For the second year, the chance has come for would-be entrepreneurs to explore their options and learn from business pros how to take the right steps to start a new business or help an existing one grow.
Northern Michigan University is offering the Entrepreneurship Academy from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, starting March 9 and going until April 13.
The classes will cover business development, accounting, financing, marketing, legal issues, and resources available to entrepreneurs. Rather than a traditional college course, it's more like a workshop, open to the public as well as students, and doesn't require university registration.
Rob Lion, assistant dean of NMU's College of Business, which is leading the academy, says each session of the course will cover a different key area to help entrepreneurs get started.
"One of the goals of the Academy is to expose the participants to several of the major business aspects one will encounter when they establish their own business," he says. "Too often, new entrepreneurs get caught in their vision or passion for their product or service that they enter the market with unrealistic expectations or unprepared with they will encounter."
The cost is $100 to community members to cover course materials, and free to students, through a grant from NMU's Wildcat Innovation Fund.
Lion says the cost to the public is as low as they can make it, in an effort to spur more attendees, and hopefully inspire more new U.P. businesses.
"The goal of launching this effort was to help stimulate entrepreneurial awareness and growth in our region," he says. "In recent years, other entrepreneurship seminars have been offered in our area; however they have been quite costly and they only permitted a limited number of people the opportunity to explore their interest and capacity to be an entrepreneur."
Academy participants also will talk with local small business owners and community organization leaders about their perspectives on business locally, and get to pick their brains a little on issues they may face.
"Each person will walk away with something different. For some, it will be an understanding of their next steps in their business development process. For others, it may be to return to the drawing board and work on improving or establishing a business plan," says Lion.
To register,
contact Lion. Registration will remain open until all seats are filled.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Rob Lion, NMU College of Business
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