Gonzaga Teaches Entrepreneurship In Hands-On Program

A team of Gonzaga University business students and faculty is formulating plans to spin off several small startup businesses in the Spokane area.

The budding entrepreneurs are members of Students in Free Enterprise, a national nonprofit organization funded by businesses, foundations and individuals. C. Scott Bozman, associate professor of marketing, heads the new entrepreneurial project as the university’s newly named Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow.

“This is a renewable fellowship awarded by Students in Free Enterprise,” said Bozman, “and our hands-on entrepreneurial outreach operations will be ongoing.

“We have just started offering a concentration in entrepreneurship at Gonzaga that is very similar to what used to be called a major in business administration.” he said. “But this new concentration is geared to the small business entrepreneur.

“To that end, we are interested in looking at businesses that students can start up themselves. Also we will acquire small operations in need of the enthusiasm and expertise that our team of student entrepreneurs can bring to bear.”

Proceeds from student enterprise businesses will go to help fund other student start-up projects. “The fund would serve as a venture capital source for much smaller businesses than would normally be able to access that sort of financing,” says Bozman.

There is a lot of interest among students in tackling actual business projects, he said. “This is as real as education gets,” he says. “Many, if not most students who come out of this program will work a few years, then strike out on their own.

“Some,” he said, “will get out of school and go into business almost the next day.”

Tom Hammer did.

He worked in the local coffee trade while earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Gonzaga. “People who patronized the Nordstrom coffee bar between 1987 and 1992 know me,” Hammer says. “Later, I spent two years with Four Seasons.”

Upon receiving his MBA in 1993, he started Tom Hammer Coffee Roasting Co., which today operates a coffee roasting warehouse and a string of retail stores.

Although the concentration in entrepreneurship wasn’t offered at Gonzaga during his time, Hammer says he took all the entrepreneurship classes he could. As it happened, the lab work revolved mostly around the coffee business. “Everyone knew what I was going to do,” he recalls. “It was sort of a standing joke.”

But was the experience helpful? “Immensely,” says Hammer.

“To start and run a small business, a college degree is not required,” Hammer says. “But to fully grow the business, higher educational tools are invaluable.”

Will he continue to grow? “I have to,” says the entrepreneur. “It’s all part of the plan.”

Public relations certificate offered

Subject to ever-escalating job demands and career changes, today’s workers must quickly master new skills, as we all know.

Swept up in the whirl of corporate musical chairs, you could end up as your company’s public relations person without a portfolio.

If so, Eastern Washington University has the answer in a new program launched this fall. In just a few hours a week, it confers a “Certificate in Public Relations” at the end of nine months of study.

“Our program is designed to appeal to the working professionals who have public relations responsibilities but little formal preparation in the field,” says Steve Blewett, director of Eastern’s journalism program.

“Because it is concentrated and focused, the certificate program is popular with professionals to meet career-advancement needs without having to complete years of work for yet another degree,” says Trisha Mosher. “Moreover,” says Mosher, the university’s director of professional development, “the course can produce immediate benefits. Our students often bring assignments right from the job into the classroom where we work on them.”

For the business community, the result is is better public relations.

AGORA nominations open

Nominations are open for the 1998 AGORA Awards for Business Excellence in the Inland Northwest.

Each year, the Small Business Council of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce accepts nominations for awards that recognize businesses whose entrepreneurial skills, community service, business expertise and fiscal responsibility contribute to the economic and cultural prosperity of the region.

A panel of business leaders selects award winners in four categories: small, medium, large and nonprofit. The awards also include the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award and the C. Michael Archer Community Service Award.

Seafirst Bank sponsors this year’s program. Costco and the chamber are cosponsors.

Nomination forms are available by contacting the chamber at 624-1393. Deadline for nominations is Feb. 17. The awards breakfast is May 8.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes a notes column each Wednesday. If you have business items of regional interest for future columns, call 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review