The Entrepreneurship Certificate provides a foundation for students interested in starting their own businesses and impacting society.
The Searight PACE Entrepreneurship Certificate Program is competitive and it is open to aspiring or those who wish to start a new business. The six weeks’ curriculum is designed to prepare students or future business owners for success as entrepreneurs and business leaders. The program combines scholarship with application. Students focus on analysis, decision-making and business planning.
Alumni of the Searight PACE Entrepreneurship Certificate Program are prepared to:
One reason the program successfully prepares corporate leaders is that all students learn from successful business leaders, corporate executives, practical applications, comprehensive perspectives and studying business from the ground up.
The objective of the course is to familiarize the student with the concepts involved with conceiving, planning, organizing and managing a business, as well as writing/presenting a business plan for a small business. These concepts include entrepreneurship, location analysis, SWOT analysis, forms of ownership, marketing and advertising techniques, ethics, risk management, and inventory control. Business presentation skills will also be stressed with a PowerPoint presentation of the business plan.
The Enterprise Creation Course includes studies on the functions, activities and actions associated with clarifying, refining opportunities, and creating organizations to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. This course will allow students to be able to develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to be effective entrepreneurs. The primary focus will be on independent ventures, however, the knowledge, skills, and capabilities gained here will be transferrable to a corporate entrepreneurship (intrapreneurship) environment. Selected topics include the entrepreneurial process, ideation, business planning, capital acquisition, implementation, growth and harvest. Additionally, students will recognize the skills and varying approaches for analyzing new business ideas, distinguish strong business ideas from weak ones, and identify the top priorities and the key risks for a startup management team.
This course focuses on the major management challenges that successful start-ups encounter when leaders decide to grow and scale their businesses. This course focuses on challenges related to strategy, operations, finance, marketing, leadership, culture, human resources, organizational design, business model, and growth. Participants will take away templates that they can use in developing small businesses.
This course will focus on financing issues facing new, young, and small business ventures. The course is intended for both entrepreneurs and employees in these types of ventures and will include how to analyze financial statements, create financial forecasts, and valuate these types of ventures. Students will be encouraged to understand financing issues and options from the vantage points of the entrepreneur, the lender, and the investor.
This course provides students with practical insights, strategies, and tips on how to apply marketing concepts to increase the chances of new venture success. Students will learn to use marketing to find the right opportunity, and develop new products and services.
This course focuses on the creation and challenges of strategic growth as a catalyst for a firm’s transition to becoming competitive in an industry. This course will allow participants to assess growth opportunities, business models and capture strategies tied to growth. Participants will also analyze the impact business growth has on leadership behaviors, management processes, communications, employee performance, and customer relations.
Gardner-Webb University’s Searight Professional and Continuing Education program offers very specific, online and in-person courses to enhance the skill levels of professionals ranging from entry level to mid-management, executive, and beyond.
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