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entrepreneurFall/Winter 2007

A p u b l i c A t i o n o f t h e n A t i o n A l A s s o c i A t i o n f o r c o m m u n i t y c o l l e g e e n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p

Community College

Building Bridges:Combining Credit and Credit-Free Entrepreneurship Classes

community college entrepreneur fAll/winter 20071

ever underestimate the power of an entrepreneurial dream. De-spite whatever challenges, setbacks and fears one may have, the desire to succeed is far more powerful. And so goes the story of NACCE.

NACCE will be celebrating its “fifth year” anniversary at its upcoming An-nual Conference entitled “Building Bridges Through Entrepreneurship” in San Antonio, Texas, from January 6th - 9th, 2008. NACCE has earned the support of the Kauffman Foundation, The Coleman Foundation, The John E. and Jeanne T. Hughes Charitable Foundation and an impressive number of other sponsors that continue to emerge. Our expectation is to exceed last year’s attendance of 364 by 10%.

The 70 conference sessions this year offer cutting edge presenters who are doing some very cool things at their community colleges to advance entrepreneurship education and student business incubation. The con-ference presenters will demonstrate the latest on curriculum develop-ment, faculty development, fundraising, student outreach and recruitment programs, program management and Entrepreneurial Institute and Center development, as well as other areas of concentration.

This year the Coleman Foundation is making available 100 scholarship awards to first time attendees and $125K in grant awards through its highly acclaimed Elevator Pitch Competition. Please see www.nacce.com for proposal development eligibility and guidelines.

Bringing an organization to its Fifth Annual Conference was a labor of love in a nightmare of uncertainty for the NACCE staff. In the end, our success is your success because of your commitment to entrepreneurship education and student business incubation. The Fifth Annual Conference will provide an opportunity to celebrate together as a single force in com-munity college entrepreneurship.

My deepest and heartfelt respect for all that you do at your institution to support entrepreneurship education. I look forward to thanking you personally in San Antonio.

Tommy Goodrow, FounderNACCE

nAcce’s founder reflections

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cover story

Articles

Building Bridges:Combining Credit and Noncredit Entrepreneurship Classes Meets Customer Service Goals at JCCC

Elevator Grants Propel Programs Forward

TV Connects Community toEntrepreneurs

Seminole Advisory Board Council: Helping Businesses Grow to the Next Level

BRC Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Class

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community college entrepreneurfAll/winter 2007 2

in every issue updAtes

New Paradigms I Call It…“The Small Business 911 Service.” What Do You Think of It?

Entrepreneurship Can Begin with Something as Simple as a Returned Call

iNtegratiNg eNtrePreNeurshiP CamPus-wide Selling Senior Leadership

CommuNity Based eNtrePreNeurshiP Entrepreneurial Center as Financiers

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eNtrePreNeurshiP matters Making the Case for Entrepreneurship

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tools aNd teChNiques Entrepreneurs in Action! Connecting Learning with the Framework of the Learner

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marketiNg eNtrePreNeurshiP eduCatioN You Do Not Have To Be Robin Hood To Find Your Target!

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NACCE Conference Focus

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Members’ News Notes

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production info

Community Collegeentrepreneur

The Community College Entrepreneur is published quarterly as a member ben-efit by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. Articles from members may be submit-ted via e-mail to [email protected]. The deadline for the next issue is De-cember 13, 2007. We welcome news about your entrepreneurship educa-tion programs (including photos and captions if applicable), announcements of upcoming events, scholarly articles about entrepreneurship and innova-tion, opinion pieces, how-to articles, and announcements related to entre-preneurship and community colleges. Articles should be limited to 500 words for news, announcements, opinion, and how-to advice. Scholarly articles should be limited to 1,400 words.

Publisher: Heather Van SickleEditor: Jeanne YocumCreative Director: Peter Ellis


Coverstory

Building Bridges:ACCE’s 5th Annual Conference, which kicks off on January 6 in San Antonio, will focus on the theme of “Building Bridges Through Entrepre-

neurship.” One bridge building strategy being explored by some community college educators is melding credit and noncredit entrepreneurship courses. Under such a system, students who are taking a course for credit sit side-by-side in the classroom with those who are participating on a noncredit basis.

To learn how such a program can be made to work, we interviewed Donna Duffey, a professor and career program facilitator at Johnson County Community Col-lege (JCCC) in Overland Park, KS. JCCC has merged its credit and noncredit classes in entrepreneurship.

Editor: What promoted JCCC to merge its credit and noncredit entrepreneurship courses?Duffey: The primary thing driving schools to try this new approach is customer service. At JCCC, we want-ed to reduce the confusion on the customer’s part re-garding credit or noncredit courses in entrepreneur-ship. When you take a number of phone calls from people that ask, “Why should I take this credit course or why should I take this noncredit course?” you real-ize you probably have been confusing people.

Another significant motivation was the desire to use our resources more efficiently. We have been chal-lenged numerous times to be sure we’re maximizing the use of our facilities and other resources. Some-times you don’t really pay attention to those sorts of messages until you can’t have something that you want. What we ended up realizing was that we were seeing

increased demand for additional curriculum in both the credit and noncredit areas. With both sides want-ing to respond to that demand, we found we couldn’t always get the necessary space. But we learned that if we combined our initiatives, we drew more people and made more effective use of resources.

Editor: When did your program begin and how has it worked?Duffey: We started in 2003 and it has worked very well for us. We think of it as a cross-marketing initia-tive. What is advertised on the credit side is also ad-vertised on the promotional material for the noncredit side. One of the major advantages has been that the noncredit side has been able to expand their offerings of workshops and the credit side has expanded its of-ferings of credit courses.

We actually were more fearful initially than it turns out we needed to be. Things went far more smoothly than we ever thought they would.

Editor: So you had concerns at the start about po-tential problems that never actually arose?Duffey: Yes. The first thing we worried about was the cost of courses. Costs for credit courses were based upon a credit hour rate of $68 multiplied by the num-ber of credit hours in the course. On the other hand, noncredit workshops were always priced individually, with no particular pattern from workshop to work-shop.

Now, what credit and noncredit people pay is based on the traditional credit hour multiplied by the credit

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Combining Credit and Noncredit Entrepreneurship ClassesMeets Customer Service Goals at JCCC


hour rate basis, and both groups pay the same amount. We anticipated this might be a problem, but it hasn’t been.

Secondly, we thought we might have some challenges on who we hired to teach these courses. But the real-ity is that everybody at our institution wants quality in-struction, so what we have done is to follow the guide-lines of our institutional and department accrediting source. If a person has to have an MBA or higher to teach a credited entrepreneurship course, then those same criteria are followed when that course is also being marketed as a noncredit option.

Another thing we worried about was whether there would be resistance on the noncredit students’ part to having assignments given or to taking tests or quizzes. That also has not been a problem for two reasons. First, the majority of what we do in entrepreneurship courses is activity or process related. You get a grade as a result of project or activity assignments. The noncredit students are very interested in complet-ing those assignments–that’s why they are there–so the fact that those assignments happen to add up to a grade is fine with them.

