E-Minor

These courses form the core of our Entrepreneurship Classwork.  Students from any major can take these courses and earn an ENTRPRENEURSHIP MINOR.

ENTR 0101 – Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

How do you come up with a new idea?  Why are some people more creative than others?  Can creativity be learned or are you just born that way?  In this course you will PRACTICE creativity and innovation.  You will learn techniques to come up with that next big idea and then you will apply those techniques individually and with teams of your classmates.  As a member of this class you will also enter the "Pitt-Bradford Innovation Challenge" in the spring where student teams compete to turn cast-offs of the UPB Facilities Department into usable products. 

ENTR 0203 – E-Venture Management

The entrepreneurial opportunities online are so great that we devote an entire course to using the Internet as a platform. Our twist is that you will be part of a team that actually sells a product online. You will receive a budget and compete with the other class teams to increase sales in a given time period. Teams work together in the Osborne E-Venture Lab with state-of-the-art tools. The professor, Diana Maguire, has extensive corporate experience in web project management.

ENTR 0204 – Managing the New Venture

This course will teach you how to manage an entrepreneurial venture. You will evaluate the options for acquiring or starting a business including starting from scratch, setting up a franchise, and purchasing an existing business along with the financing options for each of these strategies. You will learn to plan and evaluate the progress of that business and to manage the growth. Marketing, human resource management, financial controls, supply chain management, logistics, channel, sales and customer service will all be integrated in this comprehensive overview of the many facets of running a growing business. You will also learn to understand and evaluate exit strategies. The instructor for this course, Laura Megill, is an experienced entrepreneur.

MKTG 1410 – Marketing Research

In this course you learn to pinpoint the business you want to start by thoroughly researching the market and the competition. You will receive an overview of marketing research methodology, techniques, and issues. And you will seek to identify a business to delve into for the Capstone course where you write a comprehensive business plan.

ENTR 1451 – CAPSTONE: LAUNCHING THE NEW VENTURE

Many MINORS do not include a CAPSTONE course but for the E-Minor the CAPSTONE links theory and practice in the development of a formal BUSINESS PLAN for the launch of a new business venture. Each student will become immersed in a real business project from the complete evaluation phases to the formal preparation of a business plan. This course is offered IN THE FALL (1) so as not to conflict with your major, (2) so that you can enter business plan competitions, and (3) in order to allow us to continue to mentor you if you are starting your business.

The MINOR also includes ACCT 0201 so that you can accurately count all the money you make.

For our MAJOR we add the Business Management Core courses.