Why Would I Enroll an employee in the Entrepreneurial Mindset class at ICC?

Most companies know that to survive in the ever-changing global marketplace, they are going to have to be more entrepreneurial and innovative in constantly improving how they offer their goods and services. It's not enough to have the top managers and owners do the thinking about this; all employees need to be involved in the thinking and innovating.

For many people, the term "entrepreneur" implies business ownership or business "start-up". Certainly, that is true sometimes, but entrepreneurship can be interpreted as the practice of finding new ways to solve problems for others, many times with limited resources.

The overarching objective of Entrepreneurial Mindset, featuring the Ice House Entrepreneurship curriculum is to learn how successful entrepreneurs recognize problems as opportunities and figure out creative ways to solve them. Since successful businesses have learned to recognize the problems of their customers and solve them in better ways than their competition, it stands to reason that having employees on your staff with the "Entrepreneurial Mindset" would better equip them to help solve the problems of your customers both internal and external.

So, while we do talk about business start-ups in this class, what we really emphasize is how to become better problem solvers. Entrepreneurs can be at work both within other companies and organizations as well as owning their own businesses.

 

(From:  http://www.ibrcenter.org/Employee-Enrollment-63924.asp)

New Finance Funds Available for Northern Montgomery County (KS) Entrepreneurs

The Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC) has received $90,000 to use in a revolving loan fund to provide gap financing for area start-ups and existing businesses with expansion or other improvement projects. The funds became available as a result of a competitive application process by IBRC. Late in October, Network Kansas announced that Northern Montgomery County was named a Network Kansas Entrepreneurial (E-) Community. Seven other communities were designated as new E-Communities in 2012.


With the designation as an E-Community, IBRC received and sold $75,000 in tax credits in order to raise the $90,000 in proceeds to use for the gap-financing loan pool. "Gap financing is used to fill the gap in funding that sometimes occurs as entrepreneurs finance start-up or improvement projects." says Jim Correll, executive vice-president of IBRC. "An entrepreneur might invest in a project and obtain conventional bank financing, but still need "gap" funds to finance the whole project. These E-Community funds can be used for loans to fill those gaps." Loan decisions are made locally. The IBRC board of directors will review loan applications and make the decisions to loan the funds.

Montgomery County Action Council (MCAC) aided IBRC in submitting the application and will service the loans.

"In today's challenging economy, communities need to be vigilant in promoting small businesses in any way that is available to them. The E-Community program provides the tools that our small rural communities need to promote the growth and development of our small businesses. The future of Cherryvale and Independence is dependent on the development of small businesses, and we look forward to helping foster this commitment to small business development thanks to the E-Community Program, and ensuring a strong future for our communities,” said Trisha Palmer, Interim Director of MCAC.

"Creating the E-Community loan fund is a wonderful opportunity for Independence and the surrounding area. Promoting small business development and encouraging aspiring entrepreneurs are great ways for our community to expand and prosper. The funds from this grant will provide financial opportunities to spur growth in Independence. Just watch us grow!" said Lisa Wilson, President/CEO, Independence Chamber of Commerce.

Correll, who also heads the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College added, " Each component we add to aid entrepreneurs helps us build our entrepreneurial support community. We are very pleased to become an E-Community for both the Independence and Cherryvale areas in northern Montgomery County." Cherryvale is within the ICC service district.

The funds will become available as of January 1, 2013 so applications for loan funds are being accepted now. Those interested in knowing more or applying should contact Correll at 620-332-5470 or jcorrell@indycc.edu.

About Innovative Business Resource Center

The Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC) was created in 2010 with a primary mission to provide business mentoring, incubation and other resources for area businesses.

Mentoring is provided by local/area volunteers experienced in general and specific areas of business while special entrepreneurship curriculum is provided by the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College. Other resources are offered as they become available.

Incorporated in February 2010 as Independence Business Resource Center, the board of directors changed the name in November of 2010 to better reflect the purpose of the organization and allow for a wider area of scope.

IBRC is a 501c3 Kansas corporation. Board members and the executive vice-president serve without pay. Contributions of money, equipment and/or materials are tax deductible. See www.IBRC.org for more information.

