New entrepreneurship program at TMCC draws students

A Truckee Meadows Community College program that provides the skills needed by entrepreneurs is ramping up quickly during its second year of class offerings.

About 20 students are enrolled in entrepreneurship classes, says Melanie Lawler, coordinator of the program, and the program is seeing substantial interest from people who are planning to start their own businesses to provide for themselves as a result of the recession.

"A lot of people have been coming back to school," Lawler says.

The program has been getting interest, too, from owners of small businesses who realize that their skills have a gap maybe in financial management, maybe in marketing and turn to TMCC as a cost-effective way to get the knowledge they need. TMCC's classes cost $73.50 a credit hour for Nevada residents.

Classes, Lawler says, typically appear to be more like group consulting sessions than traditional classroom presentations.

Most of the faculty has experience with ownership and management, she says, and all are experienced at consulting with small businesses and would-be entrepreneurs.

"The classes are not taught by academics who have studied only the theory," she says.

And the program is guided by an advisory board of business people, including some who specialize in getting start-ups off the ground.

Enrollment includes some traditional college-age students along with more seasoned students who bring their experiences and real plans for new business ventures into class.

Evening classes at TMCC's Meadowood Center are particularly attractive to nontraditional students, Lawler says.

Classes cover subjects ranging from the basics of entrepreneurial activity to finance, marketing and protection of intellectual property.

A course in development of business plans has helped TMCC teams win honors in the annual Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup Competition sponsored by Nevada's Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. One of those winners, James Blood, took the next step and opened MJ's Pizzeria in Reno this year with the knowledge he developed.

Some students in the TMCC program, Lawler says, look only to complete a certificate program in entrepreneurship. Others seek to complete an associate's degree, and TMCC has arrangements in place with Sierra Nevada College and the University of Nevada, Reno, to allow its entrepreneurship students to translate seamlessly into bachelor's degree programs.

(Enrollment for the spring semester at TMCC opens Nov. 17. Enrollment applications are at apply.tmcc.edu.)