NC Colleges Cater to Future Entrepreneurs - N&O
August 1, 2010
By Christopher Gergen and Stephen Martin
After earning a degree in dance at UNC Greensboro, Amanda Smith did what a lot of arts majors do: She scrambled to make a living.
She taught, waited tables and performed, while also studying Pilates. "I never planned on having a business in my wildest dreams," Smith said. "It wasn't part of what I thought I needed to prepare myself for."
Seven years later, though, she finds herself running Core Integrity Pilates out of a sunny second-floor studio in a Greensboro office park.
"Some times I feel like I'm the spokesperson for what not to do as an entrepreneur," said Smith, who earned numerous Pilates certifications, started training a few clients at her house and gradually realized she had a business on her hands. She plunged into her accidental career with no knowledge of accounting, marketing, management or other fundamental skills.
She's not alone. Nearly two-thirds of people who start businesses have never taken a business course. That isn't necessarily the best course of action.
"Take swimming lessons before you're drowning," Smith advised. "You need to know what you're getting into."
This fall, Smith's alma mater will offer a new way to help when it launches a bachelor's of science degree in entrepreneurship. It will be only the second major of its kind among the state's public universities (Western Carolina University also offers one) and the first with a fully cross-disciplinary focus. Students will take a series of core courses in such areas as finance, planning and innovation through UNCG's Bryan School of Business and Economics.
The program's electives, ranging from dance and apparel design to hospitality and tourism, will also prep students on the basics of entrepreneurial success in various industry sectors.
'Being creative'
"Our vision of entrepreneurship involves being creative and innovative in anything you do," said Dianne Welsh, who directs the new major as Charles A. Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at UNCG's business school. "That could mean being entrepreneurial in a corporation or a university or a nonprofit, as well as having your own business."
As North Carolina attempts to shift away from its manufacturing roots to an economy powered by knowledge and service industries, entrepreneurship is taking center stage. It offers one of the best hopes for job creation and is grabbing the imagination of growing numbers of people.
At UNCG, Welsh said, the number of business studies majors choosing the entrepreneurship/small business concentration has soared by nearly 50 percent in the past five years. That's part of a nationwide trend.
Read more at the N&O.