Develop the UNR Entrepreneurship Club

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What: Many college students have business ideas or strong desires to be in business, but significant hurdles often keep the entrepreneurial path from being pursued. Foundational knowledge can be obtained from college courses, but a mountain of intimidating practical hurdles can remain. Most successful entrepreneurs speak of a time when they had to just go all in to pursue their business idea, but few would suggest blind risk-taking. How is a younger entrepreneur to know when their idea and their individual maturity are at a point where success is reasonably possible? This project will develop the UNR Entrepreneurship Club so UNR students, and those in the community who desire to attend Club meetings, can (1) develop the ability to recognize business opportunities, (2) develop individual capacities for pursuing business opportunities, (3) obtain knowledge that will foster entrepreneurial success, and (4) pursue a particular business idea while having a community of entrepreneurs that can be drawn upon for advice and mentoring.

Who: Project leader: Bryan McArdle Initial Team: Bryan McArdle, Brett Simons, Shyla Pheasant, David Lan, Kathy Carrico Project Secretary: Shyla Pheasant

How: The existing UNR entrepreneurship club will be transformed by (1) building a team supporting entrepreneurs in the community who will speak to the club occasionally and be available to club members for advice, (2) creating a mentoring program whereby club members with a business idea are matched with a community entrepreneurs to facilitate success, (3) creating a blog to disseminate and archive the salient features of talks given to the club, (4) pursing specific small projects within the club that will help club members move forward with business ideas (e.g. researching the steps needed to obtain all the licenses and meet the regulatory requirements for starting a particular business).

When: The initial project team will recruit a set of entrepreneurs in the community who will associate themselves with the UNR Entrepreneurship Club by August 2010. A calendar of events for the 2010-2011 school year will be created by mid August 2010. A “party” will be held early in the Fall semester 2010, so those the entrepreneurs recruited can meet each other, meet the students, and get excited about the possibilities. A blog with be created by August 2010, so that the Club leadership and those participating will know how and when each will participate.

Metrics: : The number of student members and number of community members of the Club will be measures of success. A goal of 40 student members and 20 community members is set for December 2010. The quantity of quality blog posts is another measure of success. The goal is one quality post per week by December 2010. Long term, the number of businesses started by student members of the club is a success measure, whether the business is started while the student is still in college or after. The goal for 2010 is one business, two businesses in 2011, and three in 2012.

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