Students of all ages who have not personally experienced a family business are more likely to think of their entrepreneurial business idea as a means of livelihood for not just themselves but for future generations of family members as well. Younger students who are members of a household operating a family business are gravitating to our AAS Entrepreneurship degree program. Older students who are members of a household operating a family business are interested in the Family Business course and other specialty courses that they have identified as a subject area from which they can make a difference for that family business.

9. Students who have mastered a skill or are studying to master that skill but have no business acumen.As at many community colleges, students are motivated to pursue academic accomplishments based on their passion for a specific skill. Since 2005, JCCC's Entrepreneurship program has demonstrated its ability to weave entrepreneurship throughout the institution via the program-specific entrepreneurship certificates. Developed in partnership with department chair colleagues across campus, these certificates provide an additional graduation option for students in skill-based programs who wish to deliver that skill in an entrepreneurial business venture.

10. Returning Veterans who are in need of "re-inventing” themselves after their military service is complete.These students are most often coming to our entrepreneurship courses via another career programs on campus, i.e. automotive, hospitality, interior design, etc. Their interest is first in the skill program. As their interest and skills grow, the reality of how they are going to apply that skill in the workplace becomes of interest to this student. At that time, this student profile may decide to pursue graduation in one of the program-specific entrepreneurship certificates or to add the 7-credit hour Business Plan Certificate to their academic studies.

At JCCC, we feel that entrepreneurship education is not just an educational luxury or "extra.” We feel it is mandatory for our community and America's future growth and prosperity. Therefore, we must always review and analyze the student profiles/populations that are participating in our entrepreneurship education initiatives with the intent of evolving our content to their needs.

As I am occasionally asked if our efforts in entrepreneurship education at JCCC have yielded positive results, I will close by sharing a current statistic: Student credit hour enrollment in Entrepreneurship at JCCC as reported for Academic Year 2009-2010 vs. Academic Year 2005-2006 represented an increase of +53.9 percent over the five-year reporting period. During the same reporting time period, the college total represented an increase of +15.6 percent.

Hillsborough Community College, Plant City Campus, Plant City, FL

Over this past year it has been an honor for our Editorial Board to contribute to the NACCE journal. Our Campus Editorial Board is comprised of a small group of administrators and staff members from Hillsborough Community College's Plant City Campus. Our foray into writing for the NACCE journal coincided with the roll out of our own college's Certificate in Business Development and Entrepreneurship. The timing could not have been more beneficial.

Just as an individual who desires to start their own business identifies an unmet need and assesses the condition of the market around them before embarking on the entrepreneurial journey, we were given the opportunity to explore the entrepreneurial landscape, its relationship with community colleges, and the communities served by those colleges. By doing so, we discovered the impact entrepreneurs and small businesses have on the economy and the opportunities they possess for supporting economic recovery through innovation and job creation. During this time we also came to appreciate how truly engaging this immersive, career-development experience of writing for NACCE and other publications was. We firmly believe that the opportunity NACCE has given us to write in its journal will not only make us stronger individual leaders at our institution, but will serve to better our Small Business and Entrepreneurship Program as it continues to grow.

In a previous article published in this journal we went to great lengths detailing the often overlooked phenomena of underemployment, its effects on the U.S. economy as we begin to rebound from this great recession, and the role entrepreneurship can play in combating the pervasive problem of underemployment. As educators in a state currently battling one of the highest unemployment rates in the country – 12.0% for November 2010 – and a significant underemployment rate as well, researching and writing this article with the assistance of valuable data from the Kauffman Foundation further solidified our belief that a Small Business and Entrepreneurship Program would be beneficial not only for current students and displaced workers, but also for incumbent workers holding jobs outside their area of expertise. These individuals could gain the skills necessary to start their own businesses and re-enter the workforce in a career field in which they already possess a significant amount of experience or education, only this time as business owners with the high probability of adding jobs to the workforce down the road.

