May: Fox Valley Tech turns to entrepreneurship

Fox Valley Technical College is
getting into the startup business. It is preparing to hire someone to
start up a “virtual” Center for Entrepreneurship, which will help
people take their ideas and turn them into job creating businesses.
FVTC’s
plan doesn’t involve brick and mortar; it’s a “virtual center” that
delivers a package of services to clients.


 

Entrepreneurship has been the buzzword in business and political
circles the past several years as state groups pitch ways to reinvent
Wisconsin’s economy. While many of those efforts have focused on tech
and biotech companies, FCTC’s vision is aimed at a wider group of
people who want to build more traditional mom-and-pop companies.




With
partners such as the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Small Business
Development Center, Advocap Inc., CAP Services and Wisconsin Women’s
Business Initiative Corp., FVTC hopes to bundle services from
organizations that are already helping entrepreneurs.




WisBusiness.com’s Brian Leaf spoke
recently with Susan May, FVTC’s vice-president for instructional
services, about the center.

Leaf: It’s a concept at this point,
correct?




May: It is something of a
concept, yes. We’re going to be building on some foundational things
that we have to create a greater degree of service and programs for
entrepreneurs?

Leaf: What kind of entrepreneurs are
you looking at – anybody, or are you trying to specialize?




May: At this point, we don’t
have a plan to target specific types of entrepreneurs. It’s more of a
wide-open approach that we’re taking.

Leaf: How long until this center is up
and running? And what will it be comprised of?




May: When we talk about a
center, we’re not necessarily talking about a physical location or a
building. We’re talking about a package of services and support for
entrepreneurs that could be delivered through a variety of locations.
It could be Web support. What we know is that we have a good foundation
to build on. We have been running a program called E-seed (a 12-week
entrepreneurship training series to assist start up and early-stage
entrepreneurs develop management and planning tools), which we have
done with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s Small Business
Development Center and others. We have had really wonderful success in
helping people who are exploring the possibility of starting their own
businesses and getting those folks into action as a business.

Leaf: You’re talking about hiring a
director. Where is that money going to come from?




May: It is going to be an
investment on the part of the college. At this point, our board has
authorized us to tap our reserves to fund that position as a startup
initiative for the organization

Leaf: What are the projected costs of
this going to be?




May: We plan to start the
initiative in January, so we’re looking at half-year startup costs of
$67,000, and full year next year of about $137,700. What we’re doing is
looking to hire somebody with good expertise with entrepreneurs and
small business development, to serve as a champion for this effort.
While we have somewhat mapped out a general direction, what we’re
looking for that person to do is to build a more detailed business plan
for the college’s efforts in this area.

One key that we see to this plan is that it is a collaborative effort
with various community entities who are doing some elements of
entrepreneur development or small business support. For example,
UW-Oshkosh as a key partner. The chambers have SCORE chapters. There
are others out there.

Leaf: It’s interesting the description
of the person your looking for to run the Center for Entrepreneurship.
Sounds like they’re going to have to be an entrepreneur, too.




May: That’s exactly how I
presented this to our board, that this will have all the elements of a
startup to it. They’re going to have to develop a business plan for
this. What we don’t have is all the answers yet. We wanted to be able
to hire the expertise to put the finishing touches on what direction
this should take, what a service package would look like. It’s really
coordinating and pulling together many different elements that already
exist in the community, or new elements of either service or
programming that will really be of help to that client base.

Leaf: How many clients do you hope to
serve in the first year?




May: That we’ve got to figure
out in a business plan. We don’t have those kinds of details yet.

Leaf: Are you envisioning this as a
place where you get a startup going and turn them loose, or is this
going to be a continuing relationship where the center provides
counseling and support? Let’s face it, a high percentage of startups
fail. Where’s the safety net?




May: There is that group of
new startups that go through the struggling stage where they need more
assistance. Absolutely, that would be part of this center as well.

Leaf: Access to capital is one of the
biggest issues for any startup. Do you have any plans to facilitate
that?




May: We know that is a big
challenge in the state for businesses today. We would look at that a
little big longer term, thinking we might have more possibilities there
as we develop this plan more fully. Initially I don’t see that as
something we will do. But working with key partners, we want to pull
together an advisory group of very successful entrepreneurs to support
this initiative. They should be able to set a course of direction for
us that might take us into that path.

Leaf: How do you make sure you won’t
be duplicating services of others?




May: We want to come out of the
gate working in collaboration with other entities. We really don’t have
any intention of duplicating things that are available, unless we have
to build capacity in some areas. We want to work with other partners
that are providing some elements of business support. We put the total
package together, give it more visibility to attract more people to the
notion of starting their own businesses and doing our best to support
them and the kind of job creation that we think they’re going to have.

Leaf: How long is this going to take?



May:  We have asked our
board for a two and a half year general startup. We’re asking for that
amount of time for the planning, partnership development and the
implementation phases we’ll be going through. This is definitely a
startup effort.

Leaf: Does Fox Valley Technology
College offer any courses in entrepreneurship right now?




May: The e-seed program is one
of our key offerings right now. It’s a 12-week training course, done
with UW-Oshkosh and their Small Business Development Center. We also
have a certificate in small business, a course in small business
operations and do seminars for small business owners. That’s part of
the base we’re trying to build on here.

Leaf: Who has been the big driver
behind this?




May: The president of our
college, Dave Buettner. He has had some experience with this kind of
business development support in the previous college he led in Mason
City, Iowa. So he has encouraged us to look at this. Our college has
done a great dealt of work for the business community in the last
decade, largely through contract training. They tend to be the large
organizations that have a number of people to be trained in some
particular aspect and the resources to put into training. We’ve always
struggled here with the ability here to adequately serve the very small
and startup companies. We see this as an opportunity to provide
services to the business economy of the area.