Coordinators of Southeast Missouri State University's Douglas C. Green Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will offer a free training program called Operation JumpStart starting May 14 in the CIE Building. This program is a 36-hour non-credit course taken over 6 weeks designed to help potential business owners develop a feasibility plan to see if the idea of starting a business is possible. is.
This year, the course was expanded to include participants through an ITV course at Southeast's regional campus in Sikeston, Missouri, to involve more people. Instructors are available at the Sikeston campus to assist participants.
CIE Marketing Coordinator Heather Holdman said there are a limited number of seats available and not everyone who applies will be accepted because instructors want to support participants individually. .
A student looks through a workbook during the Operation JumpStart training program.Posted photo
Holdman said participants in the training program have their own books to use, homework each night and meet twice a week from 6 to 9 p.m.
“It's a thick book that they go through, it's like a workbook,” Holdman said. “And some of them write on it. Or they don't want to write on it because it's like the Bible. They want to write on extra paper so they don't have to write on it. 'Then they can keep going back and forth there, and all kinds of people will gather there. ”
CIE's programs are funded by federal grants and are free to participants. The CIE Building held 10 programs last year, but this year due to funding, we were only able to hold one Operation Jumpstart training program.
“The way we've generally done it here is we have some guidelines, but we also have sponsors who want to be a part of it… So based on those, we were open to anybody who wanted to do it, so I… 'We're going to do that' in this class of people with MBA degrees,'' Holdman said. “They have a business idea, but they have no idea what the next step is. Or they're just really excited about it, and they might be in business and have an MBA, but , it's time to actually make a workable plan and see if you can follow through with it.
“You'd be surprised how many people in business don't have a plan in place. Or once they have a plan, they go back and forth with it because once they start the business, everything changes. This material will make them think about it and do all the steps and so on.
The training program was developed based on a curriculum called First Steps, which CIE acquired exclusive rights to from the Kaufman Foundation in 2011. With the help of a grant from the Delta Regional Authority, the program was revamped and renamed Operation Jumpstart: First Step.
When the coordinators first started the program and traveled to train people in other areas, they trained about three times as many people as expected.
Over the past two years, CIE coordinators have been training individuals in the community to develop and promote their own Operation Jumpstart programs.
Holdman said the program has received a lot of positive feedback and students are welcome to take the program.
Chris Carnell, a Southeast junior majoring in advanced management and entrepreneurship, went through the Operation JumpStart program.
Carnell said he entered the program solely to gain experience in developing a business plan.
“Being able to take any idea, whether it's just an idea or concept or an actual business, helped us find the feasibility,” Carnell said. “This helps with research and actually getting everything down on paper.”
Carnell said people who participate in the program feel like the program helps them realize whether their ideas are working or not, and that those people are “actually taking a step forward.”
“Students should do it even if they just have a general business idea or concept,” Carnell says. “Many of us students just have ideas in our heads, talking about them with friends, and just taking this course will really help us decide on this idea and the direction of our market research. Just talking to others in your class can be very helpful in forming ideas, even if it's not a specific business implementation.”
Anyone interested in applying to the program can fill out an application form online. semo.edu/cie. The deadline is the week before the first interview.
“So many people have that idea or want to do something but can't do it. But it actually just kind of makes you do it, and that's the great thing.” said Mr. Carnell.