Researching the tremendous impact that new entrepreneurial activity has on the U.S. workforce was the topic of another article submitted by our Editorial Board this past year. Thanks to the resources and data available through NACCE and Kauffman, we learned that calling new business start-up firms the "driving force” behind our economy was no overstatement or exaggeration. In fact we learned that if history is any indicator, then it will be new business start-ups that drive the economic growth in this country and contribute most significantly to gains in workforce numbers. Kauffman's study, relying on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, supports this lesson from history; between 1977 and 2005 new business start-ups added an average of 3 million jobs to the economy annually.

Often throughout the year the information and insight we gained by writing this column on broad, nationwide issues had a direct correlation with events our Editorial Board observed on a local level in Plant City, FL. One such example, the business clustering effect that many entrepreneurs take advantage of by locating their businesses near competitors, suppliers, and support services, is present in the Plant City area. A number of agri-business associations have been attracted to this area and have made this small Florida city their headquarters. By researching and writing about entrepreneurial activity across the country our group gained a higher level of appreciation for the entrepreneurs in our own backyard and began to discuss how we could leverage the resources available within our community to enhance our own program.

As the year progressed, we enrolled between 17 and 18 students in our first offerings of four courses in our Entrepreneurship program. However, all these initial students declared a goal of going to work for a medium or large corporation, instead of starting their own business. We will continue to seek new program ideas from NACCE to tailor the identity of our program to make it, truly, a small business and entrepreneurship program.

Our efforts culminated this past October when we had the privilege to present at the 8th Annual NACCE Conference held in Orlando. Our session presented our strategy for promoting entrepreneurship and enhancing professional and program development through our Editorial Board. We attribute a significant amount of the success of our writing to NACCE itself. NACCE has been an innovative leader for community colleges in the area of entrepreneurship offering a wealth of information and support.

By Cem Erdem, Founder, President and CEO
Augusoft, Inc.

In my first month after moving to Minnesota from my native country of Turkey in 1994, I decided to start my own Internet company. After filling out the necessary paperwork and paying the clerk $135 in cash (I was so new I didn't have a checking account, credit card, driver's license or even a Social Security number) I was the CEO of my own company. I couldn't believe it. Sitting on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol, I remember thinking this has to be the greatest country in the world!

However, as I soon found out, there were many challenges ahead. English was my second language; I had no experience or resources; I didn't know much about the culture, etiquette or having my own business; I didn't even know how or where to go to ask for help. Forget about raising money; even the capitalist system was new for me.

Promoting an Internet business in 1994 was challenging. When I called people to ask if they were on the Internet, the typical response was, "No. We're in Downtown.” To promote my business I published a black and white postcard and put them in coffee shops and the skyway system in downtown Minneapolis. I put them in the skyways because I saw people in suits walking through there and thought, "That's where the money is.” Alas, many of these people in suits were lawyers, accountants, and bankers, not necessarily early adopters of technology. In my first year I made a total of $4,300.

Today, the company I started 16 years ago serves hundreds of schools throughout the country. Over two million students have registered for classes through our software, and we have processed over $400 million in transactions.

I am proud to say I'm living my American Dream. But I'm not done. I keep dreaming. I keep thinking about other entrepreneurs like me running around in skyways with black and white postcards trying to promote their businesses because they don't know what else to do or how to ask for help.

I want to help other entrepreneurs do what I was able to accomplish with my company…but faster, better and more efficiently. I want to help entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses. That is why I have started Project Skyway, a tech accelerator program to help entrepreneurs connect with other entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and resources.

There is a myth that innovation comes primarily from the profit motive and from the competitive pressures of a market society. Innovation doesn't come just from giving people monetary incentives. It comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect. Innovation comes from passionate and connected groups of people.

Making Connections

Project Skyway (www.projectskyway.com) is much like the concept of open source software development, where people get energy from collaborating. We are not only connecting entrepreneurs with business leaders, mentors, advisors, and investors, but we are also connecting entrepreneurs with each other and being open about our process. All entrepreneurs starting businesses hit many walls at the beginning. This is why it is important for entrepreneurs to have access to mentors, as well as a community of entrepreneurs, to help them when they hit a wall.

Also, I do not believe that successful entrepreneurs only come from schools such as Stanford, Harvard, or MIT. I was attending a community college trying to learn and adapt to my new country while working at multiple jobs and trying to build my company. If we believe that a good entrepreneur is someone driven, with passion and persistence, let me tell you, our community colleges are full of these people.

