Many people have ideas for a business but turning that idea into reality can be a challenge.
New this year, Nicolet College is offering an eight-week “Start Your Own Business” class.
“So much of our economy is driven by small business,” said Alan Toliver. He’s President of Green Arrow LLC and the instructor for the class.
Toliver says, historically, there’s not been a lot of resources for people to launch their own business and be successful.
“People struggle, and they make bad decisions, and they aren't nearly as successful as they could be if they had a more clear roadmap, and they have some greater assistance to kind of navigate the path,” said Toliver.
The goal of the class is for participants to walk away with things like a business plan, a market assessment, and a pitch if they need to get funding. Toliver says it will pretty much be everything they need to start a business.
There are two aspects that Toliver believes will make this class particularly successful.
One is bringing in different speakers that have experience and expertise on the topic they’ll be diving into each class. The other is that each student will be assigned a mentor.
“That person can help them and give them some insight and perspective, and ultimately, help them feel better about things, and that should be extremely valuable,” said Toliver. “When I say there's a community of resources, there are a lot of people that are more than willing to help these aspiring entrepreneurs either get started or get the foundation so that they can get started.”
Toliver encourages people to have an idea for a business or at least concept of what they want to pursue when they sign up for the class.
“If you're curious about becoming a business entrepreneur, and you've had an idea and you just didn't know what to do, or you just needed a push to kind of get started. This could very well be the right opportunity for them to kind of move things forward,” said Toliver.
Nicolet Collet Dean of Business and Entrepreneurship Ellen Mathein says they have talked to local economic development corporations and chambers of commerce about what different communities need. She says that can be helpful for generating business ideas or setting realistic expectations for them.
Mathein said when she taught business management she’d always ask students what they wanted to do. More than half would say they want to start their own business and more than a third of those would say they wanted to start a bakery.
“While I think that that's really cool, because I want to start a bakery in Tomahawk, we're really going to talk to the student about needs, and how's your bakery going to differ from Trig’s Bakery, or from BC Cupcake,” said Mathein.
She pointed out ones that have done things differently, like Almond and Berry in Rhinelander which is a gluten-free bakery.
“Those are two former students also from our culinary area,” said Mathein. “They hit a need right smack at it, and they are doing, it seems, gangbusters. They are just a need in the community, so we're going to talk a lot about identifying needs in communities.”
Mathein already has several people signed up. They range from current business owners looking to grow their business, to people that have identified a need in the community they’re looking to fill, to some that want to take their side business run out of their home to the next step.
The “Start Your Own Business” course is a continuing education, non-credit course. The class will run in the evenings at Nicolet College’s Rhinelander campus every Tuesday starting September 16, through Tuesday, November 4. People can register at nicoletcollege.edu/profdev.
It costs $249 and there are six scholarships available for Vilas County residents taking the course. Vilas County residents can contact Heather Schallock at 715-365-4518 or hschallock@nicoletcollege.edu to register and apply for the scholarship.
If students decide to enroll in a program at Nicolet after this class, Mathein says they will be able to get credit for this course.
“Our economy is fueled by small and micro businesses, they are what makes the economy up here in the Northwoods,” said Mathein. “We really want to encourage more and more people to venture into entrepreneurship.”
People can register for the class right up to the day of the first class on September 16th.
