By PHYLLIS KORKKI
Published: March 18, 2013
THEY’RE called entrepreneurship or small-business certificates, and they don’t carry the cachet or the credit of an M.B.A. But they take far less time to obtain, and they cost less, too. More colleges are offering them as a way to help people get their businesses off the ground.
Rachel Harris
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The classes cover topics like marketing and advertising, financial management, tax and legal issues, business plans, pricing, fund-raising and customer service. Beyond the basics, programs can offer electives covering a specific business or skill, like selling over the Internet. Programs can be tailored to the needs of the surrounding community, and the faculty can be businessmen and women in the area. Teachers have the potential to provide mentoring in addition to knowledge.
Teaching entrepreneurship seems clearly a growth business. In the 2010-11 school year, 260 postsecondary institutions offered entrepreneurship and small-business certificate programs, compared with 72 institutions 10 years earlier, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of the Education Department.
“We try to prepare students with what they need, but also who they need to know,” said Raul Deju, director of the Institute of Entrepreneurial Leadership at John F. Kennedy University, based in Concord, Calif. Through the institute’s certificate program, which began in 2010, executives who serve as teachers might lead the way to connections and financing, he said. The program costs about $4,000, which includes meetings with mentors and potential investors, he said. More than 70 people have received certificates, he said.
William Martinez, 33, attended the program last year while working to expand his nanotechnology company, Nanotech Biomachines, based in Berkeley, Calif. The company makes an ultrathin substance known as graphene for computer and industrial applications.
With a bachelor’s and a master’s in materials engineering, Mr. Martinez knew his science and technology, but he didn’t know the answers to some basic business questions: How do I write a business plan? How do I find customers? How do I attract investors? He said the program helped fill those gaps. It also helped him make connections with lenders, he said.
The program “jumps into a lot of the core things that people face,” said Bill Wiersma, the founder and principal of a management consultancy, who teaches classes on professional values and also serves as a mentor. Starting a business is not for the faint of heart, and mentors can help entrepreneurs through the rough patches “so they can live to fight another day,” he said.
But learning is no substitute for doing, many business people say. “When you run a business, you learn how to make your gut work,” said Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, a nonprofit membership organization. “You can’t do that in a classroom setting — there is no exception to that.”
Certificate programs that provide experienced mentors are superior to ones that don’t, he added, “because these are people who are in the trenches.” And it’s crucial to have faculty who are real-world business people, he said.
The time it takes to complete a certificate program can vary depending on a student’s other commitments. Many programs try to be flexible to accommodate full-time workers. The program at John F. Kennedy is meant to take around six months, or two quarters.
It can take less than a year to two years to complete the small-business and entrepreneurship program at Hunter College in New York, said Cristian Gallardo, associate director of continuing education. A faster pace might work for someone who was let go from their current job “so they have to reinvent themselves,” he said. A bachelor’s degree is not required to enroll.
The Hunter College program began about three years ago to help returning military veterans, who can receive tuition and housing aid, but it is not restricted to veterans, he said. Without financial aid, the program costs $2,350.
In Traverse City, Mich., the small-business/entrepreneur certificate program at Northwestern Michigan College costs just $400 to $500. An aspiring entrepreneur in Traverse City, a small, resort-style community on Lake Michigan, may well be an artist or craftsman. But just like Mr. Martinez, the nanotech expert, they may be very good at what they do without possessing much business knowledge.
The Northwestern Michigan program offers eight classes in four core areas: starting a business, financial management, marketing and customer service. Elective classes cover topics like how to run a bed-and-breakfast, how to become a personal trainer and how to bring your business online legally.
“We’re not trying to be an M.B.A. program,” said Julie Doyal, program coordinator for the college’s Extended Educational Services. “There are plenty of those out there.” The goal, she said, is to get people on track to fulfill their entrepreneurial goals.
The program can be more nimble with its offerings compared with M.B.A. programs, which can require a longer curriculum review process, she said. Sometimes by the time a class has made it through the review, the skill it covers is no longer relevant, she said.
Recently the program added classes on how to use Etsy, the online craft site, Ms. Doyal said. Several years ago, “who would have even known what Etsy was? And even within Etsy, it continues to change.”
Michelle Smith-Ronk, 38, decided to attend the program in 2009 because she knew all about making cookies but almost nothing about accounting. Through her company, Custom Cookies by Michelle, she bakes cookies and decorates them for baby showers, weddings, birthday parties, business functions and other events.
“I always liked arts and crafts growing up, and I always liked baking,” Ms. Smith-Ronk said. “I just decided to combine the two of them, and I found out I was pretty good at it. I decided I would take some business classes to see if that would be a valid way for me to make some money.”
During the program, Ms. Smith-Ronk learned how to use QuickBooks for small-business accounting. She also set up a Facebook page after taking a class that covered using social media. She incorporated the business last year.
She now works as a receptionist at an auto dealership, and the cookies are a side business as she raises her young son and daughter.
Ms. Doyal said that holding the certificate might give some added credibility to someone seeking financing. But to Ms. Smith-Ronk, the main value of it is that “I like to know I went through the steps and tried to make myself more knowledgeable about the process” of starting a business.
Posted By: Dilasha Malla
Tuesday, April 16th 2013 at 7:18PM
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