About Network Kansas E-Community.

Since 2007, NetWork Kansas E-Communities have loaned or granted $2.1 million to businesses in their communities through this funding source and leveraged an additional $11.9 million dollars, for a total investment of $14 million dollars into businesses in E-Communities. This funding has spurred the creation or retention of nearly 551 jobs in these same communities and has immeasurable positive effects on the entrepreneurial ecosystems of these participating areas.

The E-Community partnership, now in its sixth year, has grown from six communities in 2007 to thirty-eight in 2012. The NetWork Kansas E-Community partnership allows a town, a cluster of towns, or an entire county to raise seed money for local entrepreneurs through donations from individuals or businesses within the community. During the first five years of the E-Community partnership, more than $6 million have been raised. These funds are estimated to generate more than $34.1 million of investment in rural businesses across Kansas. See www.NetworkKansas.com for more information.

ICC and CCC Presidents Announce Collaboration

In a partnership between Independence Community College and Coffeyville Community College, a revolutionary new approach to entrepreneurship education will be offered on the Coffeyville Community College Technical Campus next semester as part of the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College.

"I'm tremendously pleased that we've created a way to collaborate academically with CCC," said ICC President Daniel Barwick. "This program lets us approach entrepreneurship regionally, and will be a model for a sharing of human resources and facilities among the two community colleges." Linda Moley, President of CCC, agrees. "This is a real victory for efficiency and for the county-wide delivery of educational services," she said. "My hope is that this is just the beginning."

The "Entrepreneurial Mindset" course, featuring the new "Ice House Entrepreneurship" curriculum, inspires and engages participants in the fundamental aspects successful entrepreneurs use to recognize problems in the marketplace as business opportunities. The curriculum also demonstrates how entrepreneurs seize those opportunities, many times with limited resources.

"This approach emphasizes how entrepreneurs recognize problems and then provide solutions that people want or need," said Jim Correll, facilitator/business coach of the Successful Entrepreneur Program. Through video interviews and local entrepreneurial guests, participants are exposed to the tacit knowledge in the minds of entrepreneurs that makes them successful. The first class was initiated in August in Independence and continues through the first week of December.

Brian Hight, co-owner of Magnolia Health and Home in Independence and participant in this semester’s Entrepreneurial Mindset class says “Small business will be the engine that will help Montgomery County grow. It takes a certain entrepreneurial mindset to start and grow a business, so having this resource to help develop that mindset available at both colleges will be a big win for our area's economic development."

"Making this curriculum available in both Independence and Coffeyville will inspire more business start-ups and re-inventions than any initiative I've seen since coming to the area in 2000," says Correll.

There will be a section of the class offered next semester in both Independence and Coffeyville. For more information or to pre-enroll, contact Jim Correll at 620-332-5470 or email him at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Curtis Lavine Visits the Entrepreneurial Mindset Class-Sep 25, 2012

 

Curtis Lavine, Independence serial entrepreneur, joined the Entrepreneurial Mindset class of Independence Community College on September 25. 
 (Our thanks to Independence Reporter photographer Rob Morgan for taking these photographs.)

He said he went out on his own to escape the four-wall trap of the corporate world where he took his direction from others.  He started Kansas Aviation in the early 1992 with a partner and four employees.  At at time when the competition took four days to get an order to the shop floor,  the new Kansas Aviation was returning the overhauled parts to their customers in two to four days.  Today, his son, Toby, runs Kansas Aviation which employees around 65 people.  The company is a world leader in aircraft engine accessory overhaul services and each day ship and receive parts all over the globe.

Curtis started eight or nine other companies in the years since starting Kansas Aviation.  In a perfect example of opportunistic adaptation (part of the Ice House curriculum) Kansas Aviation was so reliable and timely that customers began asking them to solve other problems for them.  One concept Curtis developed was one of inventory management where he offered to store inventory for Cessna vendors so it would be available on a just-in-time basis without Cessna incurring the cost of holding the inventory.  (Cessna builds the Mustang jet in Independence, Kansas.) Thus was born Cornerstone Warehousing.  Today that company stores inventory in similar fashion for Boeing and Cessna as well as a couple of local and regional companies.

