RECENT surveys suggest that over half of today’s college students have a major career goal of owning a business however few of these students will choose to pursue a major in entrepreneurship.  Instead, we find them all across campus in diverse programs such as music, art, the sciences, health care, education, history, religion, English, and so forth.

It is essential that entrepreneurship courses are easily accessible if these programs hope to attract students from across the campus

Minors in Entrepreneurship

Offering minors in entrepreneurship has become a popular way for entrepreneurship programs to reach students who choose to major in other studies. Entrepreneurship minors help students learn valuable skills they can use throughout their major and their lives. The minor is usually a combination of entrepreneurship and other business courses, such as accounting and marketing.

Lowering the Barriers to Entrepreneurship Education

One significant barrier to attracting students from across campus into entrepreneurship courses can be pre-requisites.  Many programs around the country have been able to overcome this obstacle by creating entrepreneurship courses that do not have other business courses as pre-requisites.  It is essential that entrepreneurship courses are easily accessible if these programs hope to attract students from across the campus.

Belmont University strives to teach entrepreneurship across the curriculum. Entrepreneur majors and minors all take the same three core courses. All of Belmont’s courses are experiential in nature.  Students work on projects directly related to their businesses, their ideas for businesses, or from their area of interest, such as music, art, health sciences, history, English, etc.

The curriculum begins with Foundations in Entrepreneurship, in which students work on two major learning objectives.  First, students learn about the process of determining which ideas for businesses are really true business opportunities.  Second, students conduct a comprehensive self-assessment to prepare them to build a business based on their personal aspirations and to integrate their values into all that they do to help grow an ethically-based business.   

The second course in the core curriculum is Entrepreneurial Financial Management.  In this course students learn how to bootstrap their business when financing is limited, manage cash flow, secure equity and debt financing, and develop accurate financial forecasts.

The third and final course in the Belmont’s entrepreneurship core is Venture Planning.  In this course students develop a fundable business plan for their business or business idea.  They also learn about the challenges of successfully managing the growth of their business.

At Belmont, entrepreneurship programs reach students across campus by offering specialized lectures and even specific courses within various programs.  Professors often integrate assignments in their classes around the entrepreneurship topics covered in these guest lectures.
Programs and minors such as Belmont’s represent a significant step toward reaching out to these “closet” entrepreneurs and helping them along the way to create successful start-up businesses.
Starting your own business or working in a start-up is not easy as it requires knowledge and skills in practically all areas of business. Entrepreneurship minors and other across-campus entrepreneurship programs are a great way for students to gain basic business skills and to begin to understand the complex world of entrepreneurship. Programs and minors such as Belmont’s represent a significant step toward reaching out to these “closet” entrepreneurs and helping them along the way to create successful start-up businesses.