To celebrate National Entrepreneurship Week, Liberty University’s Entrepreneurship Center hosted a kickoff event on Feb. 12 to help students brainstorm new business ideas, and an “Entrepreneurship Ecosystem” event on Feb. 16 to help students learn the various steps to bring their dream business to fruition.
At Monday’s event, students received general information about starting a business before actually starting one. On Friday, students visited six different stations led by business experts and other individuals in areas including conducting market research (presented by a librarian liaison), writing a business plan (presented by a representative from the Lynchburg Area Small Business Development Center), financing your business (employees from Pinnacle Financial Partners), deciding on a location (commercial and real estate experts), choosing a business structure (third-year students from Liberty Law School), and obtaining federal and state taxpayer identification numbers (members of Liberty Law’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program).
“The hardest part of starting a business is knowing who to talk to to get good information,” said Christine Boyce, business school professor and director of the Entrepreneurship Center. “These (presenters) are all like-minded business leaders who love Liberty and want to give back to students. They’ve been there already, so they’ll be able to share first-hand what they’ve experienced and also help students avoid mistakes and problems along the way by teaching them things you might need to know. The premise of this event is to provide a space and a place with resources and encourage budding entrepreneurs to grow, step out and take risks.”
Sam Bodine, a third-year cybersecurity student, said he appreciated how the event was “customizable” for students.
“I like that everything is broken down into different steps to starting a business,” he said. “It’s not like it’s just a one-size-fits-all lesson for everyone on how to start a business. You can figure out what part of the business start-up process interests you the most.”
Bodine plans to develop software to make the cost segregation tax process more efficient, and he says the classwork he took at Liberty helped prepare him for the technical aspects of developing this product.
“College isn’t just about taking classes,” he says. “The value comes from creating a community and an ecosystem, like this center, where people can actually learn how to start a company. It’s invaluable to hear from people who are actually starting companies, not just in the classroom, and to connect with other students who are interested in starting a company.”
Bodine also said the key to business success is focusing on the glory of Christ, not personal financial wealth.
“Starting a business just for the money is a total waste,” he said. “It’s so important to build on Jesus Christ as your foundation and let that infuse the underlying motivation for everything you do, including starting a business.”
The Entrepreneurship Center, run through the School of Business, provides free resources and services to Liberty students from any academic program who are interested in starting their own companies. The center aims to empower and inspire students to become godly entrepreneurs while at Liberty and after they leave campus to pursue their careers. Students receive training and feedback on their business plans and may even work with visiting mentors who help them with the process of starting and maintaining their own solo enterprises.
“This is a great resource that’s available to anyone on campus,” Boyce said. “It’s not just for business and entrepreneurship students. This center is here to help all students on campus. By taking advantage of the resources that are now at hand, we can mitigate some of the common mistakes that people make when starting a business.”
In addition to the National Entrepreneurship Week events, the center also hosts networking and business development opportunities throughout the year, including “Heart and Hustle,” where local entrepreneurs speak to students about connecting their callings with the hard work required to achieve them. The center also hosts “Lunch/Brunch and Learns,” where students can hear from business experts on a variety of topics.
