College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Engaging Students
Search for Chronic Disease Risk Factors in
Horses Leads to Clues about Prevention
Bringing New Life to an Eroding Stream
Value-added Soybeans to Save Money and Environment
Expanding the Learning Experience
Crossing Traditional Boundaries of Science
To Find Health Solutions
Hobby-size Planes May Be Future of
Early Warning System
Improving Local Economies Through Agritourism
Incentive Payments May Reduce Phosphorus Pollution
Protecting Milk’s Flavor and Nutritional Value
Finding a Healthful and Environmentally Friendly Use For Peanut Skins
Supporting Virginia’s Expanding Wine Industry
Virginia Tech Reaches Top 10 in Agricultural Research
Entrepreneurship Education Puts Business Owners in the Express Lane
E-learning Option for Place-bound Professionals
Financial Planning – From the Farm to the Household
New Graduate Program to Train Faculty in Agricultural Education Fields
Farmers’ Markets from Diverse Communities Benefit from Sharing
Families, Food, and Fun
Developing Disease-free Mosquitoes
Mites Make Right in Honduras – or Not?
Help for the Hippos of Zambia
Entrepreneurship Education
Puts
Business Owners in the Express Lane
Starting a small business is a dream of many a would-be entrepreneur, but that dream comes with a degree of risk and uncertainty. Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Entrepreneur Express program helps Virginians gain the confidence to begin a new business or to grow an existing one.
“Entrepreneur Express is a great example of what our community viability program is all about,” says Brian Calhoun, Extension associate director for community viability. “What we do is identify a need, then we bring together the right resources to meet that need.”
According to the Small Business Administration, one-half of all private-sector employees in the U.S. are employed by a small business. To date, Entrepreneur Express has trained more than 800 entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in the nuts and bolts of what it takes to operate a thriving small business.
Scott Tate, Extension community viability specialist, pulled together the partnership that has made Entrepreneur Express successful. The core groups who developed the workshops are the Virginia Department of Business Assistance, the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Virginia Small Business Development Center, and Virginia Cooperative Extension. They rely on assistance from dozens of federal, state, and local organizations, including local governments, chambers of commerce, and the volunteer organization SCORE to help provide the trainings.
As of the end of last November, Extension had conducted 22 workshops, primarily in Southwest Virginia. The program is valuable to both the two-thirds of attendees who already have their own business and the rest who want to start one. “We found that many people who want to start a small business, and even those who are already in business, are not aware of the resources available to them,” Tate says.
The one-day workshops cover topics such as starting and operating a business, developing a marketing strategy, learning to manage finances and assets, and becoming aware of the resources available to small-business owners. Workshop participants also choose more in-depth sessions on such topicsas marketing and e-commerce, starting and operating a tourism venture, and discovering agribusiness opportunities.
Bea Cleveland of Floyd, Va., attended an Entrepreneur Express workshop on the advice of a friend. At the time, she was thinking about turning her baking skills into a smallbusiness enterprise. “I had so many questions about starting a business,” Cleveland says. “By attending Entrepreneur Express, I got connected with people who helped me find answers.” Cleveland launched “Bea the Baker” in April 2007 with an investment of $200 and is already turning a healthy profit.
Cleveland recently attended a second session of Entrepreneur Express. “I was so impressed with Entrepreneur Express that I signed up for a second session,” she recalls. “I just wanted to be sure I didn’t miss anything the first time!”