Help for Young Entrepreneurs

There are a slew of resources available regardless of whether businesspeople are just getting started or launching their umpteenth venture

by Karen E. Klein

When Doug Mellinger was a student at Syracuse University in the 1980s, there were almost no programs specifically for students bent on owning their own companies. In fact, he created the college's first major in entrepreneurship and helped found the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization, www.eonetwork.org, just so he wouldn't feel so alone.

"You could count college entrepreneurial programs on one hand in those days," says Mellinger, now a 42-year-old serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Foundation Source, www.foundationsource.com, a technology company serving philanthropic foundations that's based in Fairfield, Conn.

A decade later, YEO (now called The Entrepreneurs' Organization) boasted 10,000 members around the world, and some of its early members had gone on to spark a creative technology revolution that would change the world. "That early movement led to the growth and acceptance of young people in business that boomed during the 1990s. Today, people in their 20s and even teens who own businesses are very accepted, but that wasn't true before," Mellinger notes.

Along with that newfound acceptance, young entrepreneurs today enjoy networking groups, educational programs, and competitions aimed at supporting and encouraging their efforts. Here are some resources that can help youthful entrepreneurs get started:

Really Young Entrepreneurs: School programs and summer camps exist at the high school and even junior-high level that educate students about entrepreneurship. One, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, targets would-be entrepreneurs in low-income communities in inner cities and rural areas, working with teachers to provide curriculum on business ownership and resources for pursuing that dream.

College Entrepreneurship Programs: More than 600 U.S. universities offer at least one course on entrepreneurship, Mellinger says, and about 200 offer either a major or minor in the subject. Clark University, where he is an entrepreneur-in-residence, is among many schools around the country that have programs addressing both the academic and practical sides of running a business.

Some, such as Georgia State University, specialize in a particular aspect of entrepreneurship. Georgia's focus is on international business, through its H. J. Russell Sr. International Center for Entrepreneurship (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/12/06, "Best Schools by Specialty: Entrepreneurship".

Student Clubs: Campus groups aimed at college entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs, like the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs, provide a forum for students to talk about the businesses they are trying to get off the ground. "One of the things we do with the Clark group, called 'Initial Advantage,' is take students on 'EntreTours' where they visit an entrepreneurial place of business," Mellinger says. "We used to bring entrepreneurs in to lecture, but most of them end up being horrible speakers. They want to talk about how wonderful they are today, which is useless for our students. What they want to hear is how the business got started and what hell did the founder have to go through." Having club members in a business environment where they can ask practical questions about operations has proven far more effective, he says.

Business Plan Competitions: Many entrepreneurship programs hold business plan competitions for students and community entrepreneurs. "The best of these competitions are least useful for the prize money they offer and most valuable for the feedback provided," says Peter Winicov, senior associate director of communications for the Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs at the University of Pennsylvania. "A team that won our grand prize a few years ago was and is headed up by an Israeli grad student who connected with Penn students and faculty; he's still in business at InfraScan.