| COB offers new courses on entrepreneurship |
Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Kent Byus believes you can’t just automatically consider yourself an entrepreneur and start a business simply because you have the financial means to do so.
“It’s much more than that,” he cautioned. “It’s about being opportunity obsessed.”
Last fall the University’s College of Business began offering a new series of courses on entrepreneurship. The first course was an Introduction to Entrepreneurship, which was followed by New Venture Creation last spring. Next spring the College plans to offer a course in Guerilla Marketing.
“We’re trying to build the program one course at a time,” Byus noted. “Someday we’d like to see this subject grow into becoming a minor and eventually a major within the College of Business. The economy of Corpus Christi will benefit from having this kind of entrepreneurial understanding and brainpower.”
Byus warns that entrepreneurship is not just about starting up your own business. “It’s that attitude which has given us the ugly statistics about failed businesses we have today: 85 percent of all new businesses fail within the first three years,” he noted.
“These entrepreneurship courses take a look at growing a business and readying yourself to start another opportunity,” according to Byus. “Starting a business requires planning and the delicate coordination of resources. Entrepreneurship is developing a way of thinking and reasoning that is growth-oriented.”
Byus said his classes discuss the Capital Market Context, which states that every business decision made equals a dollar in the door or a dollar out the door. “A successful business owner is always thinking ahead,” Byus noted. “Where will the business be five years or 10 years down the road?”
History is filled with iconic entrepreneurial success stories, but in most instances, today’s popular media has used the word entrepreneur too loosely, argued Byus. “An entrepreneur is a value maker, not a value taker,” he added.
“My new venture creation course is tough because business is tough,” said Byus. “An entrepreneur must wear many hats, so students in this class must show proficiency in marketing, finance, and information systems, among other areas.”
Byus also invites local entrepreneurs as guest speakers to discuss their real-world experiences. “Gloria Perez worked for 25 years at SBC and she owns a thriving business, Chem-Dry. Brad Lomax, owner of the Water Street Restaurants and retail center Water Street Market, began his career waiting tables,” Byus said.
The traditional business school model teaches students how to work for someone. And now the University is poised to help students transition to the next step: teaching students to work for themselves.
Summer graduate Tom Criser completed the Advanced Entrepreneurship class just before graduating and found the course extremely valuable. “I’ve owned my own businesses over 20 years and I can honestly say if I could’ve taken this class earlier, it would have enhanced my abilities to run them,” Criser said.
Criser currently owns TLC Advertising, which focuses on providing business development services for physicians. |
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