That is why I am reaching out to members of NACCE to share my vision and ask for your help in connecting our future entrepreneurs with Project Skyway. We will be partnering with schools to create regional innovation centers where students can try out their business ideas in an environment where there are connections to entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors. There may also be an opportunity for your school to receive grant money through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Program (TAACCCT) being administrated by the Department of Labor by participating in Project Skyway.

The first Project Skyway class will start in August 2011 in the innovation center we are creating in Minneapolis. Registration begins in April.

Please let your entrepreneurial students know that there is a place that will help them accelerate the growth of their new businesses. For more information about Project Skyway, please visit our Web site at www.projectskyway.com, or email us at join@projectskyway.com.

By Tony Fontes

Assistant Professor, Professional Studies, Business Administration
Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA

In celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, Bunker Hill Community College's Center for Entrepreneurship, funded in part by a grant from the Coleman Foundation, collaborated on a program to help educate local high school students on the value of entrepreneurship and how the notion of entrepreneurship truly spreads across all disciplines.

Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) hosted four area high schools which included over 120 students on site to attend a symposium on Entrepreneurship entitled: "Entrepreneurship Across the Curriculum - A Celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week.”

The goal of this event was to expose high school students to entrepreneurship, not only as a stand-alone discipline, but also to illustrate how attaining skills in entrepreneurship could be used in other areas such as hospitality, travel and event management, gaming technology and visual media arts.

This was presented by a unique and interesting approach that entailed the theory of opening a small business, namely, a lemonade stand. As many students may have opened a lemonade stand as their earliest entrepreneurial venture, this was a natural illustration to use in terms of demonstrating not only entrepreneurial skills, but how it translates to other areas of study.

The stage was set with an actual lemonade stand and other props. The scenarios were set into five skits, with two "actors' (student volunteers) for each individual skit.

Scene I described our entrepreneur, Julie, who recently graduated from BHCC with a degree in Culinary Arts. She opened a lemonade stand because she created a unique blend of organic lemonade that was unlike any other. Her lemonade was exceptional, a product of her studies at BHCC. However, her grand opening was short lived, as she ran into several issues including calling her business Starbucks Lemonade, and failing to secure several licenses to run her business. Julie decided to go back to Bunker Hill to take a course in business law, as she was now the recipient of a lawsuit.

Scene II opened with Julie returning to her business, now called "Julie's Organic Lemonade.” She learned how to trademark her name for future protection. But Julie's troubles continue as her business is slow and not prospering. She blames the recession as a possible cause, but her friend aptly notes that she has no marketing plan, which may be more of the issue. Julie then heads back to Bunker Hill to take courses in Retailing and Marketing.

In Scene III, Julie reports that she now has a fully executed marketing plan which she learned at BHCC. Sales are up and she begins to get encouraged…with one apprehension – despite a brisk business, she is not making any money. Julie realizes that her production costs are too high and she is losing $5 for every pitcher of lemonade she is selling. Julie decides to again return to Bunker Hill to take courses in Financial Management and Accounting to figure out how to make money at her business.

In Scene IV, Julie displays some cautious optimism. Sales are up 20 percent, and she now knows her breakeven costs and has produced sales forecasts. Despite her success, she realizes that there is so much more to her business than she originally imagined. She learned her craft through attainment of her Culinary Arts degree, but she's decided to go back to Bunker Hill to get a certificate in Culinary Entrepreneurship. She figures not only will she know how to make the best lemonade, she'll also know how to run a business and do it successfully and profitably.

In the final scene, Julie runs into her friend and provides an update. Julie is proud to report that she now has six franchised locations, and has a distributorship established with the local grocery store chain. Through her studies, she's learned that to open your own business, you need the skills to create and manage your product or service, in her case, lemonade, but equally, she also needs to have the business knowledge to put those skills into action, and that you really can't have one without the other.