Secondly, our courses in financial management and legal issues involve quizzes and exams. We had antici-pated that noncredit students would not wish to take those exams or would be argumentative about the quizzes. But it turns out they want to know that they have captured the information in the course, and the quizzes and tests help them identify whether they did. So there has been no problem there either.

Editor: It sounds like the response from the stu-dents has been very positive. How have the admin-istration and the faculty reacted? Duffey: We thought we were going to have more resistance administratively because the credit side reports through one division and the noncredit side reports through another division; budgets are allo-cated accordingly. However, both sides have been very supportive of this initiative, primarily because we’re serving our constituencies better than be-fore.

We also were concerned that we might have some resistance from professors–mainly because it’s just a

little bit more tedious to have to start the course with two rosters–one they receive from credit division and one from the noncredit division. The reality is that’s where the differences end. It’s one audience in front of you and just because the class roster started on two lists is not at all the way the class moves forward.

Editor: So have you had any problems at all with the new system?Duffey: Occasionally after a course is completed, someone will say, “Maybe I should have done this for credit. Can I change that now?” We tell them they can’t make this change after the fact, because, frankly, we haven’t figured out how to do that. But we also point out that we have a number of other entrepre-neurship offerings and they might go ahead and take those for credit. And they seem satisfied with that answer.


web sites{ }Association for Enterprise Opportunitywww.microenterpriseworks.org

The Coleman Foundationwww.colemanfoundation.org

Consortium for Entrepreneur-ship Educationwww.entre-ed.org

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Journalwww.baylor.edu/business/etp

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundationwww.kauffman.org

Institute for Community College Developmentwww.iccd.cornell.edu

National Business Incubation Associationwww.nbia.org

National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurshipwww.nfte.com

United States Association for Small Business and Entrepre-neurshipwww.usasbe.org

NewParadigms

few months ago I received a call from a small business owner in total distress. She had an excellent education and background in restaurant management, and about

a year back opened her own restaurant. Her crisis was fairly simple: Her banker had given her 15 days to come up with a plan to turn it around or they’d be backing “the truck” up to the back door of her restaurant, and reclaiming her equipment.

I felt like I had opened a book to a chapter in the middle. I had a hun-dred questions that begged to be answered…but she had 15 days! My first thought was, “Sorry, I can’t help you. Maybe if you’d called me a few months ago…”

But in this business, we get what we get. Of course I met with her, just like you would have. I met with her landlord. And I met with her banker. I even facilitated a meeting between the restaurant owner and my best CPA, himself a “recovering banker.” But it was too late to make any significant difference. Fifteen days later, she was out of business.

But that experience got me thinking about her and others like her. And I’ve not been able to forget her painful cry for help. Since then a strategy – or a plan has been taking shape in my head. My intent here is to share my thoughts with you, my professional peers of NACCE. For lack of a better name, let’s call it The Small Business 911 Service.

i cAll it…“the smAll business 911 service.” whAt do you think of it?

By Andrew Clark Program Manager, Center for Entrepreneurship Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, WI

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It occurred to me that here in Wisconsin we spend a tremendous amount of time, resources, and energy on nascent entrepreneurs–start-ups, and early stage businesses. A large number of those who graduate from our classes are sole proprietors or are only destined for self-employment. Former Governor Tommy Thompson once described Economic Development as a three-legged stool. He used to say: “One leg is Job Development, one leg is Job Retention, and the third leg is Entrepreneurship.” And I started to think, “What do we do for those businesses that need urgent help NOW? How do we respond when they are in total crisis? I was thinking of job retention! It seems to me, we don’t do a lot. ”

The restaurant owner’s problem was that she was so busy scrambling to make it, that by the time her banker lowered the proverbial boom on her, she was already paralyzed–and was barely able to speak when she found me. In reality, her business had already died–she just didn’t know it yet. She didn’t just lose her business; seven people lost their jobs!

But what if, in the name of “job re-tention,” we made our new Small Business 911 Service known far and wide and easy to access? What if we branded it and promoted it! Then, when the call does come in, our re-sponse would work something like this:

1. We pull together an “A-Team” consisting of five professionals with expertise in sales and marketing, finance, human resources, systems management and a technical spe-cialist unique to the business (in this case, it would have been restaurant ownership). The complexion of the team is uniquely based on the cli-ent.

2. The A-Team responds within 48 hours. Each A-Team member con-ducts a SWOT analysis from his/her respective area of expertise. They interview, examine, question, read, observe, analyze, probe and prod. We spend an intense seven hours in the business. At the end of seven

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hours, the A-Team reassembles in private and lines the room with flipchart pages of findings, both positive and negative.

3. After substantial debate, sharing of find-ings and discussion, a definitive Action Plan is created with essential steps for correction. These steps are then prioritized, and a realis-tic timeline is created and agreed upon.

4. The following morning, the A-Team meets with the business owner to reveal and discuss its findings. This takes the form of an Execu-tive Summary–short, succinct, powerful, dy-namic, strategic and goal-oriented. Input is sought from the owner briefly, but in the end, the owner must agree and commit to the Ac-tion Plan and the timeline.

5. This then becomes the working action plan that the bank receives and must endorse.

6. We invoice the bank $5,000 for the day. That’s a $1,000 for each A-Team member’s time and commitment to the process. The bank then can amortize the $5,000 over the life of the business loan. So ultimately, the business pays for the process, but in a way they can afford.

This fantasy of mine is built on the presump-tion that the bank is not interested in seeing a loan default. Nor are they interested in own-ing restaurant equipment. They are interested in short-range and long-range success. I hope I’m not wrong about that.

My question to you colleagues of mine is this: Have you ever heard of such a thing? Is any-one doing this now? Do you think it could work? Can you think of ways to improve this process? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Here is my contact information:Andrew (Andy) Clark, Manager, NWTC Cen-ter for Entrepreneurship, Business Assistance Center, 2701 Larsen Road, Green Bay, WI 54303, 920-498-7124, [email protected].

“have you ever heard of such a thing? is anyone doing this now? do you think it could work? can you think of ways to improve this process?”

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elevAtor grAnts propel progrAms forwArds part of the 5th Annual NACCE Conference, The Coleman Foundation and The John E. and Jeanne T. Hughes Charitable Foundation

will conduct an elevator grant session to support programs that establish or grow entrepreneurship education in community college settings. The ses-sion will provide community colleges with the op-portunity to compete for grants of up to $7,500 to fund entrepreneurship projects. The foundations are together targeting approximately 20 awards equaling up to $125,000 in funds.

The elevator grant method is based upon the business planning skill of describing a new busi-ness venture in a three-minute pitch that could be given to a potential investor during an elevator ride. Using these same concepts, the foundations have conducted similar sessions for secondary, community college and collegiate educators over the past six years, employing an on-the-spot grant making process to award well-placed, small grants that support entrepreneurship education.

Based on interviews with several NACCE mem-bers who received grants in the last round of funding, it’s easy to see how important this fund-ing mechanism is. For example, Jonathan Deutsch, Assistant Professor at Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York said, “The Coleman grant enabled us to reach students in ways that we are unable to with the constraints of the classroom environment. Our entrepreneur in residence brought student businesses from idea to incubator, moved incubator businesses out into the world, and made students realize that being

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their own boss isn’t a pipe dream or the exclusive domain of the entitled. The project created a pal-pable energy on campus.”

