Discussion: View Thread

Hello Ernie (and fellow ENTREP-netters),

I asked a similar question on ENTREP-L back in January right before we started our first micro-business initiative, and I received some very good responses (see below).  I wasn't sure if you were talking about running this program as part of a class or a standalone initiative for providing loans to students, so I've included examples of both micro-business and micro-loan programs.

One thing we did before starting our program was to look at what other schools are doing.  Two really good examples we found of well established micro-business programs are Babson University and the University of Dayton.  See

http://www3.babson.edu/babson2ndgen/Ugrad/Academics/Curriculum/fme.cfm

http://www.udayton.edu/business/crottycenter/sophomore_entrepreneural_experience.php

The University of Hawaii-Manoa has a micro-loan program for students.  See

http://shidler.hawaii.edu/Portals/0/ResearchAndFaculty/PACE/downloads/PACE_News_Fall_2009.pdf

In terms of other micro-loan programs, Xavier, BYU, Bentley, and St. John's University are examples of schools doing some interesting things.  Their initiatives are aimed more at the community than current students, but they're great social entrepreneurship initiatives.  See

http://www.xavier.edu/williams/centers/entrepreneurial-center/Micro-Loans.cfm

http://newnewsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/69053

http://newsroom.bentley.edu/press-release/bentley-university-student-run-microcredit-initiative-issues-first-loan

pr_uni_100507.news_item@digest.stjohns.edu%2Fabout_us%2Fvincentian_heritage%2Fpr_uni_100507.xml">http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/undergraduate/liberalarts/pr_uni_100507.news_item@digest.stjohns.edu%2Fabout_us%2Fvincentian_heritage%2Fpr_uni_100507.xml

I also compiled the responses from my query about micro-businesses from earlier this year.  Because we can't include attachments to messages, I've posted these in the Recent Service section of my website, http://faculty.samford.edu/~ftlohrke/ under the title, "Microbusiness Resources."  It's a Word file, so feel free to use whatever you find useful (the contributors gave their permission to share the material, too).

Finally, if you need some "ammunition" to justify a micro-loan program to "the powers that be" at your university, we've just finished our first round of funding this semester.  It went extremely well.  Only one of 18 teams lost money (and that team still paid back the entire loan), and most students seemed to gain a lot from going through the process of starting a micro-business.  See http://bit.ly/cWC33d.

Hope this helps.

Franz Lohrke

************************************** This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1 If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu. Ventures HO!