If you”™re thinking of beginning a business, it should be reflective of your interests.
That”™s the message Joel Warren, executive director of The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Fairchester, wants the 9,000-plus students who have participated in his programs to remember.
NFTE Fairchester has increased its number of students served by 30 percent since the division”™s inception in 1999.
Eight school districts provide a year-long curriculum program taught by NFTE-certified teachers who guide students through a 70- to 100-hour MBA-style program to develop a business plan.
Warren said the organization only works in schools where “at least 50 percent are eligible for a free lunch.”
The organization will host the countywide business plan competition June 2 in Valhalla; the Fairfield County competition is scheduled for June 9 in Norwalk, Conn.
Pre-competition work involved in-class business plan presentations where business executives coached students on their individual proposals.
Warren said students are coached with questions like, “Where would you get your customers, where would you get insurance and how would you publicize it?”
What is important is not only having an idea, but knowing or demonstrating a way to go about implementing it.
“They also look for a general understanding of the numbers and economic units,” Warren said. “One student wanted to be a wedding planner and they looked at what a wedding is going to cost. What dresses and gas and advertising is going to cost.”
The winners of the countywide competitions will go on to attend the national competition in October in New York City, Warren said.
First-place winners are eligible for $10,000.