Indian River Community College in Ft. Pierce, FL, is using its Coleman grant to reach out to busi-nesspeople in Martin and Indian River Counties. According to Associate Dean Jan Pagano, J.D. the College’s Entrepreneur Development Institute, (EDI), in partnership with several other organiza-tions, is hosting 16 “Lunch & Learn” seminars at its various campuses. These 60-minute informative sessions are being held twice monthly and enable local business owners to attend EDI programs during lunchtime without taking critical time away from their busy work. “We’re having up to 50 to 70 people at each semi-nar; people are ecstatic that they have an oppor-tunity to learn how to grow their business,” said Pagano. “We’re bringing people on campus who have never been here before, and people love that we’re accessible. We have gotten so many e-mails and so many thank you letters from people who have said this is great. The Coleman grant made it financially feasible to do the program, and we’re very, very appreciative of that.”

A Credibility BuilderTwo grant recipients pointed out the importance of the credibility that receiving such a grant can lend to an entrepreneurship project or program. At Washtenaw Community College in Ann Ar-bor, MI, faculty member Cheryl Davisson Gracie, JD, CPA, RCC is using the Coleman grant to sup-


port a Student Enterprise Competition (SEC) that will enable students to plan and evaluate an idea they have for starting a business. “What the grant did for me was to bring recognition to our work, which allowed me to bring in others to become involved in the SEC competition,” she said. “Hav-ing Coleman endorse my idea enough to give me a mini-grant was wonderful in getting people to take a look at what we were doing and help. Having to present it gave me something to show to others that was clear and convincing.”

Northern Virginia College in Arlington, VA, is us-ing part of its Coleman grant to draw attention to the new collaborative joint venture it has created with a local non-profit called the Community De-velopment Partnership to develop the College’s entrepreneurship program. “It wasn’t so much the dollar amount because the College is putting up a lot more dollars,” said Robert P. Rogers, Jr., a business leader who serves as Special Assistant to the President on the innovative project. “What it really was about was the Coleman people saying of our proposal, ‘Look this is legitimate; we think this is something that makes sense in entrepre-neurship.’ So when I go to talk to all the people in-side the college and to business leaders, I can say, ‘Hey, this isn’t a local thing that we cooked up. I took this concept and competed against commu-nity colleges all across the country and we won.’”

Two levels of awards will be available at the NACCE Conference in January: 1. Programs that represent the initial effort by a community college to introduce self-employment education (on campus or outreach) may be award-ed up to $5,000. 2. Programs that build upon prior initial work to expand proven programming to greater scale. Awards of up to $7,500 are available in this cat-egory.

Registration to participate in this session must be received by Monday, December 3,

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In each issue, we are pleased to feature the Member Spotlight. As space allows, we profile one or two members to help our members learn more about each other. If you’d like to be highlighted in a future issue, please email us at [email protected]

introducingmembers spotlight

see pAge 24

2007. Registration materials consist of a completed Registration Form including a two-page project de-scription, a project budget and evidence of institu-tional support. Registration forms can be download-ed from the Elevator Grant section of the NACCE Conference portion of the NACCE Web site (www.nacce.com) or can be requested by e-mailing The Coleman Foundation at [email protected].


iNtegratiNgeNtrePreNeurshiPCamPus-wide

selling senior leAdershipBy Donna Duffey Professor and Career Program FacilitatorMarketing & Management/Business EntrepreneurshipJohnson County Community College, KS

ccasionally my colleagues from other commu-nity colleges ask me how I was able to “sell” the importance of entrepreneurship education

to the senior leadership of my institution. I find that colleagues are often cautious when proposing an ad-ditional curriculum or programs, fearing senior lead-ership resistance because funds, facilities, or human capital are often scarce resources. Others fear the obstacles of institutional and/or state curriculum ap-proval.

While these issues certainly can be obstacles, I be-lieve the creative and innovative minds of commu-nity college leaders can more often than not find en-trepreneurial solutions when obstacles threaten the pursuit of initiatives that directly support their vision and mission statements. This belief has proven to be correct in my pursuits of entrepreneurship program expansion with the senior leadership at JCCC.

Therefore, the question becomes how entrepre-neurship education addresses components of the vision and mission statement of your community college. At Johnson County Community College the vision statement states “The college will con-tinue to enrich the quality of life for those it serves through creative solutions to education, economic, and community challenges.” The mission statement addressing the objective of “learning comes first” identifies the stimulation of economic development resulting from the quality of learning that takes place at JCCC. This concept is not unique to JCCC be-cause when you are asked if the economic vitality of your community is a primary outcome of the quality

o education initiatives at your community college, you respond affirmatively.

Today it is not just academic leaders but governmental leaders as well who believe America’s community colleges are a critical compo-nent of our nation’s higher education system. Imbedded in the vision and mission state-ments of America’s community colleges is the belief that the economic health of our communities will be enhanced through quality education.

My belief is that entrepreneurship education initia-tives are perfectly housed with our nation’s commu-nity colleges. At Johnson County Community Col-lege, our vision for our entrepreneurship education initiatives is to serve both aspiring and existing en-trepreneurs with quality programming in both credit and non-credit formats. Community colleges are committed to lifelong learning. For entrepreneurs, as businesses evolve, they often need long-term sup-port to grow and sustain their businesses. The “sup-port” those entrepreneurs need takes the form of both credit and non-credit programming with the initial training (aspiring entrepreneurs) developed and delivered by the credit division; the long-term support (existing entrepreneurs) developed and


delivered by the non-credit division. This team of credit and non-credit thus creates a seamless op-portunity for the entrepreneurs of our community to maximize the success of their entrepreneurial venture. Strategically, entrepreneurship education initiatives at JCCC:

Offer credit curriculum to train the student with entrepreneurial goals. Include skill-specific courses students will need to be successful entrepreneurs and the business acumen necessary to launch, grow, and sustain their entrepreneurial venture.Upon completion of the credit curriculum, grad-uates are invited to participate in the services of the Small Business Development Center on campus for ongoing assistance (workshops and one-to-one counseling) needed as they sustain and grow their entrepreneurial venture.

JCCC’s Entrepreneurship program mission is to:Support entrepreneurship education in credit and non-credit formats.Continually seek quality improvement in cur-riculum, programming and delivery formats.Continually explore and implement initiatives that weave entrepreneurship education through-out the college.Be a metropolitan, state, and national example of successful entrepreneurship education at com-munity colleges.Share learning experiences with other commu-nity colleges.

Entrepreneurship initiatives capture student au-diences across campus. “Being my own boss” is a goal often expressed to JCCC’s team of academic advisors by incoming students to this institution. To maximize our success we have specifically worked to NOT label entrepreneurship as just a business option, just a credit option, or just a non-credit op-tion for student audiences on this campus but rather to “weave” entrepreneurship throughout our insti-tution. As such, the leadership in multiple areas have

been and will continue to be involved in the planning and development of our ever-evolving entrepre-neurship programming initiatives.

