Starting this Saturday, community members and students will arrive on campus bright and early in the hopes of learning how to start their very own business.

They will be participating in the Syracuse Entrepreneurs Bootcamp, sponsored by Syracuse University’s entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises program. The course is a six-week long, interactive hands-on experience that meets each Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The program is an opportunity to learn about and build skills in business.

‘The program began eight years ago in response to the overwhelming amount of people with business ideas and a passion for entrepreneurship,’ said Lindsay Wickham, events and communications manager at the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship, in an email.

Despite the early weekend hours and the price tag of $650 per student, Wickham said the intensity of the program is what makes it unique. In just six short weeks the course covers each aspect of start-up businesses from idea creation to financing and accounting, legal issues, marketing, using technology, logistics, operations and business plans, whereas other courses simply focus on one of these aspects.

Anyone can sign up for the program. It is mainly comprised of community members, but there are a handful of SU students who register to attend each year. Students involved in the Couri Hatchery, the student-run businesses on-campus incubator, have the ability to attend the classes for free as a part of the benefits for being tenants of the Hatchery.

Students in the Hatchery run multiple businesses, Wickham said. One is called DreamFetcher, which is much like eHarmony, but instead of being matched with people, an applicant is matched with potential jobs. Another is College Party University, a blog site dedicated to mainstream fads and the party scene on campuses, she said.

‘One of the team’s members, Gerald Decilian, a (senior) student, is participating in the Bootcamp to further his knowledge and entrepreneurial training,’ Wickham said. Decilian could not be reached for comment.

Wickham said she plans to incorporate another student organization, Syracuse Sandbox, into the bootcamp in the future. Syracuse Sandbox is a business incubator program for students who want to see their business ideas reach fruition.

‘In the future we would like to strategize with Syracuse Sandbox about a partnership, as this training program would definitely be a great experience for students in the Sandbox,’ Wickham said.

Members of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management faculty provide the classroom instruction. Each session also features a guest entrepreneur who is able to share stories about certain challenges faced and the various pitfalls to avoid when beginning a business.

‘The participants will be exposed to critical concepts, ideas and approaches,’ Wickham said.

For the next six weeks, community members and students alike will wake up early and trek to campus in hopes that they will leave the course with the skills and knowledge to start and grow their very own business, as past alumni have done before them.

‘The Bootcamp was exactly what I needed at the right time; the program spoke to me as a new entrepreneur just as it spoke to the seasoned entrepreneur sitting next to me,’ said Linda Erb, founder of OhGoodyGoody.com and 2009 bootcamp graduate, in a testimonial provided by Wickham. ‘I came away from every session with invigorating emotions of pride, impatience, enthusiasm, and excitement and they still linger with me today.’

qabaker@syr.edu

Published on October 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm