An entrepreneur program that began in 2017 under Jon Beutler’s role as director of the Park City Business Resource Center has turned into courses taught at Salt Lake Community College designed to quickly turn small business ideas into revenue streams.
Called the Everyday Entrepreneur Program (EEP), a cohort of Congolese students recently celebrated their graduation at The Mill on SLCC’s Miller Campus by making mock pitches to investors in front of judges with the hope that their ideas will soon morph into businesses that include trucking, clothing, child care and the food industry. “The pitch is the final project, but it’s just the beginning,” Beutler said. “When you finish the class, you are just beginning at The Mill. Our real job is to support and provide resources to all small businesses.”
Graduate Richard Sasa’s impassioned pitch impressed the judges, who awarded him top prize for the day. Sasa and his wife are trying to open an affordable, family-oriented daycare that specializes in helping immigrants and refugees. “When parents are working,” Sasa told the other Congolese graduates sitting in the audience, “they need someone who looks like mom, who looks like dad, who can care about the kids … because those are your kids.”
Once graduates finish either a 10-week no credit program or the 12-week three-credit class (MGT 2750 - Launch Your Business, cost: $600), they become a member of The Mill, which continues to provide them with help getting their businesses off the ground. The goal is to help graduates reach $150,000 in revenue so that they can apply to be part of the successful Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, also offered at The Mill. In Utah alone, more than 700 business owners have graduated from the 10,000 Small Businesses program.
Planning is underway to expand the EEP program by establishing a 15-18 credit Certificate of Entrepreneurship for small business owners and this spring launching a new Truck Driving Entrepreneurs component. EEP currently includes a cohort at the Utah State Prison, helping inmates who will be released soon get a fresh start. The program has helped seven cohorts of veterans so far and recently launched its twelfth cohort.
The Mill executive director, Beth Colosimo, is involved with refugee outreach, education and activities and connected with the group Congolese students, each sharing a desire to start a business while sharing a common culture. “When one of my refugee students reached out to me after finding out about EEP and asked if I would teach her community, I could not say no,” Colosimo said. “The students came without knowing much about the class and trusted they would learn how to start their own small business. They were so eager and dedicated to lean into a new cultural and business understanding of how to begin a business in the US. Language barriers aside, they studied and embraced each week's education and showed up with business ideas. I was so excited to hear their pitches and to see how far they had come during our last session together.”
Partners in EEP include the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship, which helps deliver education and seed money to entrepreneurs, along with the local South Valley, Black and Hispanic chambers of commerce. Partnership support includes scholarships for small business owners.
Comments
Post a Comment