The entrepreneurship minor provides an introduction to both business entrepreneurship and "social" entrepreneurship for students from any major area of academic study. The entrepreneurship minor provides students with an opportunity to develop a business plan for either a social, nonprofit or business entrepreneurial organization that is appropriate for pursuing investors or grants.
The entrepreneurship minor provides all students interested in developing entrepreneurial perspectives and skills a chance to develop their problem solving, negotiation, organizing, ambiguity and risk tolerance skills.
Graduates of the business program entreprenurship minor own organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, in a wide variety of fields including retail, property management, human resources consulting, product development and several other professional services.
Curriculum
The minor requires the completion of 7 courses (21 credits):
BUS-302 Principles of Management
BUS-303 Principles of Marketing
BUS-416 Managing Financial Resources
BUS-401 Entrepreneurship I
BUS-402 Entrepreneurship II, plus two elective courses.
Elective courses are chosen based on the entrepreneurial interests of the students and can be selected from any academic department on campus.
Elective courses must be approved by the chair of the business and economics department. Business majors do not take BUS-416. No more than three courses from the student's major may be applied to the completion of the entrepreneurship minor.
BUS-302 Principles of Management
Examines organizational, human resources, operational, and functional aspects of ethically managing activites of diverse workforces in organizational settings. Analyzes traditional managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling within the context of changing demands in organizations that compete effectively in an inter-connected, global environment. [ 3 credits ]
BUS-303 Principles of Marketing
This course introduces the language of marketing the strategic marketing process. While formulating viable marketing strategies for diverse business situations, learners will gain experience gathering and analyzing industry and market data, as well as implementing core-marketing concepts such as market segmentation, targeting, positioning,and the marketing mix in the formulation and implementation of real-world marketing strategies. This course culminates in the development of a marketing plan for a new product, service or retail establishment. [ 3 credits ]
BUS-401 Entrepreneurship I
Provides a thorough overview of the complete process of developing and launching for-profit, non-profit or social business ventures. Topics include idea generation strategies, executive summaries, brand creation and selection of business names. Students will gain an understanding of bootstrapping, scalability, promotion, distribution and pricing. The importance of laws and regulations for all aspects of a new venture will be explored. Patents, copyrights, contracts and regulations will also be discussed. The major component of this course will be application of market research skills to research databases and primary/secondary sources of information to complete a formal assessment of the viability of a business idea. This course will culminate in the completion of a feasibility analysis to test assumptions derived from market research. Prerequisite:
BUS-303 or permission of chair. [3 credits]
BUS-402 Entrepreheurship II
Continues the progression set forth in Entrepreneurship I by teaching students the process for developing a comprehensive business plan for an entrepreneurial start-up endeavor. Additionally, students will be assigned a successful entrepreneur from the student's field of interest to serve as their mentor throughout the semester. Students will learn how to prepare a financial plan. They will analyze actual business agreements to gain familiarity with the language of and issues contained in those documents. Students will build marketing competencies essential to building and sustaining a new venture, such as how to identify customer needs, determine correct target markets and develop sales/marketing tactics and strategies. Students will also prepare and deliver an oral presentation of their plan from the perspective of an entrepreneur presenting to potential investors. Prerequisite:
BUS-401. Corequisite:
BUS-416 or
BUS-321 or permission of chair. [3 credits]
BUS-416 Managing Financial Resources
Provides students with an overview of the accounting and financial tools necessary for managers. Addresses the development and analysis of basic financial statements, the development of budgets (both operating and capital), and other techniques of financial analysis for management decisionmaking. Prerequisite: general education mathematics requirement. Business majors may not take this course; students who have taken
BUS-261 may not take this course. [3 credits]
