UNM has unveiled a new class for students interested in entrepreneurship at Anderson.
MGT 190 Intro to Entrepreneurship is being offered in response to the growing entrepreneurial movement and the small business boom across New Mexico.
The course will present students with the tools to succeed in the world of entrepreneurship through the use of text as well as the voice of experience from other active entrepreneurs, predominantly students who have graduated from UNM.
“There has always been interest in owning (a) small business in this state,” said UNM Lecturer and Director of the Small Business Institute Stacy Sacco. “Technology (and) environment have changed to have this rich economy for your small business.”
He said the course is designed to help students understand the hardships and rewards of entrepreneurship, which will ultimately lead for them to decide if this is the career path they would like to pursue.
This class will serve as a prerequisite for later courses that delve into the creation of business plans as well as provide deeper calculations and information needed to start a small business through entrepreneurship, Sacco said.
Rather than going directly into the actual building stages of starting one's own business, this class will help serve students by providing a broad view of what starting a business will be like, the hardships they will face and the rewards they could reap through self-discipline and motivation.
According to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, in 2013 small businesses outnumbered large ones almost 22 to one, with 33,489 firms employing fewer than 500 employees, compared to the 1,530 that employed 500 or more.
Of those 33,489 blossoming businesses, 29,302 had fewer than 20 employees. The total number of employees working in small businesses also overshadowed the number of those working in larger corporations by about 55,000.
The course isn’t just for students in the business field, either, Sacco said. Rather, it welcomes students from different degree programs looking for a taste of entrepreneurship to go along with their own individual fields of study.
“Entrepreneurship is a business discipline but also comes from ideas from other fields,” said UNM Professor and Anderson Department Chair Sul Kassicieh.
Kassicieh said the course will be a combination of text and guest speakers, describing the format of the class as “one day of lecture, one day of speakers.”
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The text will serve as a guideline for students in the class, he said. The guest speakers - representing small business owners, funders and venture capitalists - will help supplement the information learned in class.
The hope is that speakers - some coming from out of state - will help students to relate to the real life challenges, failures and successes an entrepreneur faces, Kassicieh said.
Sacco emphasized the value of entrepreneurship and the difference it has to the corporate world, he said, where failure is considered bad. Many entrepreneurs focus on failing fast to learn from the experiences and pivoting back from the failure, helping them find new solutions to problems they can possibly face on a daily basis.
He said while a strong amount of ideas are presented for entrepreneurship, finding out what the market needs and adapting to those needs is essential for someone interested in starting their own small business.
The course will help students understand as well as explore different business ideas and opportunities, Sacco said. It will also help teach them how to determine the feasibility of a business concept and how to start and run a small business.
Combined with learning from failing fast, this course will help students to contribute to building a richer economy through entrepreneurship, he said.
Sacco said the variety of students welcomed in this class will help them forge connections now with other students from other fields for later on down the road.
The goal of the course is to give students an understanding of what will be expected of them should they choose to pursue the career of an entrepreneur, he said. Students will learn how to manage the risks presented to them and take advantage of the resources the class will provide with real life experience.
Sacco said being an entrepreneur is a rewarding and often difficult career and he hopes to help people understand what it means to be an entrepreneur and decide if it is a career path they wish to pursue.
Both Kassicieh and Sacco hope to open doors for business students to continue on in their studies as well as pave a path for future entrepreneurs and small business owners.
“We feel that entrepreneurship and starting small businesses is key to the economy,” Kassicieh said.