As with our other guest entrepreneurs so far--Kym Kays, local franchisee for Express Employment Professionals and Jim Halsey, Impresario that managed 140 entertainment acts, including Roy Clark and the Oak Ridge Boys--Curtis brought up many points consistent with the eight life's lessons in the Ice House curriculum featured in the ICC Entrepreneurial Mindset class.

Curtis was in his early 60's when he left corporate life to start Kansas Aviation in 1992.  The expansion of Kansas Aviation and the start-up of the other companies took place at a point in Curtis' life when some would have retired.  Age places no limitations on the Entrepreneurial Mindset.

I'll Have an Order of Entrepreneurship to Fix the Economy, Please

I posed these questions to my Entrepreneurial Mindset class the other day.


* How many of you think the Federal or state governments are going to end the recession?
* How many of you think the big corporations are going to end the recession?
* How many of you think the labor unions are going to end the recession?

Not surprisingly, no one raised their hand. Then I asked them who was going to end the recession and they all said it would be small businesses and entrepreneurs.

It is not the job of the government to provide jobs. The government should provide a safe environment in which small businesses can do business; the small businesses will do the hiring.

Somehow, many have gotten the idea that it's the government that owes them a job, i.e. livelihood. Part of the entitlement society we now live in, I guess.

Those of us that work with people to help them become entrepreneurs are finding that everyone comes with a built-in entrepreneur but for many the internal entrepreneur is suppressed their whole life. There are ways to free the entrepreneur inside people by helping them develop an entrepreneurial mindset. That mindset makes each a better person, whether or not they go out on their own or continue to work for someone else.

Those of us that work with aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners can now see that developing an entrepreneurial mindset in everyone is the best way to help people all over the world better their lives. It's like the old adage of teaching someone to fish instead of just giving them the fish. People with an entrepreneurial mindset learn that it's their choices, not their circumstances that determine the outcome of their lives.

As for the politicians, it's really difficult to cut through all the rhetoric of the campaigns. Both sides have some good ideas if you can wade through all the nonsense. When it comes time to vote, though, I'm always going to vote for the side that I think most likely to work to provide a safe environment that supports entrepreneurship, one in which small businesses can do business. That is definitely not the current administration.

*Click here for more information about the Entrepreneurial Mindset class, including information on the next times and places the course might be offered.

Everybody Works For Somebody Else. Really?

Headline:  "School board hears report on approach to curriculum"

"Common Core Standards, the current approach to education that is being implemented in 44 states, is a curriculum designed to prepare students for college and employment, [a Director of Learning Services] told an area K-12 school board of education Monday.”

This headline and opening paragraph appeared recently in one or our area newspapers.

The ONLY thing we're going to prepare our students to do is go to college and work for someone else?  Really?  Do we really think the people that will work on our cars in the future need college to make $45,000 to $60,000 per year?

How are we supposed to have businesses and organizations that are successful enough to need all these employees we're creating if our “Common Core Standards” only creates employees?

 

What do we do about the nearly half of recent college graduates that are deep in debt and unemployed?  Should we just keep creating more graduates who only know to look for a certain kind of employment so they can take their place in the unemployment line behind those already there?

Apparently, boards of (K-12) education in 44 states think that's the answer.

This play-book, the one that directs us to tell our young people "Go to college, get your degree and go to work for someone else" is at nearly 100 years old and much of it began becoming obsolete sometime in the mid-1980's.

It's not just K-12 that's missing the boat.  For the most part, higher education, and the state and federal governments that control higher education purse strings, are all using the same obsolete play-book.

I attended a focus group of higher education leaders in Southeast Kansas a few months ago. The organizer wanted us to discuss the role of higher education in economic development.  I listened as participants talked exclusively about how higher education's job was to do a better job preparing their students to find jobs.  Finally, after a solid hour, a Kansas Small Business Development Center representative spoke up and said "Wait a minute.  What helping create the businesses that will hire the students?"  She might as well have been from Mars.

