i wanted to follow up on Fred's request for information about courses
asking students to start a business.
The Professor who teaches the course at CSU Fresno is Tom Burns and
sent a reply to Fred at my request, but
I thought I would share with subscribers.
For background, the Craig School of Business has 10 options (majors).
Entrepreneurship, launched in 1999, is now third in
size and will likely be second starting in the Fall. A key approach
to entrepreneurship in our program is the blending of
"knowledge, skills and action". As students move through course work
the balance shifts towards action. None of the 11
courses in our curricula have "tests". Rather, all measures of
knowledge, skills, and actions are based on projects. The culminating
experience is the course Tom teaches where students are required to
launch a business. The intent is not to generate a long term
viable business from every student as many students come into the
program with an emphasis on developing skills that will
make them productive prospects for working in entrepreneurial firms.
I view launching a business a lot like learning to ride a bike or
learning to swim. Pretty hard to be successful at either if all students
do is read about it and then take a multiple choice test on how to do
it. if you recall from your own experience, learning to do both
through action probably generated some emotional trauma. Not unlike
the first time one tries to launch a business. But once you
have achieved success at swimming (not drowning) or riding a bike
(not fall off). Once, you've done it, much easier to do again even
if it has been four or five years later.
Below is Tom's comments:
Dr. Fry
You had sent an email to Dr. Tim Stearns at CSU Fresno asking about
any classes that require students to start a business. I teach a
class at CSU Fresno that has this requirement for the last five
years. The class is the capstone for our Entrepreneur Option and is
a required course. I will try to answer you questions as follows:
SUCCESS:
1. If measured by business starts, we have had good success but with
qualifications. In the current class I have 42 students, we will
have over 25 new businesses (some partnerships or joint effort by
students and some students will fail to launch-although very
few). If you measure by truly sustainable businesses the number
reduces considerably. This is partially due to the fact that they
only have 120 days to do this. I have at least 7 that will finish
the semester with this proof but several more that I think can make
it with more development. Of these we have 4 that are somewhat scaleable.
Examples-Lumber salvage sold for finger joining, currently doing
about $15K per month.
-Furniture staging business, has a contract with a large developer.
-Commercial property developer, has an angel and although the
business will not break ground before the class finishes, he will
have MOU's etc. that will prove he can finish.
-Wine consulting, compliance.
(Also, some of these were started prior to the start of the class).
2. If you count success in that the students test their passion,
test how they deal with an ambiguous venture, check to see if they
have sustainable energy to start a business, etc., we do well. The
final question they must answer when they present their results is,
"are you an entrepreneur?" The answer is about 50/50 yes/no but many
of the yes's are qualified, they state they will try again after they
get a job and earn a living for a while first. What I feel would be
interesting is a 10 year follow-up to see what happened. My personal
feeling is that some get comfortable after the first try at starting
a business and may retry (did it before, it is not as overwhelming as
they thought).
GRADING and REQUIREMENTS:
This is somewhat subjective. I tell the students that they must
launch far enough to prove sustainability or not. I ask for deposit
slips and short P and L. I require proof, not just a story. During
the semester I meet with the students and negotiate effort and
progress as part of this. For example I have a student who is
partnering with her mother on a franchise requiring a $175K
investment, most of which is leasehold improvements. She must do the
"Due Diligence", find a location and negotiate a lease, plus show she
has access to the capital. I will grade this higher than someone who
starts an internet business with sales of $200 a month. She will
have to demonstrate a lot of the start up effort before I accept this
work. But her launch although not complete is the experience they
need versus creating a web site for a non sustainable business with poor sales.
Best that I can answer you on this one-Sustainability is good (B),
add proof that they can scale it up, this is outstanding (A).
END of the SEMESTER
They must orally present their business, the model, results (sales),
did they prove it is a sustainable business or not, what would make
it sustainable or can they grow it, and then about themselves (are
they an entrepreneur?). They are required to summarize this with a
paper with this information, a P and L, proof of sales or other items
that we negotiated, and their personal observation. The
presentations also have the value of teaching the other students,
they get to see a lot of models and who made it and who did not and
why. Lack of passion is the main culprit, they are just doing it as
a requirement versus they are passionate about creating a business.
Dr. Stearns developed this concept/class and I support it. My
feeling is that we want to teach entrepreneurship but also should
produce entrepreneurs. This class responds to the latter (internship
for entrepreneurs). If a student will put the effort into the class
the education is rich, they find out what entrepreneurship really
is. The analogy, if a tree falls in the forest... connects with this.
Hope this helps you.
Tom Burns
Coordinator Executive MBA Program
Craig School of Business
CSU Fresno
5245 N. Backer Ave. M/S PB7
Fresno CA. 93740-8001
Phone (559) 278-3077
FAX (559) 278-4911
www.craig,csufresno.edu/mbae/
tombu@csufresno.edu
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