Teaching Entrepreneurship

teaching entrepreneurshipI have taught classes for many years, starting as an ESL teacher in Europe and Canada while in my early twenties. I learned valuable and practical lessons from teaching ESL—that we learn through hands-on, practical experience, and that it is easier to do something new and potentially scary when we feel supported and we’re having fun!

To teach English to new immigrants I used the art of play, street theater and shared humor to help students deal with a new environment, develop trust and face their fears related to learning a language. Together we learned about culture and language out loud and in full view of each other, developing a place of trust. Students were then encouraged to take their new knowledge and courageously put it into practice on the way home.

Established and emerging entrepreneurs also deal with an unknown environment and many fears. They are often wedged between the fantasy of what they hope will happen with their enterprises and the reality of money, management and marketing.  This can be exciting and scary.

When teaching business owners, it is helpful to use a hands-on approach and involve the whole class or cohort in the process. Humor is key, as well as helping to foster excitement about learning together. Teaching entrepreneurship is not just about lecturing (although content and theory is important), it is a doing process. Students need to take what they learned in class and apply it.

Business workshops or classes can introduce business skills, demonstrate social media and traditional marketing techniques, and present real world financial projections. However, it is also important for students to get out into the real world themselves. They need to test their assumptions. Then they can use the classroom for sharing, reporting back, and group problem-solving sessions with actual business models. The class becomes an important learning community and support system.

When I teach small business classes, students research how their business idea fits in the marketplace with face-to-face interviews, they expose their ideas to the reality of the numbers by doing rigorous financial analysis, and then they develop a practical, realistic plan of action that they can test week by week. This plan must be adjusted as the marketplace and then their own level of confidence and excitement reveal the right directions, with the class support there to help.

The focus must be on empowerment and building confidence as well as teaching entrepreneurial skills. Small business owners need to tap into their passion and also have the ability to mitigate risks. It is important for business owners to continually cultivate the right balance of business skills and intuition.

By guiding students through an engaging curriculum, giving them access to resources and mentors, and providing direction related to good management practices, we can help entrepreneurs launch and sustain a successful venture. The process is fun and richly rewarding for both student and teacher, because in the best learning environment, the teacher is learning from the students, too.

Outstanding Service

Last week I received the Outstanding Service Award from Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center.  This award was presented by CEO Sharon Miller to recognize over twenty years of work with Renaissance as an independent business consultant in developing classes and incubator programs and as the primary business planning instructor and coordinator.

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receiving the Renaissance Outstanding Service Award

It was such an honor to receive this award in front of colleagues, students, friends and family during Renaissance’s gala event, “Small Business, Big Impact: Celebrating 28 Years of Small Business Success” on October 2nd at the Bently Reserve in San Francisco.

It was quite surprising to realize that I have taught over 5,000 business planning students and supported over 100 incubator tenants at Renaissance. The secret is that I’m constantly inspired working with new and emerging business owners. I love the experience of helping students to explore options, get organized, develop practical business skills and take the steps necessary to make their small businesses work. I am inspired each day by the diversity of people who want to start their own businesses, the variety of business ideas, students’ focus and passion, as well as their willingness to put in the time and make the commitment to be successful.

While the award was so appreciated, the people who truly deserve the accolades are the Renaissance graduates — the new entrepreneurs who are doing research, creating prototypes, testing concepts, launching on a trial basis, and then jumping into the marketplace.

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with fellow Renaissance graduate award winners, Heidi Gibson, Yvonne Hines and Alphonso Rhodes

These small and micro businesses are the engines of our local and national economy. We need to support them so they can thrive, continue to expand, offer jobs, and become community-based institutions for our neighborhoods and cities. When you choose to frequent small, independently owned businesses you are directly building the local economy and, in the process, supporting some amazing, dynamic people. Our small business owners are heroes. They are making a difference through their focus on sustainability and their attention to the local community. We need to award the local, small business owner for outstanding service!