There's a problem. Ever notice in the last few years its smaller, entrepreneurial start-up companies that are growing and employing more people than the mostly dying, huge, bureaucratic dinosaur companies that were thriving in the 1950's, 60's and 70's?

Times are changing and change is only going to accelerate.  Many of today’s careers will be gone in five years and we have no idea what the new ones will be because they haven’t been invented yet.  We're training much of our youth for the wrong stuff, in the wrong way and we're conveying the wrong message.  Otherwise, why would so many not be able to find jobs upon graduation?  Why would so many be disillusioned and angry about being so far in debt and not able to work?  How are we supposed to support the creation of entrepreneurial start-up companies if the idea is not even mentioned in the "Common Core Standards" that are now used in 44 states?

The entrepreneurial mindset is about learning to recognize problems as opportunities and creating solutions that other people--either customers or employers--find of value.  Entrepreneurial mindset is about being adaptable and ready for the life-long learning (in many forms) that will be required to survive and thrive in the accelerated, drastic future coming to our world.  We need to update the play-book in the "Common Core Standards" of K-12 and in our approach to higher education. 

The best thing we could do for economic development, job creation and personal well-being in Southeast Kansas is to work to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in everyone; the students in our schools, the employees in our workforce and the businesses that hire those employees.

The New Economy is Here

The New Economy is Here

There's a new entrepreneurial capitalism emerging in the United States.  Actually, it's been here a while except that many of us didn't recognize it at first; many don't recognize it now.

Carl J. Schramm, then president of the Ewing Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri wrote a book about this subject in 2006 called the "Entrepreneurial Imperative".  He recognized what was going on even six years ago and in fewer than 200 pages does an excellent job of explaining the reasons that entrepreneurial capitalism has come about.

The old bureaucratic economy that started after World War II ended a few years ago.  In that economy, we were led to believe-and  we still tell our young people-that big business will hire you when you get your college degree.  You can stay there for your whole career and then retire to collect a nice pension.  For a while, it looked like between big business, big labor and big government, we were all set but  funny things began to happen on the way to the recessions of the last few decades.  The pensions went away and all three, business, labor and government became bureaucratic and unresponsive to the marketplace. 

Businesses that have recognized what has occurred, promoting and embracing a new entrepreneurial organizationlarge and small that haven't figured it out, are well, not doing so well. The future business environment , have done well, even through this last recession that started in 2008.  Businesses, both will not be dominated by large corporations, but by smaller, agile, entrepreneurial firms that keep their ears to the marketplace.  The marketplace will choose the winners and losers; the ones that survive and thrive and the ones that don't.

In spite of the current (US) administration's preference to let the federal government (instead of the marketplace) choose winners and losers  and the administration's re-distributive economic policies, we have to presume the new entrepreneurial economy will prevail.  There are too many of us with the entrepreneurial spirit innately within us waiting to come out.

Just What We Need if We Embrace the Change

An entrepreneurial economy, not only here in America, but around the world is the best hope of expanding the economic pie, allowing everyone that wants to work to be successful and build wealth for themselves and their families.  I've learned over the last couple of years that many, many businesses are started and grown successfully without going through the traditional "business plan + market research + financing" model.  They start small using with personal savings, credit cards and help from friends and family and grow successfully as they tweak their business models to meet marketplace opportunities.

We All Need an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Whether self-employed or working for others, we all need an entrepreneurial mindset for the entrepreneurial economy.  Developing the entrepreneurial mindset can be thought of as developing a set of beliefs and assumptions that allow us to view problems and challenges in our world as opportunities waiting for solutions.  There have always been problems and inconveniences in peoples' lives that have been solved by entrepreneurs providing solutions for people willing to pay.  This will always be the case and the acceleration of change only presents more problems to view as opportunities to solve.

We Need Change in our Businesses, Large and Small.

Existing businesses, both large and small need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset throughout their organizations so everyone can help look for new opportunities in the marketplace.  People don't buy products and services the way they did in the past and to survive, businesses must keep up with the new products and services people want and the new ways they want them delivered.

