Passion and Planning Are Vital to Entrepreneurs

Have you always dreamt of running your own business but never knew where to begin?  Career Services has launched a three-part entrepreneur workshop series. The sessions focus on the steps that are needed to start your own business, from discussing the entrepreneur model, to the first steps needed and different financing options. Presenting the sessions is former entrepreneur and current Director of the Center for Women & Enterprise, Michelle Miller.

Ms. Miller is the former owner of a coffee shop in Central Massachusetts. In the first workshop, held on November 21, she discussed exploring entrepreneurship and told of her own trials and errors during her time as a business owner.

“I did this on my own and learned many hard lessons,” she said.

She addressed the importance of developing a working business model and went through the steps of the entrepreneurial process, which are:

• Identify an opportunity
• Develop a concept
• Determine the required resources
• Acquire the necessary resources
• Implement and Manage
• Harvest the venture

“You must have a passion, patience and time. You’ll be working harder than you’ve ever worked in your life,” she continued, noting that it’s important to have a good support system.

Having good credit and knowing what your credit is are extremely important, as well as learning about alternative funding methods.

“A common factor in the fail rate of a business is not understanding the money piece,” she said.

This means having a familiarity with budget, knowing what insurance you need, marketing costs and what you need to earn to make a living.

It’s also important to have experience in the industry you are going into or at the very least be able to learn about it from someone else.

The key takeaway in Ms. Miller’s presentation was to make sure you write a business plan defining your end goal. This organizes your thoughts and is the key to getting your business off on the right foot.

There are a myriad of ways to entrepreneurship from starting something from scratch to purchasing an existing business; taking over a family business to becoming a franchise owner or an employee who works to ownership.

“Map out your idea and test it to see what’s out there. Entrepreneurship can be taught but the passion and dedication you bring can’t,” Ms. Miller said.

The second workshop, "Steps to Start a Business,” will be held on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. in the Harrington Learning Center, Room 109B.

Visit Career Services to learn about additional workshop opportunities.