The entrepreneurial spotlight primarily shines on innovative, technology-driven firms these days. But one professor at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) in Danbury is reminding students it doesn”™t take designing the next iPod to get up on the entrepreneur stage.
Whether it”™s opening up a new dry cleaner or taking over the family corner store, entrepreneurs come in all forms, said Pauline Assenza, who teaches entrepreneurship at WCSU”™s Ancell School of Business.
“I have this fear that students only think entrepreneurship is about innovation, like they see watching Shark Tank on TV,” said Assenza, who joined WCSU in September. “It”™s not necessarily all high tech, but finding a need and creating a solution for it that creates value.”
Within Ancell”™s undergraduate management major, more than 130 students this year elected to focus their studies on small business entrepreneurship, rather than human resource management or supervisory management. In 2002, around the time the program started, only 14 students were enrolled.
About 51 percent of Americans would rather be self-employed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But only 12 percent of workers actually start a business. Many worry they”™ll go bankrupt or fail, while 8 percent say they don”™t have the skills needed to start a business.
“That”™s where we come in,” Assenza said. “At Western they can learn the skills needed to be a small business owner. That”™s our major contribution. We have the ability to reach that 8 percent.”
The program focuses on teaching students the multidisciplinary aspects of running a business, whether it”™s accounting, marketing, supply chain management or human resource management.
“The nice thing about entrepreneurship is that you”™re in it on your own path, uniquely suited for you,” Assenza said. “Everyone has something to add, some just need a push to determine what it is.”
In light of Danbury”™s new hackerspace and other larger innovation centers in the state, Assenza said it wasn”™t WSCU”™s focus to produce the next fleet of Steve Jobs, but to educate the future small business owners in the local economy.
“Many characterize entrepreneurship as a journey ”” ”˜creating a path that is uniquely suited to you as an individual, and building a vehicle for driving down that path,”™” Assenza said quoting author Jim Collins. “For students who might say, ”˜I”™m not sure I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur,”™ Peter Drucker has this advice: “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity”¦ Anyone who can face up to decision-making can learn to be an entrepreneur and to behave entrepreneurially.”
Building off some new energy within the school, due to some staff changes, the school hopes to continue expanding its entrepreneurial program and to connect with the greater business community, said Kathleen Lindenmayer, an Ancell coordinator.
Recently the school held an event for students where three former WSCU graduates spoke about the small businesses they”™ve started. Hundreds of community members also recently attended a luncheon at WCSU to honor Jim Kennedy of the Network Support Co. as WCSU”™s entrepreneur of the year.
“The business school has a lot going on,” Lindenmayer said. “There”™s a lot of great energy and pride, touching back to some of our former students. We”™ve had a lot of successful graduates go on to start businesses around the area.”
