Howdy everyone! I hope your week has been going well! Mine sure has been busy, and fun! This week I want to share my favorite class for this semester: The Management of New Enterprises.
Now, it may seem odd to have my favorite class this semester out of the business school when I’m an engineering student, but that’s part of the fun of it! As a Computer Science/Business Administration major, I get to experience both sides of the coin, and really, so do a lot of engineering students! A business or entrepreneurship minor is, in my experience, one of the more popular choices, and it’s exciting to get differing perspectives in the classroom. But enough of the preface, what is this class?
The Management of New Enterprises (BAEP 451 for the curious) is the first class in the entrepreneurship series of electives. The goal is to introduce students to the world of entrepreneurship and what kinds of opportunities exist. Through this journey, we are learning how entrepreneurs evaluate risks, and create opportunities where none could be found. By analyzing our current means and increasing the efficiency in which we utilize them, we are learning how to expand our networks and turn concept into action.
With that, action is the key word in the class (other than customer – the key word in business). It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new idea and waste time honing it to absolute perfection, but this allows competitors to enter or motivation to wane. Most entrepreneurs never get past the idea stage, bouncing from idea to idea without creating a viable product. To teach ourselves against this, we have several assignments like participating in a trade show, interviewing an entrepreneur, networking events, and, this weekend, participating in the $5 challenge. This challenge had us form teams for 4, and with 4 hours of work and $5 each, we were tasked to identify a need in our environment and sell some product or service to satisfy this need and raise money to be donated to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. By limiting our time and capital available, this has forced us to think outside the box and search for fast and simple opportunities to take on. My group has begun a GoFundMe campaign to Pump It Up! This coming Monday, we will be stationed near campus to check tire pressure and fill bike tires for a small donation of any size. By allowing customers to pay via cash or online, we found this to be an easy and capital free way of providing convenience for our customers and ensuring that they pay only a fair price.
While I won’t post the link to our campaign here, if you would like to learn more about the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, you can go to their website here to check them out!
While I love my engineering classes, I love having a variety even more. I’m really excited to apply my critical thinking skills in new ways and tie in my experiences to build a well rounded education. I encourage you to do the same!
~Patrick
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