Who are those senior leaders on your campus that can be of assistance to your entrepreneurship cham-pions? We suggest your Dean of Instruction, Dean of Continuing Education, Dean of Student Services, and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, to name a few. Focusing on your institution’s vision and mission for student success and long-term eco-nomic vitality, we are convinced your entrepreneur-ship champions and your community college’s se-nior leadership team can develop your formula for success.

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tv connects community to entrepreneursBy Fay Rouseff-BakerAssociate Vice President for Teaching and LearningParkland College

eaders from the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Illinois and the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learn-

ing at Parkland College have collaborated in the cre-ation of a new TV show called “Outside the Box.” This dynamic, fast-paced program showcases local entrepreneurs in Champaign-Urbana, IL. The goal of the show, besides to inform, is to inspire local view-ers to become students, designers and owners in the world of entrepreneurs.

This TV series was inspired by the positive connec-tion between two colleges around the work of en-hancing student learning through new ways of think-ing. The networking between Dr. Tony Mendes, Executive Director of the Academy for Entrepre-neurial Leadership, and Carl Meyer, Executive Di-rector of the Parkland Foundation, began the con-versation that would include Parkland’s faculty with the University’s faculty in the Academy. As Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning, I agreed to launch the work at Parkland College through the Center for Excellence. In Parkland’s pilot year, two biologists designed entrepreneurial curriculum al-lowing students to use their critical thinking skills to save the environment and create a nutrition bar. In addition, they joined the community of 15 Univer-sity of Illinois Academy scholars through workshops and social events.

The premiere of Outside the Box, produced by the talented crew of the Parkland College TV station, featured downtown Champaign entrepreneurs who stimulated an exciting Renaissance. Specifically, a boutique owner and two major real estate devel-opers were interviewed to share their insights of the thoughts and actions it takes to be successful. In addition, the show covered the Research Park at the University of Illinois. Viewers got the chance to

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artiClesee incubator companies–which are great ideas that are being allowed to grow within the services of Re-search Park–and much more.

What’s the value in producing a locally designed show on entrepreneurship? Such a show:

Informs the community that both colleges work together for the common good.Makes the student audience aware of original ap-proaches to teaching.Supports the initiative to retain educated talent in the area.Provides knowledge of local entrepreneurs and successes.Stimulates new thinking.Highlights faculty from both colleges.

The second show was filmed in Chicago at the Worldwide Universities Network Conference in October with key international entrepreneurs, stu-dents and faculty being interviewed. The “Outside the Box” Web site will encourage audience partici-pation and series design. This is just the beginning ... stay tuned.

For more information, contact Fay Rouseff-Baker at frouseff [email protected] or (217) 351-2524.

Fay Rouseff-Baker of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Parkland College and Dr. Tony Mendes of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Illinois are shown in downtown Champaign, IL, where the premiere installment of “Outside the Box” was filmed earlier this year.

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The Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO), on 135 university campuses across North America, provides young entrepreneurs with networking opportunities, chapter activi-ties, and the national conference to help them start their own businesses. The mission of CEO is to inform, support and inspire college students to be entrepreneurial and seek oppor-tunity through enterprise creation. The conference speakers help solidify entrepreneurship into the fabric of universities nationally.

Each year, more than 1,200 students, faculty, and others interested in entrepreneurship at-tend the 2 ½ day CEO Conference. Over 80 outstanding entrepreneurs and business lead-ers share their ideas and expertise with students on how they launched their businesses, the lessons they’ve learned, and where they are today. The Annual CEOSM Conference also offers students the opportunity to network with peers nationwide.

You can find out more about the organization and our annual conference by visiting our web-site: http://www.c-e-o.org

2007 NatioNal CEo CoNfErENCE iNformatioNthursday, NovEmbEr 1 – saturday, NovEmbEr 3

Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Hotel2233 S. Martin L. King DriveChicago, IllinoisTelephone: (312) 567-1234

he Seminole Advisory Board Council offers busi-ness owners access to a group of high-powered business professionals who give the kind of advice

that other companies pay thousands of dollars to re-ceive.

The program is a partnership between Seminole Com-munity College, in Sanford, FL, and Seminole County Government to foster economic growth. The Coun-cil matches companies with advisory boards that offer practical, seasoned advice at no cost or obligation. The program is designed to help businesses that are be-yond the start-up phase and poised for growth.

seminole Advisory boArd council: helping businesses grow to the next level

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t The Advisory Board Council currently has nine com-panies with advisory boards and 60 volunteer advisors. It is located in SCC’s new Center for Economic Devel-opment, which includes state-of-the-art classrooms, as well as an economic development suite housing sev-eral area economic development organizations.

To learn more about the program, visit the website at www.SeminoleAdvisoryBoard.com or contact Mary Alice McCord, Ed.D. at (407) 708-4418 or via e-mail at [email protected].


keynote speakers will inform and inspire you in san AntonioNationally known keynote speakers John Edward Roueche and Ben Casnocha address the topic of entrepreneurship from dramatically different perspectives that have grown out of life experiences that are poles apart. Both are sure to inspire attendees at the 5th Annual NACCE Conference. We guarantee that you’ll leave these presentations with plenty of new ideas to consider.

Roueche is a distinguished educator who has won numer-ous awards for his research in the field of community col-leges and currently serves as the Principal Investigator on more than $15 million in projects funded by major Ameri-can foundations. He holds the Sid W. Richardson Regents Chair in Community College Leadership in the Department of Educational Administration in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin.

As the first keynoter of the 2008 NACCE Conference, Roueche will deliver a presentation entitled “On Becom-ing an Entrepreneurial College.” He will share contempo-rary examples of successful fundraising and entrepreneurial strategies in community and technical colleges across the country, as well as will core learnings from these cutting-edge colleges.

A community college graduate who received his Ph.D. in higher education administration from The Florida State University in 1964, Roueche served as a high school history and English teacher, community college dean of students and instructional dean, and faculty member at UCLA and Duke University before joining the Texas faculty. Since 1970, he has spoken to more than 1,300 colleges and universities on topics of teaching and leader-ship excellence. He is the author of 35 books and more than 150 articles and chapters focused on leadership, teaching, and learning. Confe

rence Focus


Roueche’s many honors include the 1988 B. Lamar Johnson Leadership Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College, and the 1986 National Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges. He has been honored with the Distinguished Research Publication Award from the Council of Universities and Colleges in 1990, 1994, and 1996. In 1998, he was honored by The University of Texas with its Career Research Excellence Award, the University’s top re-search prize.

the voice of the young entrepreneurNineteen-year-old Ben Casnocha will kick off the second day of the conference with a presentation entitled “Entrepreneurship as Life Idea: How Anyone–Even College Students or Professors–Can Be CEO of Their Own Lives.” Drawing on his own experiences as entrepreneur, author, and current college student, Casnocha will discuss what it means to think entrepreneurially in all contexts, not just in the process of starting a business. He will present a series of ideas, facts, and provocative opinions around the entrepreneurial mentality and explain why he believes it is essential to think entrepreneurially in today’s hyper-connected, fast-changing world.

Casnocha, who hails from the Silicon Valley, is author of the bestselling book “My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley.” He serves on the board of Comcate, Inc., the leading e-government technology firm he founded six years ago. The accolades he has received include being named one of America’s best young entre-preneurs by BusinessWeek in 2006. In 2004 PoliticsOnline ranked him among the “25 most influential people in the world of Internet and politics.” The Silicon Valley Business Journal named his blog one of the “Top 25 in Silicon Val-ley.”

Casnocha’s work has been featured in hundreds of media around the world, including CNN and USA Today. He is a seasoned speaker on entrepreneurship and leadership at universities such as Stanford, Wharton, and Duke. He graduated from San Francisco University High School in June 2006, where he edited the school newspaper and was captain of the varsity basketball team.


100 scholarships offered to conference first-timersAs part of its mission to promote entrepreneurship, the Coleman Foundation is gener-ously providing scholarships for 100 community college professionals to attend the 2008 NACCE Conference. The purpose of these scholarships is to introduce new attendees to the network of community colleges interested in entrepreneurship.

“Our conference will be full of ideas and resources for attendees to take home and apply at their community colleges,” said NACCE Executive Director Heather Van Sickle. “This is the second year the Coleman Foundation has provided the scholarships for newcomers, and we can’t thank them enough for helping us make it possible for people to discover the value of our annual conference.”

The scholarships are reserved for new attendees only; 25 scholarships are reserved spe-cifically for attendees from colleges in the conferences host state of Texas. Three catego-ries of people will benefit from attending the 5th Annual NACCE Conference; they are:

• Persons interested in sharing/discovering funding sources to increase the quality and quantity of entrepreneurship education programs on their campus.• Faculty, from any department, including adjunct, interested in infusing

entrepreneurship into their courses.• Leaders at community colleges looking to raise the bar for their college by acting more entrepreneurially; assisting faculty to increase the entrepreneurship

education offerings.


The Coleman Foundation scholarships pay for the cost of registration to the NACCE Conference. (Please note there is a nominal non-refundable fee of $50.00.) Scholarships are granted on a first come, first served basis and will be processed in order of receipt as long as the application is complete, legible, and demonstrates an interest in moving forward with entrepreneurship at your institution.

A scholarship application form is available for downloading from the NACCE Web site (www.nacce.com/conference). All applicants will be notified by email within two weeks of submission.

three will win Awards at nAcce conferenceAn entrepreneur, a faculty member, and a student will be on hand to be honored with prestigious awards at the 5th Annual NACCE Conference. Introduced at the 2007 confer-ence, the three annual awards that will be presented in San Antonio on January 7 are:

• Entrepreneur of the Year Award, sponsored by E-Myth Worldwide®: This award honors a successful entrepreneur who attended a community college; the award provides a $2,000 prize to the winner’s college in his/her name. The prize money is to be used to support entrepreneurship. To qualify for this honor, the entrepreneur must have been in business for at least three years and have $500,000 plus in annual gross revenue. • Entrepreneurship Faculty of the Year Award, sponsored by NACCE: This award honors a community college educator who inspires students through teaching

entrepreneurship. The prize includes $1,000 to the contest winner and an additional $1,000 to the winner’s community college.

• Student Essay Contest, co-sponsored by The New York Times and NACCE: Community college students were asked to write essays about how entrepreneurship education at their schools has benefited them and other students. The winning essayist will receive $1,000 and his/her community college will also receive $1,000.

If you’re attending the NACCE Conference, be sure to join us at 1:30 p.m. on January 7 for the announcement of these award winners. For more information on how your school can participate in these award programs next year, you can view the details at www.nacce.com/conference.


gain valuable insights at presidents’ panel sessionThe Presidents’ Panel has rapidly become one of the most popular and valuable sessions of the NACCE Annual Conference. Back again in 2008, this valuable session will again give attendees an opportunity to hear college leaders from across the country provide their viewpoints on the role of entrepreneurship at community colleges.

Participants in the 2008 Presidents’ Panel will include:• Sheila Ortego, President of the Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, NM• Becky Paneitz, PhD, President of Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, AR• Carl Kuttler, Jr. President of St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, FL A fourth panel participant is to be announced later.

Moderating the panel will be Dr. Andrew M. Scibelli, President Emeritus of Springfield Technical Community College. “This session gives conference participants a sense of how presidents view the world of entrepreneurship education,” said Scibelli. “Attendees al-ways want to know the bigger picture view and they also want to get advice from presi-dents about how to get their own schools’ leaders to become more entrepreneurial and to support programs that are more entrepreneurial.”

The session will begin with a brief explanation from each president about why they view their colleges as entrepreneurial. This will be followed by questions from Scibelli to the presidents on topics such as:

Sheila OrtegoAndrew M. Scibelli Becky Paneitz Carl Kuttler, Jr.


• How has a culture of entrepreneurship education helped your college in fundraising?• How has entrepreneurship education helped your institution increase exposure and awareness within your local business community?• How has entrepreneurship education provided career opportunities for your students?• How has offering entrepreneurship education increased your role in economic development in your community?• How can attendees convince their own presidents to join in the entrepreneurship education movement?

Scibelli plans to set aside a significant portion of time for questions from attendees. “The Q&A from attendees is where a lot happens in this session,” he said. “Participants will have access to presidents to get input on whatever is on their minds about our topic. People will come away with many helpful tips on how to get buy-in from their president for their entrepreneurship program ideas.”

see you in san Antonio!


entrepreneuriAl center As finAnciers

By Tim Putnam, MPAAssociate DirectorJohn Pappajohn Entrepreneurial CenterNorth Iowa Area Community College, IA

ntrepreneurial Centers that aspire to help create new businesses will have constant in-quiries regarding funding, especially grants.

The North Iowa Area Community College John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (NIACC JPEC) wrestled with this issue since its inception ten years ago. Its initial role was to assist the entrepreneurs with their business plans and loan applications and provide education. Companies were then routed to different funding sources. It became apparent that a more active role in financing a business was needed. Thus, offering “one stop shopping” for business development became our goal. Today, the NIACC-JPEC offers three direct sources of funds to entrepreneurs that supplement other lo-cal, state and federal programs: Venture Capital, Revolving Loan Fund and MicroFinancing.

Venture Capital: The North Iowa Venture Cap-ital Fund, LLC. (NIVCF) is a $1.69-million-dollar fund with 61 investors all from the NIACC North Iowa region. This money can be used for early stage seed funding, start-ups, business succession, and growth and business turnarounds. The fund has invested from $50,000 to $250,000 in nine businesses.

The NIVCF has also proven to be a valuable tool for economic development in saving businesses, recruiting early stage start-up businesses or grow-ing existing businesses. The NIVCF was a new funding mechanism that had not been previously available in North Iowa. Today there are over 13 community based seed funds in Iowa, and the NI-ACC JPEC is already creating a second venture fund.

Revolving Loan Fund: Debt financing is the most requested capital need in rural markets. Work-ing with the USDA, the NIACC JPEC received a Rural Business En-terprise Grant for $99,000. Adding a $34,000 local match created a revolving loan fund for gap financ-ing. This financing tool allows invest-ments of $10,000 to $25,000 into a business to sup-plement conven-tional financing, community based revolving loans funds and other community funding. The revolv-ing loan program has helped a wide variety of new business starts, expansions and successions, keep-ing and adding jobs in their respective communi-ties.

MicroFinance: The NIACC JPEC NanoLoan Program targets a specific, underserved segment of the entrepreneurial community: businesses in the ‘pre-bankable’ phase. NanoLoans of up to $2,500 can be used to move a business model far-ther along in its development by paying for pro-totype development, patents, equipment, working capital and other start-up costs.

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CommuNityBasedeNtrePreNeurshiP



The NanoLoan Program is a perfect vehicle for many home-based business enterprises (HBE) to move forward. Many HBE’s do not need a lot of money to get over the tipping point as they already operate a business to some degree and the challenges as-sociated with starting and operating a new business are understood. Since it represents ‘first in’ money, NanoLoans can be leveraged to encourage partici-pation by reluctant lenders.

It is critically important to package funding with a combination of business assistance services custom-ized to meet each company’s unique needs. For many programs, recipients are required to attend FastTrac® NewVenture or GrowthVenture®, es-tablish a board of advisors, and complete and re-port quarterly financials. It is paramount that each business receives the specific business assistance and consulting from expert advisors that will enable each to build, grow and sustain.

• The Key Entrepreneur Development Center at Corporate College in Cleveland, OH, is proud to announce the launch of their new ‘Web 2.0-inspired’ Web site, which went live in September. Not only will the Web site aid in the promotion of upcoming workshops and conferences, it will also be a case study in the practical application of current eMarketing trends and Web 2.0 tools. Throughout the site, users are able to watch vid-eos and slideshows, post comments and rate el-evator pitches from entrepreneurs around the region (and world) and many other features to come. The site uses the strategies and techniques discussed at the yearly ‘eMarketing for Entrepre-neurs’ Conference and ‘eMarketing Techniques’ Series; search engine optimization, online video, mobile marketing, blogging, RSS feeds, podcasts, and others. Entrepreneurs can use the site to learn, network, and explore. It will be a key re-source for entrepreneurs. Check out the site at www.KeyEntrepreneurs.org. For more informa-tion, contact Brad Kleinman, Associate Director of the Key Entrepreneur Development Center via e-mail at [email protected].

• North Shore Community College in Dan-vers, MA, launched a non-credit Entrepreneur-ship Certificate this fall. The Certificate con-sists of six required courses: Introduction to Entrepreneurship;The Business Plan; Accounting Essentials for the Entrepreneur; Planning Cash Flow; Legal Aspects for the Entrepreneur; and Marketing, Advertising, Networking & Sales, plus two electives. For more information, contact Cheryl C.Hines at (978) 762-4000 ext. 1235.

• David Johnson, Business Instructor at Tech-nical College of the Lowcountry presented an overview of E-ship education opportunities to the September 25 breakfast meeting of the Beaufort (SC) Chamber of Commerce. TCL is offering both credit and non-credit courses in Entrepreneurship this fall. For more information on their offerings, contact David at [email protected].

news of note from nAcce memberscontinued from previous page


he Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) En-trepreneurship and Small Business Management Class of faculty member Andrea Vidrine is the re-

sult of many hours of dedicated work on the part of members of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Com-merce Small Business Council and BRCC faculty and staff members. The course will provide students who have expressed and exhibited an interest in owning a small business a firsthand opportunity to hear from successful business leaders in the community what really must be done to succeed. Employers will also, where requested, provide a chance for students to en-ter the diverse workplaces to see what actually takes place in owning and managing a successful business.

On every Friday during the program, a different busi-ness leader will share various aspects of owning and running a successful small business with students in the class. Pat Felders, owner of Felders Collision Parts, Inc. and an advocate of education and business part-nerships, stated, “The expertise that the students will have the opportunity to absorb is priceless.”

Business leaders participating in this ‘teaching and learning experience’ are:

Patricia H. Felder and Wayne L. Felder, owners of Felders Collision Parts, Inc.Camm Morton, Commercial Properties Develop-ment CorporationMike Polito, CEO, MAPP ConstructionFred Dent, Consultant, Dent and Dent, Object 9Chris Russo Blackwood, Publisher, In RegisterDavid Bondy, CEO, LUBALeonard Wyatt, Senior Vice President, Whitney BankBob Breaux, CEO, Total Computer SystemsJohn Overton, CEO, TurnKey Solutions, Inc.Kevin Kimball, Manager/Owner, Camelot Club

Students have the chance to discuss concerns and ask

brcc entrepreneurship And smAll business mAnAgement clAss

t

artiCle

pointed questions of executives representing many different businesses and possessing various specialized skill sets. The business speakers will also have a golden opportunity to share the dos and don’ts of operating a small business; hopefully, imparting information that cannot be found in textbook.

According to Associate Dean Sharon Flanagan, “This is definitely contextual learning at its finest. The stu-dents’ connections with outstanding businesses from the community can only lead to positive mentorship, internships and knowledge.” The exposure to many businesses and philosophies of doing business should give the students an excellent learning experience.

For more information on this program, contact Phyllis Coleman Mouton at (225) 216-8998 or viae-mail at [email protected].

By Phyllis Coleman MoutonVice Chancellor of Workforce, Corporate and Continuing EducationBaton Rouge Community College

downloAd nAcce logo{ }Did you know you can download print and on-line versions of the NACCE logos from our Web site to let everyone know your college is a proud member of NACCE? The link to obtain these logos is shared

in EshipExchange, along with guidelines for proper use of

the logo. See Heather Van Sick-le’s message regarding the logos

on the main page of EshipExchange.

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ometimes a hugely successful entrepreneurial ef-fort can begin with nothing more than a promptly returned telephone call.

Such was the case at St. Petersburg College a few years ago, when a call resulted in a new 52,000-square-foot arts complex–a museum of fine arts, library, art educa-tion studios, auditorium, art vault and a one-of-a-kind art exploration room–not to mention an enormously valuable collection of 20th century art.

The creation was the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, a centerpiece for St. Petersburg College and a major as-set for Pinellas County and the entire state of Florida. When combined with the art collection itself, as well as a sizeable cash donation, the total value of the proj-ect today is about $40 million.

The museum was an idea that never would have come to fruition if the fires of entrepreneurship did not burn brightly at St. Petersburg College.

Here is what happened:

A stranger telephoned the college in 1996 and simply said, “I’d like to speak to someone about a gift.” Such a call could have been bumped from office to office; however, in the 81 years of our existence, we have learned the importance of seized opportunities. The call was returned quickly, and it was only then we real-ized the scope of what was about to come our way.

The anonymous caller turned out to be Isabelle Leepa, wife of Allen Leepa, a retired Michigan State University art professor and noted artist. The Leepas had retired to Tarpon Springs, the home of one of SPC’s campus-es, and they were looking for a place to donate his col-lection of abstract and modernist art. Her first phone call–to another institution in the area–had not been

NewParadigmsentrepreneurship cAn begin with something As simple As A returned cAllBy Carl M. Kuttler, Jr.President St. Petersburg College, FL

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returned. The collection included Leepa’s own art; the art of his stepfather, the world-renowned Abraham Rattner; the sculptures and prints of his mother, Es-ther Gentle; and assorted pieces by their 20th century contemporaries.