What seemed to be most impactful was the mode of delivery of the entrepreneurial message via the Lemonade Stand. Using this varied pedagogy not only proved the point, but did so in a fun, unique and participatory way. Each student's involvement made a big impression and provided great entertainment. As various students read their scripts and acted out each scene, the theory of complementing any specific discipline with entrepreneurial studies was solidly delivered. Ultimately, each student left with an appreciation of entrepreneurship and the value that entrepreneurial studies can provide. Following the presentation, break out seminars in Business, Computer Media Technology, Hospitality, Travel & Event Management, and Visual Media Arts were held to reinforce the message of how entrepreneurial studies can be spread across the curriculum.

Marketing on a Shoestring Part Four:
The Power of The Press Release (and Best Practices For Alternative Promoting

By Melissa Moreno
Director of the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA

How much is a press release worth? Try $25,000. All the beneficial talk about social media marketing might have lulled you into a false sense of security. You are, after all, tweeting, blogging, and Facebooking galore, reaching a potential global audience with all the new viral marketing techniques. But if you abandon traditional media (print, radio, TV), you may cut yourself off from potentially significant resources and businesses still loyal to established and time-honored news outlets. Here's a case in point:

For our first annual New Venture Challenge, to be held on May 13, 2011, our goal is to raise $15,000 in awards funds. We decided on a two-tier competition, one for local high school students, and the other for our college students. We felt that inviting high school students on campus to interact with college students would create an entrepreneurial pathway from high school to college, and promote youth entrepreneurship in the community – a nice hook for many potential sponsors.

We built a New Venture Challenge Web site, announced it on Facebook and tweeted and blogged about it. We needed to create momentum and raise quite a bit of funding for the awards. We also sent an early press release announcing the event; one sentence indicated that sponsorship opportunities were still available.

The release was picked up by our local online newspaper and read by a founder of a newly established local bank. The bank was looking for an opportunity to connect in the community, and promoting youth entrepreneurship and college scholarships fit squarely within their mission. We had a meeting, and I walked away with a $25,000 commitment, that is $5,000 each year for five years for the high school student awards, in the form of college scholarships.

The lesson is that embracing social media is important, but traditional marketing remains important.

Alternative Promoting

In this series on Marketing on a Shoestring, we've discussed powerful but low-cost ways to market your program or center, from social media to creating events and now traditional print. What other promotional activities can help you get the word out?

• Be active in your local community.When you venture into the community, wear your marketing hat and bring promotional materials and business cards along. As director of our center, I have been invited to speak at Rotary clubs and women's groups, and have joined local entrepreneurial organizations and boards. I also attend as many entrepreneurial events in the business community as I can such as chamber events, executive roundtable events, and young entrepreneur events. In addition, high schools have career days but most do not have "entrepreneurship” on their list of topics. I have been proactive in promoting entrepreneurship as a viable career choice at both the high school level and in our own career center.
• Be active in your regional and national community.Offer to be a guest columnist for a national journal, or write entrepreneurship papers for publication to help get your program noticed. Attending conferences can be a boost to your program as there are usually excellent marketing "take-aways” and best practices. Look for events your state hosts in the area of economic development and attend one or two a year. Get to know state officials who support and promote entrepreneurship.
• Visit with your "competitors.”If your community is anything like mine, there are several organizations or colleges developing entrepreneurial centers, events and educational programs. If you view these organizations as competitors, you could end up ostracized from the entrepreneurial community and labeled as the folks who don't play nice. We prefer to work with other organizations rather than fight for territory. Our position is extremely non-competitive, open and collaborative – and it is paying off.

I visit with two-year and four-year colleges in and around our region and keep abreast of their programs. I visit with all the local organizations and sometimes table at their events. I emphasize our goal is to provide low-cost education to our target market: students. This usually brings down barriers to discussing collaboration and opens opportunities for support. And sometimes things pan out. For example, one nearby community college received a large state grant for an entrepreneurship center. After our visit, the director offered to bring the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour to our college and pay for it!

Promoting your program is no simple, one-time task. The good news is you can do a lot with a very small budget. Marketing relates to everything you do in your educational program, on campus and when you venture into the community. Remember these essentials:

(1) Create a brand and apply it to everything you do;

(2) Embrace the top forms of social media to build awareness (but not at the expense of traditional media – such as press releases);

(3) Develop a few key events to complement activities in your existing entrepreneurial community; and

(4) Wear your marketing hat wherever you go and whatever you do!