We Need Change in our Schools and Colleges.

We need expose our youth to entrepreneurship as a profession many times throughout our K - 12 school systems.  We need to quit implying that going to work for someone else, after getting a degree, is the only career option.  We need to tell them that there are almost no career choices that will last throughout their adult lives.  We need to give all our youth the "entrepreneurial mindset" whether or not they go out on their own.  The only successful employers of the future will demand that employees be entrepreneurial and know how to analyze problems as opportunities and solve them.

The entrepreneurial mindset must follow our youth into our colleges and universities.  Our university business schools must quite teaching graduates how to be bureaucrats in bureaucratic companies and instead teach them how to be entrepreneurial problem solvers.

We'll be offering a new Entrepreneurial Mindset course via Independence Community College this fall.  Developed by the Entrepreneurial Learning Institute it is co-sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City.  The blended learning format provides for learning from real-world entrepreneurs interviewed and recorded all over the United States and Canada.  The course is built around the book "Who Owns the Ice House" by Clifton Talbert.  Talbert learned eight life lessons on entrepreneurship from an unlikely entrepreneur, his Uncle Cleve in the Mississippi Delta in the late 1950's.  Instead of becoming a cotton-field worker as his contemporaries, Uncle Cleve owned the only ice house in his community.  Uncle Cleve didn't have a lot of money or education and was certainly not privileged yet he had a successful business serving all races and classes in his area.  Clifton worked with his uncle while attending high school, learning the eight life's lessons and later helped bring the "Stairmaster" to market in Tulsa Oklahoma.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset course at Independence Community College is built around the "Ice House Entrepreneurship Program" (click here for an introductory video). Participants in the Independence area will complete most work via the on line content with weekly discussion sessions in downtown Independence.  Discussion groups can be set up in other communities.  For more information, call me at 620-252-5349 or email jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Hiring: Ask A Different Question - Get a Better Result

I've never thought the hiring process in America was very effective. Most business owners I've talked to agree that no matter how we try to screen applicants (or how much we pay screening and testing companies), we're really not very good at picking the best employees from pools of applicants. The form and method presented below will challenge "applicants" (inquirers, really) about how they will help you better serve your customers. The form will also make quick and easy work of dealing with those "applicants" that don't have any interest in working for you but are "going through the motions" of job application for various reasons.


From the time in the early 1980's when I waded through 55 or so applications from teen agers wanting to work in my photography studio until today, our methods haven't changed much and we haven't gotten much better at choosing effectively.

I've hired based on applications and resumes. I've hired by watching someone working somewhere and asking them to come and work for me. I once hired a young man whose resume contained typos and misspellings (definitely against the recommendation of the HR woman and even the CEO) because I thought he'd be dedicated and hard working. I was right.

Overall through the years, my track record at hiring has been no better when I waded through applications and resumes than when I've hired on a whim and a gut feeling.

We require "applicants" to give us all kinds of information on a job application. We accept bland cover letters and resumes (many trumped up with fluffy accomplishments). Even through all of that lengthy and time-consuming process, we still eliminate good candidates while bringing in some bad ones for interviews. It's only through random good fortune that we actually hire someone that has the attitude, character and skills to help us fulfill our mission to serve customers.

We were exploring the problem recently in an open discussion during one of our weekly Entrepreneurs Brown Bag Lunch sessions. One of the participants mentioned that many times after completing the standard employment application, the "applicants" were relieved that there were no openings; they had accomplished their mission to keep looking for work. Later that same day, we continued the discussion in my Entrepreneurship class. Eventually, the class came up with the idea of using a form similar to the one below to have "applicants" complete before deciding whether or not to have them complete the traditional employment application. This form is very simple. It states that you, as an employer, are different and that your employees help you innovate new products and services as well as new ways to serve your customers better. In fact, you expect that of your employees. The "applicant" is given a box in which to write how he or she will contribute to this innovation in products, services and customer service as you expect of your employees. The form asked for the "applicant's" name and a single contact phone number. The "applicants" can check a box if they give you permission to share their information with other small business colleagues.