Soon we were en-meshed in a state construction matching program, using dol-lars from our new gift to leverage matching construction dollars from the state. Various grants and other rev-enue sources quickly became part of the fi-nancial mix.

As it turned out, the need for entrepre-neurial solutions did not end with the acquisition; similar creative efforts were needed to get the collection from its New York warehouse to Tarpon Springs. Specialized companies wanted $100,000 or more to handle the transfer; we simply rented a large truck and trailer and responsibly moved the collection ourselves.

Today, the Leepa-Rattner Museum is a major cultural asset. Also, the museum has inspired a re-examination of our fine arts and humanities curricula college-wide, including a consideration of mandatory student atten-dance at our own art museum.

Entrepreneurially-driven arts partnerships and invest-ments additionally may contain real financial potential for institutions such as ours. Indeed, it has been doc-umented that the arts actually create a greater eco-nomic benefit for the larger community than sports programs.

Adding a stroke of entrepreneurship to college fine arts programs may go a long way toward generating more influence in the communities they serve.

community college entrepreneursummer/fAll 2007 24

?Central Office Our office will assist you in accessing experts within our membershipto answer your questions regarding entrepreneurship education. Also, our responsive staff members are always available via phone or e-mail to help you maximize your membership benefits.

NACCE EshipExchange Your username and password gives you access to EshipEx-change where you will find curricula, member and community college profiles, and past conference presentations. You can add or download syllabi, course outlines, sample grant proposals, and much more!

NACCE List-Serv Important notices such as grant and conference scholarship opportu-nities are announced through this channel. Use the list-serv to post questions and sugges-tions to other members regarding entrepreneurship for community colleges.

Complimentary Magazine Subscriptions Members receive complimentary subscriptions to Entrepreneur and Fast Company magazines.

Subscription to NACCE’s Printed Journal Chock full of stories of entrepreneurship at community colleges. As a member you may submit a story or news on upcoming events related to entrepreneurship at your college.

Discount Registration at National Conferences Receive a reduced rate at our flag-ship annual conference, as well as our new symposium for entrepreneurship educators.

Affiliation with a National Association Members can post the NACCE member logo on their web site or use on printed material to identify your organization with our na-tional association. Logo can include your number of years affiliated with NACCE.

Webinars A webinar is a seminar session/web conference which is conducted live over the internet. Webinars allow participants to interact with the presenter. Examples of topics for future webinars: How to create an entrepreneurial program. How to write a better proposal. Teaching entrepreneurship. How to set up a student run entrepreneurship club.

Are you tAking full AdvAntAge of your nAcce member benefits?

If you have any questions regarding NACCE Member benefits, please call or email at 413-755-6102 or [email protected]


eed a template to make the case for entre-preneurship to policymakers? Here’s an out-line for such a case followed by a link to a

PowerPoint presentation on this topic that can be adapted to your specific needs.

I believe the first step in making the case for en-trepreneurship is to demonstrate a ‘sense of ur-gency’ to act. For those of us living in states with adverse demographics and/or unfavorable eco-nomic indexes, all we need to do is a little re-search to pull the data together. The PowerPoint presentation provides demographic and economic indexes for Iowa.

Second, we need to demonstrate “why entrepre-neurship is important.” The National Commission on Entrepreneurship provides an excellent set of reasons. They are:

Entrepreneurs use innovations to improve the quality of life. Small entrepreneurs lead the way in developing ideas. They are responsible for more than half of all innovations -- 67 per-cent of inventions and 95 percent of radical innovations since World War II.

Entrepreneurs create new jobs. New fast growth companies are but a small subset of the U.S. economy, comprising just 350,000 firms out of a total of 6,000,000 current U.S. businesses with employees. Yet, these fast growing companies created about two-thirds of new jobs between 1993 and 1996. In other words, a majority of net new jobs are created by a small subset of entrepreneurial firms that comprise only 5-15 percent of all U.S. busi-nesses.

eNtrePreNeurshiPmatters

mAking the cAse for entrepreneurshipBy Michael C. Morrison, Ph.D.PresidentNorth Iowa Area Community College, IA

n Entrepreneurs improve our position in global eco-nomic compe-tition. Finding opportunity in change, entre-preneurs have pushed U.S. c o m p a n i e s into dominat-ing positions in critical global indus-tries such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and the Internet. Small businesses with fewer than 500 employees make up nearly 97 per-cent of all U.S. exporting firms, and their im-portance is growing. Between 1987 and 1997, the number of these small company exporters tripled, and between 1992 and 1997, the value of small company export dollars also tripled, to $171.9 billion. Companies with fewer than 20 employees have been the most successful exporters – they are the fastest growing both in numbers of exporters and in numbers of export dollars.

Entrepreneurs create economic growth and new wealth for reinvestment in our country. The U.S. is among the most “entrepreneur-ial” nations because Americans believe they have opportunities to start businesses and live in a culture that respects entrepreneurship as an occupation. Each year Americans start

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600,000 to 800,000 businesses with employees, and about two million Americans start their own self-employment ventures. These business starts are the foundation of an entrepreneurial economy. A new series of stud-ies, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), has finally made the connection explicit. The GEM researchers found that fully one-third of the differential in national economic growth rates is due to the impact of entrepreneurial ac-tivity.

Finally, we need to answer the ques-tion, “Will Entrepreneurial Centers Deliver?” The link to the PowerPoint presentation provides a case study with positive evidence to answer this question in the affirmative. To visit the PowerPoint presentation, point your browser to: http://www.niacc.edu/case.html. This presentation is focused on the Iowa case, but it can be appropriately modified for many other states looking to advance en-trepreneurship. Best wishes and gook luck.

Member: Linda Leto HeadMontgomery CollegeConroe, Texas

Residence: Kingwood, Texas (Houston area)Organization: North Harris Montgomery Community College District (we are currently working on a possible name change!), Montgomery College our campusOccupation: Dean for Center for Workforce Excel-lence, Continuing Education and Conroe CenterFirst job: First paid job was acting at age 7. I was Cinderella in my base-ment, and we charged the neighbors 5 cents. We also sold pickles from our garden! However, my first job working for someone else was Dairy Queen. We could not move to the front until we were 16 and could make the swirl just right!Philosophy: Education and hard work are both necessary to improve your life!Favorite Music: All of it. I am very eclectic in my music interests. With kids and husbands you have to be–we all enjoy something different so I learned to love it all!Favorite TV show or movie: Same as music. I get bored so there is not a movie or show that I watch over and over. And I am interested in a lot of things so I watch “One Tree Hill” with my 18 year old, any war movie or thriller with my husband, and “Fitness from your Chair” or something like that from Jack LaLanne with my mother!Favorite book: The Nature of Success by Mac AndersonWhat got me interested in my work: The joy of watching someone grow in knowledge, confidence and success and knowing that you played a small role in making that occur.Greatest accomplishment: Raising two daughters who are beautiful, successful in college and happy.Success is...loving and being loved–your significant other, your family, your friends, your career, your pets, and your hobbies–and appreciating that you are free to choose.Pet Peeve: People who are miserable in any of the items above and rather than making the decision to change the situation, they make those around them miserable.Favorite Quote: “Vive Bene, Spesso L’Amore, Di Risata Molto”Current Projects: In collaboration with our SBDC, credit faculty, cham-bers of commerce and EDP, develop an extensive Entrepreneurship In-stitute that includes: credit program, continuing education workshops, SBCD consulting, youth program, and online resources.

