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At <st1:placename w:st="on">Northeastern</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> (not <st1:placename w:st="on">Northeastern</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:city>) we offer an undergraduate major in entrepreneurship – 24 semester hours.  In our Principles of Entrepreneurship course, the students are required to start a short-term focused business using no more than $100 of start-up money.  At the same time, we teach them the elements of a feasibility study (along with other things) and for their term project they have to submit a feasibility study.  It is presented to a panel of local business owners and bankers.  By the end of the course, the two paths merge and it leads to very interesting and lively discussions.  In our New Venture Creation course,  we use the short-term focused business activity again but this time they are required to complete a full business plan.  It is also presented to a panel.  Both paths also merge and lead to a wonderful learning experience.

In both courses, the students are required to donate fifty percent of their profits to a local charity.  Further they can either close the business or continue running it.  To date, out of approximately three hundred students I have completed with activity with over the past many years, about eighty are still operating this "short-term focused" business and about thirty students has obtained funding for their business plan.  

If you need any clarification of our program and/or results, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Jeff

Hello All:

I'm curious to find out how many of you have had experience writing business plans with underclassman. I know a couple of schools have these types of programs...for example, <st1:placename w:st="on">Baylor</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> has a freshman New Venture Challenge and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Dayton</st1:placename></st1:place> provides rather sizable seed money to businesses led by sophomores...and I was wondering how these types of experiences have worked out at these and other schools.

  For example, have you had students write full blown business plans (20+ pages) or have they been more like proposals (5-10 pages)?

  Do you devote an entire course to developing these plans during a Freshman/Sophomore class, part of a semester, or do students learn how to do this primarily outside of class?

We can either have a discussion on the Net or you can reply to me directly (ftlohrke@samford.edu) and I can summarize comments.

Thanks for any insights you can provide.

Have a good weekend.

Franz T. Lohrke

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Franz T. Lohrke
Associate Professor of Management and
   Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Business</st1:placename></st1:place>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Samford</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>
<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">800 Lakeshore Drive</st1:address></st1:street>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Birmingham</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">AL</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">35229</st1:postalcode></st1:place>
Office: (205) 726-2373
Fax:    (205) 726-2464
http://faculty.samford.edu/~ftlohrke 
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