BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The Business and Entrepreneurship program has three objectives that are vital for students learning how to build, manage, and grow a business. These objectives are:
One: Demystify the World of Business
Starting a business can feel overwhelming, especially if you've never done it before. New concepts and jargon bombard the new entrepreneur from all sides, and it can be hard to decode what it all means. Our goal is to lay out the relevant principles in an easily accessible format, so the subject doesn't feel so intimidating.
We try and give students everything they need to know about idea generation, product iteration, business entities, taxes, branding, marketing, and finances to be successful. There's never a guarantee that a business will succeed, but we want to give students as much as we can to make success as likely as possible.
Two: Help Students Develop an Owner's Mentality
Entrepreneurship is not just about what you do to make money, it's also about who you become as a person. Becoming an owner involves a set of ideals and mindsets that are fundamental to succeeding in business. Mindsets and ideals that help students push past discouragement, imposter syndrome, and failure. These mindsets allow students to approach problems with curiosity, anticipation, ambition, and confidence. As part of becoming owners, students realize that they have something to offer the world, that they are capable of making an impact, and they have the ability to do so effectively, on their own accord.
It's a core tenant of the class that not only do students learn how to build a business, but that they learn how to be an owner.
Three: Give Students the Opportunity to Build a Business
Finally, and probably most core to the benefits of the class, is that students actually build a business as part of the course. Students identify markets, build products or offer services, and market themselves to make real dollars that they get to keep.
Building a business is a vital component to the class. Even though students could learn the theory necessary to build a business without actually building one, something changes when students actually have to make something and ask for money in exchange for their goods and services. Ultimately, students encounter different problems--and learn how to solve those problems more effectively--when they actually build something.
The outcome of these three components is that students come away with knowledge and skills you can't find in a text book. This experience will benefit students regardless of what career path they choose in the future. Even if a student decides they don't like owning their own business, knowing how a business works and what it needs will make them an invaluable employee or leader, no matter what path they choose to take.