members spotlight


n the spring of the Community College Entrepre-neur, we introduced the concepts related to Learn-ing in Action! In the second article we described

our program entitled Entrepreneurs in Action! (EIA), which is a problem-based case curriculum and a part of the total process of Learning in Actions! In this third article we present a short description of one of the most popular cases in the EIA program--The Santa Fe Effect--named after the entrepreneurial spirit that per-meates the small town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. IntroductionAll across America, small towns are facing a similar plight–the gradual decline of their downtown area. Shopping centers, industrial parks, interstate highways and changing demographics have changed the way we live in America, leaving the small town or, in some cases, the suburban area to drift from the main stream of American life. Today, businesses are moving out of central areas as more and more people elect to go “where the shoppers are,” generally to the larger high-ways that bypass the small towns. In addition, large stores, the so-called “big box” (i.e. Home Depot, Wal-Mart) retail operations, tend to locate in these outlying areas to take advantage of the increased flow of cus-

tomers. This traffic encourages the growth of specialty retail

stores, as well as hospital-ity and industrial devel-

opment all outside of the “old town square concept.”

Where do these trends leave the small town? Once the cycle has be-

gun, it seems diffi-cult to arrest. Usually,

older buildings are left to

toolsaNdteChNiques entrepreneurs in Action! connecting leArning with the frAmework of the leArner By R. Wilburn Clouse, Ph.D.Vanderbilt University, TN

i crumble and decay, with the only holdouts often being the city offices, a few professional buildings, and a few Mom & Pop stores. Learning Vignette This is a case about Small Town, USA and has been used to study several small towns, including Athens, TN; Madison, TN; Florence, SC; Paducah, KY; Maryville, TN and selected other small cities or suburbs of larger cities. The opportunities are all the same. The follow-ing is a brief introduc-tion to the case. (Space in this column does not permit listing the entire case, thus this is just a beginning for the case).

AssignmentDr. Tim Smith, Profes-sor of Business, has made an assignment in his Business Com-munications class to investigate the down-town area of Small Town, USA, and to develop a strategy to revitalize the downtown area. Five students, including Mark Daven-port, Jeff Goodwill, Robert Jackson, Sue Williamson and Jackie Robinson, obtained a digital camera from the Resource Center and set out to film the down-town area. Through the eyes of the camera, the stu-dents saw a visual description of Small Town, USA. The camera first was used to videotape some of the famous streets that run through the city and to film some of the unique buildings and other places of his-torical interest. Using the camera, the students video-taped the remaining part of the city of interest to the case and then analyzed the situation and developed a plan for new business start-ups and redevelopment of the “Old City.”


The Challenge1. What do you think? 2. What solutions would you recommend if you were a member of this student team? 3. What business ventures could be developed from this case? After raising these questions, the students are free to begin deliberations on possible solutions to the case. Guiding Questions1. What types of political problems do you expect?2. What groups contribute toward community devel-opment? How?3. What other communities have similar issues and how have they addressed them?4. What makes this town unique?5. What external issues can arise from development?6. What new startups are best suited for this area?

Core Concepts1. Demographics of small towns2. Social factors affecting small town exodus3. Arts and cultural cohesiveness4. Laws and regulations Learning Objectives1. Role of government and law in establishing new business2. Business organizations3. Social resistance to change4. Appreciation of town history In this case, students develop a comprehensive plan to redevelop the small town with emphasis on creating the entrepreneurial spirit as the vehicle to rejuvenate the small town. A formal document is developed and presented to the local Chamber of Commerce or City Council. Students learn cross-disciplinary concepts re-lated to social, political, economic, legal, demograph-ics, as well as see opportunities to start new business ventures in areas of great need.

This case as well as other cases are pre-sented on The Forum for Entrepreneurship Education Web site http://entrepreneurship.vanderbilt.edu, and support is available from Dr. R. Wilburn Clouse, [email protected], 615-322-8059. We are interested in working with other faculty members from the community college environment to help develop and host other cases of interest to community colleges.

This work is part of the Forum for Entrepre-neurship Education at Vanderbilt University and was supported in part by The Coleman Foundation Inc. - Grant number 4446-- En-trepreneurs in Action!, and The National Sci-ence Foundation under Grant No. 0091632 and other related funds. (Any opinions, find-ings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this presentation are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Founda-tion.)


marketiNgeNtrePreNeurshiPeduCatioN you do not hAve to be robin hood to find your tArget!By Tim MittanDirector, Entrepreneurship CenterSoutheast Community College, NE

g rowing up in a small Midwestern town, hunting was a part of life. Some people did it for sport, and some did it as a way to provide for their

families. My father was a hunter. When I was a kid, he taught me how to shoot a bow and arrow. In his words, “Anyone can pull a trigger, but archery hunting takes skill.” It is an art form. I was never the “big hunt-er.” It was easier for me to pretend I was Robin Hood and shoot cardboard targets. What Dad taught me was that archery takes patience, the ability to keep one eye on the target and one eye on the horizon, a steady hand, and follow-though. If you think about it, that is true for any sport, business, or personal goals.

Luckily, hitting the tar-get was never the is-sue. My problem gen-erally centered on lack of patience, but that is another story altogether. Knowing and understanding the target market in the entrepreneurial world, as in any business, is the key to success. As entrepreneur educators, we must identify our proper customer and understand as precisely as possible what they want. We tend to impose the traditional educational stan-dards of recruitment when trying to identify the cor-rect customer for our services. We may also limit the number of potential targets with a scope that may be too narrowly focused. Identifying those with the en-trepreneurial spirit may seem like a daunting task, but it is not impossible. Keep in mind there may be several targets for your services. Do not leave any to fend for themselves.

Always remember, the entrepreneur that we are look-ing to attract may not fit into the nice, neat package of “Small Business Owner.” Being an entrepreneur is more complex, maybe even ethereal, if you will. We want to be able to attract the person who is a risk-tak-er, imaginative, and flexible enough to follow through with their goals. Understanding these traits should help to create a strategy that will attract this seeker of en-trepreneurial knowledge. Failure to see this person for who they truly are could mean the loss of a customer or, worse, the loss of an entrepreneurial soul.

Here are some basic entrepreneurial target markets categories to look for:

The person who has the spirit, but would prefer to be entrepreneurial within someone else’s com-pany.The person who has a skill or is learning a skill and eventually wants to have their own business.The person who has the entrepreneurial spirit, but does not know what to do with it. The person who had the entrepreneurial spirit, but has since lost it and needs to be refocused.And the person I call a “Second Lifer.” This per-son has been working for 10–20 years at a job, but now wants to do whatever it is they want to do. They have the experience, but need the help get-ting started.

There are many possible targets for your entrepre-neurship program. Your job is to first find those you know you can help. Then, figure out ways to help those who emerge that you did not know existed. As long as you are patient, keep one eye on the target and one on the horizon, have a steady hand, and follow-through, you will hit the bull’s-eye every time.

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