Thirty-five of Central Piedmont Community College's most creative minds were assembled last fall by college president, Dr. Tony Zeiss. The objective was to find new and innovative ways to generate revenue and reduce spending. This task would be a challenge under ordinary circumstances and even more so in a struggling economy. With looming state and local budget cuts and a 26.5 percent increase in enrollment over the past three years, the college is attempting to capture the creativity of its faculty and staff to help find new ways to raise institutional revenues to continue to respond to the growing educational and job training needs of the Charlotte region.

The group, appointed by Dr. Zeiss, is formally known as the President's Entrepreneurial Team (PET). The team gathers several times per year for sessions to present and discuss new ideas. Subgroups meet throughout the year to further explore the most promising ideas, develop action plans, and submit projects to the College Cabinet for approval and implementation. The PET provides a unique forum which fosters creativity, embodies the CPCC's entrepreneurial spirit, and forges relationships and collaborations between different units of the college.

At the most recent fall meeting, more than 40 cost-saving and revenue-generating ideas were presented by team members. Serious and lively discussion ensued as members voted on their top picks for potential new revenue-enhancing projects. A myriad of ideas ranging from green initiatives, to streamlining services, to creative advertising options were hot topics. The meeting was stimulating and provided a wonderful opportunity for collaboration among staff representing each of CPCC's six campuses, and it has helped to underscore a college case value of entrepreneurialism. As a result of the meeting, 10 ideas were selected for additional study; small committees of team members will examine the feasibility of these ideas and will report back to PET in early 2011.

"Experience Entrepreneurship" Held at Westchester Community College

The Institute for Entrepreneurial Studiesat Westchester Community College, in Valhalla, NY, hosted "Experience Entrepreneurship,” its first campus event at WCC, during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010. The IES was launched in August 2010 to promote entrepreneurship at Westchester Community College and in the community through WCC's new Gateway center. The IES partnered with WCC's Entrepreneurship & Networking Club, the Professional Development Center and the English Language Institute to introduce entrepreneurship to students, faculty and staff with several events:

• Ten9eight, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) National Business Plan Competition video, was viewed during the week as credit and non-credit students, and faculty attended, either individually or by class. The video was also shown to various English Language Institute classes, followed by discussions of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.
• The Entrepreneurship & Networking Club hosted Speed Networking at the student center. Club members delivered ‘elevator pitches' during the event, in which faculty, students and staff participated.
• The Professional Development Center provided three entertaining entrepreneurs for a panel discussion during the Young Entrepreneurs Forum.

The events achieved several key campus-oriented goals: engage students and faculty in entrepreneurship; build awareness of the institute for entrepreneurial studies and entrepreneurship; attract new members to the Entrepreneurship & Networking Club; and discover new opportunities for building a campus-wide Entrepreneurial Studies program.

Rock Valley College Launches Entrepreneurial Program

Rock Valley Collegein Rockford, IL, has begun moving forward with an entrepreneurial program. The initial phase of this process finished last spring with the development of a new degree option in Entrepreneurship. Certificate options are available for students with degrees or students who are seeking the tools for opening a new business. The Business Department intends to extensively market this program campus and community wide to insure the widest possible audience and dispel the perception that entrepreneurship is for business students only.

Rock Valley College is collaborating with the Rockford Area Economic Development Council and the Rock River Valley Entrepreneurship Center to enhance the exposure of the credit program opportunities. The collaboration includes incubator capabilities, interactions with various governmental agencies, such as the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce. The strength of these existing entities with the addition of the academic approach creates significant opportunities for the community that will return economic benefits in a variety of different venues.

Among the many objectives of this new program is the ability to strengthen awareness of entrepreneurial activities and value to secondary students. The ultimate achievement in this regard will be the retention of the brightest and best individuals, who will rebuild the local economy versus losing this core of individuals to other areas.

One activity that assists in accomplishing this objective is an annual entrepreneurial summer camp operated in conjunction with the Rockford School District. This event introduces participants to entrepreneurship at the beginner level while creating awareness of the opportunities available in education and implementation of business concepts in our local communities.