These forms are not employment applications, but wouldn't you like to have an idea of which people can tell you, in their own words, how they can help you accomplish your mission in serving customers? You review each completed form and only call the ones that look interesting to come back and complete the actual application. For the ones that don't strike you, including any of those just going through the motions of job application without any interest in your company, you haven't spent much of your time or the "applicants'" in processing a traditional application that won't be considered.

Click here to view a full size PDF of the form.

The beauty is that is fits on one page, i.e. your letterhead and you can tweak the wording to fit your company's needs. This is a reduced picture of the form and the words from our sample form are presented below. If you'd like to download our sample form in Word or PDF, you can do so at the Innovative Business Resource Center web site by clicking here. You may use or modify the form as you wish. If you decide to try a version of this form and this "pre-employment" process, please tell me about it by email to jcorrell@indycc.edu. We have a few businesses in Independence that are preparing a trial. I'll share their results in the future.

We do things differently here and may very well be different than any previous employer. Our employees have an entrepreneurial mindset and help us innovate new products and services as well as new ways to serve our customers better. We practice character traits such as punctuality, initiative, flexibility and thoroughness. We love working together as a team and we're all energetic and very responsive to our customers’ needs. We always try our very best to give them what we've promised and many times more than we've promised.

Whether or not we have an opening at the present time, we'd like to know about you and how you can help us.In the space below, please tell us why you would like to join us and how you will help make a difference in the way we serve our customers.

If you are applying for a specific position, please demonstrate how your education and/or skillset will help you in the position; however, be sure to link that information to how you will help us serve our customers better.

 

RIP - TMA (Traditional Marketing Approach)

The Traditional Marketing Approach (TMA) is dead, at least for today's successful companies and organizations.  Yes, there are companies today that are successful, thriving and even growing.  This is occurring in spite of the so-called recession and/or slow recovery.

What is TMA?  The traditional marketing approach takes place in companies still using an operational play book from the past.  In the old play book, people in each department do their thing; management manages (or attempts to manage) people, sales people sell, operations people produce a product or service and the marketing people get the word out to bring prospects to the business so the sales people can work on them.  To make the sale, the sales people sometimes promise more than the operations people can deliver.  What the operations people deliver often fails to meet the expectations the marketing and sales people made in order to entice the prospect to buy in the first place.  This failure to meet customer expectations can be anything from subtle to total.  Total failure means the customer is unsatisfied and is probably gone for good.  The subtle failures mean the customers sort of got what they wanted but don't particularly feel warm and fuzzy about the experience.  They tend to be the ones that leave either when a recession comes along or when a competitor comes along that does much better at meeting expectations.

Let's say the failure rate, subtle and total, is 40%.  A recession comes along and 40% of the customers and business dries up.  The company may blame the recession but many times will blame the marketing department for not bringing in enough prospects.  The marketing budget is increased and a whiz-bang marketing campaign is planned and implemented.  Even if the marketing campaign is successful, 40% of the resulting new customer experiences result in total or subtle failure.  The whiz-bang marketing campaign has succeeded only in increasing the number of customers that are disgruntled with the company.

That's the traditional marketing approach; traditional business model, really and this approach is the reason so many businesses are struggling in today's recessed economy.  Yet, at the same time, there are companies in rural, depressed Southeast Kansas that are flourishing; some are even exploding with new growth.  In one form or another, they are using a new approach not only in marketing, but also in the way they provide goods and services to their customers.

In our last piece, we spoke about creating one or more reason(s) someone would want to do business with you, followed by a reason to believe and finally a marketing plan to communicate your reasons and reasons to believe to your market.  What we didn't mention was that everyone in the organization needs to be involved in creating the reason(s) someone would want to buy from you.  These reason(s) can be new products or services not available anywhere else or they can be a new way to deliver an extraordinarily positive customer experience.  One way or another, the customer experience has to be extraordinary and everyone in all departments will have to be involved to make it possible.  That's the new approach to marketing in that it is inseparable from all other aspects of the business and all managers within an organization must be on board and engaged in fulfilling the customer promises that will contribute to the reason(s) someone would want to do business with you.

