Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Entrepreneur school

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A large majority of business start-ups fail. A lousy idea, a bad location, poor record keeping. . . there are all sorts of pitfalls waiting to clobber the start-up. Existing higher education tends to focus on either the specifics of business (bookkeeping, tax law, advertising, etc) or the MBA type program which seems aimed at training the next generation of middle management.

Why not a school teaching the basics in the skills needed to start a small business. Just enough accounting, inventory management, customer service concepts, etc to help get a business off the ground.

Mungo, Mar 10 2004

SCORE http://www.brookhav.../business/score.asp
Organization Of Retired Executives [theircompetitor, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Just one of many such incubator programs. Therefore, baked. http://www.slcec.com/incubators.htm
[Native Dancer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       Business school doesn't already address this? But I sympathize: I felt my high school and university education was geared to me becoming either an academic or a manager in a large corporation, completely overlooking the more valuable role that small businesses play in the world.
DrCurry, Mar 10 2004
  

       Something along the lines of an old-fashioned apprenticeship, perhaps, where you work with the guy who runs the small biz and learn every nook and cranny of its workings. I suppose the reason this has died out is because too many apprentices just replicate what the masters were doing and become competition.   

       (sp thanx DC)
Mungo, Mar 10 2004
  

       There's a lot of well meaning advice out there -- see link
theircompetitor, Mar 10 2004
  

       Seriously baked already... A closer examination of some of the better business schools will show that they have these sorts of programs.   

       Croissant for noticing the need though.
zigness, Mar 10 2004
  

       If I understand [Mungo] properly, this would be education before the person enters the workforce (right?).   

       If so, I think this is a good idea as I have thought vaguely in this direction.   

       Current educational establishments gear people up to be academics, middle managers, specialists or blue collar factory fodder. The UK has given up on craftsmen, for all the political puff. All these are EMPLOYEES.   

       What we need to do is open the door and possibility to kids to grow up to be employERS. Without employers we have no employees, except in the public sector - the consumers, not producers of wealth.   

       IMHO ALL schools should provide a business equivalent of Religious Education - Business Education - from 11-16 where kids are taught the basics of types of company, the outlines of economics (supply/demand), marketing and have local business leaders come in and give presentations on their business and how they did it.   

       From 16-18 those not wanting to specialise for University with A-levels can then take further more specific courses and should be permitted to begin their business in parallel.   

       You will often find entrepreneurs are sons/daughters of entrepreneurs, as these are the people who are taught that it is possible not to be an employee. We need to get out of the lie that has been spun to generations since 1890 that being an employee is preferable to being an employer, however small. I value a self-employed person higher than any salaried manager in a corporation. The manager got promoted, spinning plates already spinning, and more often than not delegates the spinning to someone else from his business-class lounge. A self- employed person/entrepreneur got the plate, the pole, learnt how to spin it, got it spun up AND keeps it there - the true wealth creators.
timbeau, Mar 11 2004
  

       OK. One random idea each from the HB, let's go make money!
unclepete, Mar 11 2004
  

       <aside> I once helped develop the online delivery of a course in how to be an entrepreneur. One of the guys I worked with at the time was a bit dyslexic. The client, a well known University, was a bit miffed when he saw the title on the front page: "Untrumpeter: Could It Be You?" </aside>
saker, Mar 11 2004
  

       Yes, (timbeau) that is more or less exactly what I'm talking about. Not to get too weepy about it, but has anyone noticed that all the mom&pop shops have disappeared? I'm sure there's a great deal of advice out there on "how to get ahead in life", but somehow the megas appear to be winning and the small business is being eradicated. The best way to get ahead these days seems to be by buying stock in someone elses company.   

       I don't mean to be advocative, but over the course of fifty or a hundred years, there might be a very real problem in the deliberate dumbing down of people so that they make marvelous employees but would never have the idea of starting a business themselves . .. .
Mungo, Mar 16 2004
  

       //self-employment is on the rise again, having reached a nadir in the heavily industrialized, prosperous 1960's and 1970's//   

       Ahh, 1967. I remember it well. After taking in a Viacom flick at the 48-megaplex my gal and I decided to get something to eat. Hmmm, McDonalds. . . Pizza Hut. . . Subway. . . . we trolled through the four mile parking lot of the gargantua-mall. "Oooh, Wal-Mart!" I said, pointing at the familiar large blue box ahead on the left. I need a soldering iron. Do you think they'll have one?" But then again there was Home Depot, and Circuit City just the other side of Radio Shack. They might have soldering irons, too.   

       (nope, just can't leave it alone)
Mungo, Mar 22 2004
  

       <reads saker's anno> Ooh! An Untrumpet. I think I'd like one of those.
DrBob, Mar 22 2004
  
      
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