ENT - Entrepreneurship

This course requires students to develop a feasibility study for a new business venture. The study will be utilized throughout courses in the major and will form the basis of the business plan in ENT 487. In addition to a historical review of entrepreneurship, students assess the value of a concept and explore opportunity recognition, innovation and creativity, pro forma financial statement development, the legal structures of business, risk analysis and types of entrepreneurial ventures.

Major sources of funding for new ventures - including family and friends funding, angels, venture capitalists, informal investors, banks, investment banks, suppliers, buyers and the government - are reviewed and evaluated in this course. Some topics for this course include debt and equity capital markets, valuation, bootstrapping, joint ventures, strategic alliances, private placements, IPOs and management buyouts. Student will create pro formas and develop a funding plan for a new venture.

This course begins with an overview of the basic business principles as they apply to multi-generational businesses. The course covers the vital importance of family businesses to communities and national economies, and the unique problems and opportunities they face. A systems perspective is used to understand the dynamics among family members, the ownership and the management of the business. The course uses speakers, case studies and assessment tools to develop understanding and strategies for managing those dynamics. It is designed for majors and non-majors either from or interested in family businesses.

This course draws on a broad range of business disciplines including management, marketing, finance and accounting to develop the business plan. Critical elements of the plan include industry/market analysis, clear opportunity and concept definition, target market analysis, a comprehensive human resource plan, financial pro forma analysis, as well as statements of sources and uses of funds, and an assessment of critical risks. Semester-long work on the business plan culminates with a business plan competition.

Topics vary and focus on emerging ideas and the latest research in areas of entrepreneurship that are not covered by the current curriculum. Sample topics include creativity and problem-solving, innovation and technology entrepreneurship, legal issues for entrepreneurs, corporate entrepreneurship, real estate venturing and social entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is the art of business. Think of the business plan and the business operation as your canvas. Entrepreneurship takes creativity, innovation and perseverance. Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and acting. In this course, you will acquire a greater understanding of the entrepreneurial process — a process of opportunity recognition, resource marshalling and team building driven by communication, creativity and leadership. You will work on YOUR business concept.

This course is part of the M.S. in Entrepreneurship and introduces students to the principles and techniques of ideation, creativity and opportunity recognition that are critical to an entrepreneurial mindset. Students will learn a wide variety of creative problem solving and theory building skills and have the opportunity to apply those to the development of a new concept and venture. Students will also learn how to identify and reduce self-imposed limitations to creativity and opportunity recognition. In addition, business modeling techniques are introduced as a method for evaluating creative ideas.

Creating new businesses, capturing new markets and enhancing organizational effectiveness occur through improving productivity or innovation, or both. New discoveries, new technologies, competition and globalization compel both entrepreneurs and existing firms to foster innovation and agility. This course explores successful frameworks, strategies, funding techniques, business models, risks and barriers for introducing breakthrough products and services. Topics include business model innovation, design-driven innovation and leadership. The focus is on the selection of appropriate business models.

This course uses a combination of of case discussions and lectures to study entrepreneurial finance. The course is targeted toward budding entrepreneurs. The course begins with an overview of financial statements. A thorough examination of forecasting revenues and expenses are used to create pro forma financial statements. The course then shifts to financing operations of startups with limited resources. External sources of financing to fund growth are introduced, and the tax implications of all financial decisions are evaluated. The course concludes with a discussion of exit strategies available to harvest the investment in the startup.

In this course we will explore how marketing and entrepreneurship affect and are affected by one another. We will examine concepts from each of these two areas to determine how they apply to and how they can aid the practice of the other. We will look at the role of marketing in entrepreneurial ventures and the role of entrepreneurship in marketing efforts of all firms. Attention will be devoted to understanding why marketers resist entrepreneurship, as well as the common mistakes entrepreneurs make when it comes to marketing.

This course treats entrepreneurship as a form of strategy. In today’s competitive environment, size of company does not correspond to entrepreneurship. On the one hand, companies like Microsoft, General Electric and Southwest Airlines have kept excellent cultures of entrepreneurship despite decades of phenomenal growth. On the other, large companies usually find their most aggressive competitors to be startups. Regardless of the type of company you will work in, it is critical to have a strong working knowledge of entrepreneurial strategies. You will work on your project in this course.

For graduate students only. Topics vary and will focus on emerging ideas and the latest research in areas of entrepreneurship that are not covered by the current curriculum. Though not limited to these, example topics include creativity and problem-solving, innovation and technology entrepreneurship, legal issues for entrepreneurs, corporate entrepreneurship, real estate venturing and social entrepreneurship.