The following story is summarized from Michael Gerber's book "The E Myth Manager", chapter 13 in which he describes why marketing is part of every manager's job.  He speaks of a physician, Dr. Sandy, with a very busy practice.  There are three practitioners, along with all the related support staff and departments.  Each day was filled with appointments, including several booked after 5:00 pm to accommodate those that could not leave work to go to the doctor.  By the end of each day, physicians and staff were exhausted and there were always files and other items piled up everywhere needing to be put away.

Daily, there were subtle failures of patient expectations as each patient came to their appointment only to wait 25 minutes before being escorted to an exam room by a medical aid and told to strip and put on the infamous, drafty paper gown.  One would sit, in the drafty gown, many times for more than 25 minutes until the distracted doctor finally came in and asked "How's it going?".  At this point, the patient had already told their story of "how it was going" twice; once by phone when calling for the appointment and once to the medical aid while being told to strip.  (As a side note, how many medical offices today are being operated in this way?)  Dr. Sandy developed a realization that he didn't want the practice to go on like this not only for the sake of his patients, but also for his sake and that of his staff.

Together, his people developed a new promise to the patients:  "On time, every time, exactly as promised--or we pay for it."  At first no one could imagine how in the world they could make that work, but each person in each department had to become innovative in developing ways they all could work together in order to keep the promise.  Everyone benefited from the new promise in many unexpected ways.  Patients were happy at the newly found respect for their time.  Staff members were less stressed as they developed the systems necessary to keep everything organized as they worked through each day.

The new marketing approach involves everyone in the organization using innovation to renew the competitive advantage by developing new reasons and related customer promises that would make people want to become customers.  When the reasons promises are extraordinary, customers will come even in the midst of recession.  Getting the word out--the only remaining concept from the old marketing approach--becomes much easier because passionate, excited customers will help you.  People love to tell others about extraordinary customer experiences.

New Online Class Takes a Different Approach for Small Business Entrepreneurship

Those who know me well, know that I've met up with few traditional business text books that I thought were very helpful at all to those wishing to start or better run a small business. Most are over-sized and over-priced and many times written by professors who have never had to make payroll or otherwise run a small business in rural main street America.

I think I've found an exception. In this book, "Entrepreneurship: A Small Business Approach" the authors offer an approach for small businesses typical of our area. They argue that although the government considers small business to be those with 500 or fewer employees, the issues for businesses with 50 or fewer employees are quite different and should be approached in a much different manner.

I've used the book to re-craft existing "Small Business Management" course and changed the name to that of this textbook; "Entrepreneurship: A Small Business Approach". The book's focus is on building a new business, but I believe existing business owners will benefit by looking at themselves as if they were starting their business up all over again. Both aspiring entrepreneurs and existing business owners will benefit by enrolling in this class. Although its set up as a 3-hr on-line class, local and area students may participate in an optional weekly discussion group.

This is the description I wanted to use for the class, but the ICC Academic Council thought it wasn't "academic" enough, but I still like it. The core of this description came from the book with a couple of my own touches added.

Success or failure as an entrepreneur is not a mystery. It is, however, a potent mix of passion, hard work, thoughtful planning, skilled decision-making, and a little bit of luck. Understanding this formula, and ultimately succeeding in small business, is the key learning outcome for Entrepreneurship: A Small Business Approach. The target audience is as varied as the small business model itself. This course strives to make the core concepts of business as applicable to existing business owners as well as aspiring entrepreneurs.

Here are the chapter topics from this book. If you'd like to see the syllabus, email me at jcorrell@indycc.edu and I'll send it to you.

1. Introduction to Small Business

2. Individuals and Small Business Start-Ups

3. Business Idea Generation and Initial Evaluation

4. External Analysis

5. Business Mission and Strategy

6. Analyzing Cash flow and Other Financial Information

7. Establishing the Legal Foundation

8. Establishing Operations

9. Financing and Accounting

10. Human Resource Management

11. Marketing

12. Financial Analysis

13. Exit/Harvest/Turnaround

14. Franchising and Purchasing an Existing Business