Additional opportunities exist in local Fast Pitch Competitions and throughout the entrepreneurial network in the surrounding counties. Finally, Rock Valley College supports a local SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) chapter, and the program will collaborate with this organization in many different aspects.

Frazee Incubator Opens at M State

Minnesota State Community and Technical College's(M State) Business & Entrepreneurial Services opened business incubator offices in Frazee, MN, in December in cooperation with Frazee's Economic Development Authority (EDA). The Business & Entrepreneurial Services (BES) has been collaborating with area communities on helping grow businesses in the region for the past two years. Frazee's EDA and BES worked on this collaboration over a six-month period after reviewing the current incubator model in Detroit Lakes located on the campus of M State.

"The Frazee EDA is excited to be one of the first to help facilitate this opportunity,” says Jonathan Smith, administrator, City of Frazee. "We feel this will be a vital part of enhancing everything Frazee has to offer and brings a new dimension to our downtown. We are excited to partner with M State's BES and look forward to great results.”

The business incubator is housed in a building purchased by the Frazee EDA, which has partnered with M State's BES to manage and provide the infrastructure needed. The incubator offers multi-use traditional office space, retail space and industrial space for new to nearly new businesses to lease and grow their businesses or explore ideas and inventions. In addition to office space, incubation tenants receive support services including copy/fax/printing networks, a conference room with Skype capabilities and conference calling, a reception area, and limited administrative support. Business counseling, training and education are also offered for tenants

Developed by the Kauffman Foundation, PEV gives step-by-step instructions on developing a business plan for starting and managing a small business. According to Fred Gebarowski, Wake Tech's director of Entrepreneurship, the business plan Angel developed as a result of his participation in the course was the best he'd ever seen. "It was so good that I was hard pressed to ask any questions about it,” says Gebarowski.

"The course was phenomenal to me in that it gave me a lot of the concepts but also invaluable tools,” says Angel. "Kauffman provided a template that really helped me build out the plan. The financials were the same way; we had very in-depth financials because we had to show the investors what they were going to get. My business partner, Alan Fluke, sent the plan around to contacts he has nationally and everyone said it was a great business plan.”

After finishing the PEV course, Angel spent 12 months writing his business plan. "The message here is that rarely does someone have their business plan finished at the end of the course,” says Gebarowski. "It actually took Chris 12 months to get all the information he needed, to touch all the bases and do all the research. But the course gives you the tools and the knowledge to put the business plan together.”

After seeing the business plan Kane Realty Corporation, developer of North Hills, a multi-use district that has revived Raleigh's mid-town district, agreed to provide $1 million in tenant allowances. Then, using an investor forum, Angel and his partner raised the additional monies they needed to launch their first location, which they envision as the flagship of what will soon become a chain of Sparians. Each location will have approximately 100 employees, including six to eight full-timers, generating lots of employment opportunities.

Support at Home

Angel credits his wife with finally getting him on the entrepreneurial path. He worked in sales and marketing for global software companies for 15 years but had long desired to have his own business. "The challenge was that I was in a very lucrative profession; leaving a job with a six-figure salary plus commission is difficult,” he says. "But I had this desire to be an entrepreneur and I'd always talked about it with my wife. Then about two and a half years ago, she looked at me and said, ‘You talk about it all the time; when are you going to do it?' And it hit me between the eyes that I needed to take practical steps. We had a discussion about what this is what it would take as a family and she agreed to do this.

"When I first went to the first class, the room was packed, but by the third or fourth class you see people whittle down,” says Angel. "So many people have a great idea and then they realize it's going to be a lot more work than they anticipated. You really have to have that dedication.”

"One of the greater values in the front end in the course is that it gets people to think about whether they're cut out to be an entrepreneur,” says Gebarowski. "Then the next part gets into the feasibility of the business idea – is it something that someone is going to pay you to do and that you can make enough money to meet your personal goals? Initially when we started running the program, we were full with 24 students and then by the end of the session there would be 10 to 12 people. I realized I was doing a service by helping people find out they weren't cut out to be an entrepreneur or their concept couldn't be turned into an idea that could make money. The course helps you be introspective in the beginning to make good decisions.”

As for Angel, he has no doubt that he made a good decision. "I just wish I'd done it sooner!” he says.