Nuturing the Spirit of Enterpreneurship

As with most economic downturns, this current recession has prompted a global resurgence in entrepreneurship. New ventures are being launched worldwide everyday by displaced corporate executives, seniors and students alike. That’s good news, as economists point out, because growth in entrepreneurship has historically been a precursor to economic recovery.

Entrepreneurship and self-employment are quickly becoming viable alternatives to traditional jobs for many people, including recent college graduates. Few however have had any formal education, mentoring or assistance in how to start and run a business. But, that’s beginning to change.

Rekindling the spirit of entrepreneurship among students, as well as providing formal educational programs and a supportive environment is not just a good idea but it greatly expands the range of options students have upon graduation.

While there continues to be disagreement on the definition of entrepreneurship, all will agree that being on your own takes a combination of self-reliance, confidence and the ability to take risks. But, how do you know if you have what it takes to be your own boss? Can students start their own businesses while they are still in school? What does it take to create an environment where student entrepreneurs can flourish?

Some believe we should start in elementary or high school where innovation and creativity naturally flourish. Being inquisitive is part of being a kid. It’s when we become adults we typically lose our curiosity and creativity because we are more often than not conditioned to “color within the lines.” As adults we often become risk-adverse and tend to avoid failure and its consequences.

Entrepreneurs however readily accept failures as a part of discovering something unique and special. They learn from failure and pivot to the next great opportunity. It’s been said that we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. That’s a tough sell in an academic environment, but it would be a huge disservice to fledgling entrepreneurs to lead them to believe that all good ideas are going to succeed. They’re not!

Johnson & Wales University Entrepreneurship Center recently partnered with the Met School, a very unique inner city high school in Providence, Rhode Island, that lays claim to the nation’s only free-standing entrepreneurship center located at a high school. Here, students live their dreams and launch their new business ventures in a supportive environment that brings education, mentors and support services under one roof. While not every student venture succeeds, the results overall are quite noteworthy.

Jodie Woodruff, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, says "creating business plans based on a student's ideas, interest or skill has ignited the creativity and enthusiasm of students while strengthening financial literacy skills, along with life skills, through something most students identify with; making money." Met School students currently run a soft drink company, a tee-shirt company and support each other in a variety of new ventures from a tasty Peruvian sauce to a fitness center called Boomer Fit that’s especially designed for the ever expanding baby boomer generation.

Flavio, the Met School student entrepreneur with the Peruvian sauce, was recently introduced to Linda Kane, JWU’s Community Service Chef, who is mentoring him on the process of getting his product through the food regulatory maze as well as introducing him to supply chain partners in the food packaging industry. Chef Kane has her own products in the marketplace (RI Red HOT Sauce and Cowboy Ketchup) and knows firsthand the challenges he faces. “The recipe is the easy part” she explained, “and just the beginning.”

Flavio’s excitement and appreciation can be summed up in his thank you note to Chef Kane. “Our meeting on Wednesday was great and I got so much out of it. Linda I'm really grateful that you could make it to the meeting and was a little frightened when you said that this was only going to be the beginning but at the same time I was ready to take on that challenge and very excited all at the same time.”

Last year, Johnson & Wales University awarded its first $20,000 four-year scholarship to a Met School entrepreneur who is beginning her studies at the university in the fall. Additionally, the two entrepreneurship centers will be embarking on a mentoring program where students from JWU will be working with Met School students in a collaborative relationship to promote entrepreneurship and the launch of new student run ventures.

At the Johnson & Wales University Entrepreneurship Center, students from all academic majors work within a supportive environment where they can try out their new ventures in the “Test Track” incubator. At JWU, students compete annually for seed money cash awards, incubator space, mentors and support services provided by both the university and the Small Business Development Center which is located on campus.

Not all new student ventures will be highly scalable or even succeed. Many will fail or never get out of the incubator stage. But those that do will at a minimum keep both the student founder and a small group of friends and family members actively engaged in gainful employment – a worthy goal for sure.

It’s never too early to begin teaching and mentoring students to follow their dreams of starting and owning their own business. Learning that hard work, willingness to take risks, and that failures can be the best learning experience you can ever have is a good foundation not only for aspiring entrepreneurs but for young people in general.

Working with student entrepreneurs over the past year has given me much greater hope for the future. Entrepreneurship is not dead; it’s just waking up after a long nap, energized and rearing to go. As Brian Goldner, President and CEO of Hasbro, said during his JWU commencement address: “You never know.”

JWU center spurring next generation of entrepreneurs

COURTESY JWU NEW FRONTIERS: John F. Robitaille, executive in residence at the Larry Friedman International Center for Entrepreneurship, says that both the state and the country could benefit from a rekindled spirit of entrepreneurship.

By Michael Souza
PBN Staff Writer

John F. Robitaille was a small-business owner before running for governor in 2010, and served as the senior adviser of communications for former Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri. He has been an entrepreneur, starting three businesses in his career. As the Executive in Residence at the Larry Friedman International Center for Entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University, he sees college-level entrepreneurship as a means to provide students more options after graduation.

He believes the state could do more to encourage people to start their own business and is a strong advocate for the small-business community.

PBN: How long has the university had an entrepreneurial program and how has it changed?

ROBITAILLE: We’ve had a center for entrepreneurship here for more than 20 years, and the course offerings have been around for a while.

Here at the Larry Friedman International Center for Entrepreneurship, we’re going to take what the students have learned in the classroom and transform their ideas into viable commercial enterprises. As important, we also work to help transform students into successful entrepreneurs. We call that the transformation model. Students are taught financing, marketing, research and advertising and are put to the test.

Any student that attends this university who has an entrepreneurial spirit, whether they want to open up a cupcake store or something in the technology field, are welcomed to seek advice at the center.

PBN: What makes someone an entrepreneur?

ROBITAILLE: One of the things that we believe and must impress upon the students is that we encourage entrepreneurship; we don’t want to make it sound like it’s easy. Not everyone who tries it is going to be successful. You have to have the ability to bounce back from failure and learn from that. We put a lot of focus on the individual development of the student to prepare them. They must understand themselves, believe in themselves and realize that they’ll make mistakes. They will need resilience, determination and focus to keep moving forward. You have to have the business acumen to know when not to get in over your head.

PBN: Why is entrepreneurship so important?

ROBITAILLE: What this country and what this state need are job creators, people who are willing to step out there and rekindle that spirit of entrepreneurship. I think the greatest stimulant to the economy is the resurgence of small businesses. A lot of these students have the ability to start a small business with the help of their family and friends.

PBN: Are most of the ideas you see from students technology-related?

ROBITAILLE: At the center, we work with students from all academic majors. Some students are starting their own little businesses in their dorm rooms, especially technology students. They are getting together with some friends and working on an idea and thinking of running their own business.

PBN: How does the center help?

ROBITAILLE: We’ve got some great resources here at the university, starting with our faculty members with years of experience in business. We have close business relationships with the Small Business Development Center and SCORE (“Counselors to America’s Small Business,” formerly known as the Service Corps of Retired Executives). These are experienced, retired executives who want to help. We also have alumni who want to help our students. It’s a matter of connecting the dots, and we act as a systems integrator. We are a place where students can come to get good advice and the resources they need, including consultants and access to venture capital, when they’re ready.

PBN: Tell us about your first annual “Be Your Own Boss” day.

ROBITAILLE: Experiential learning is the hallmark of Johnson & Wales University. When we decided to host an entrepreneurial day, we reached out to the College of Business to get students involved in branding and marketing the event. We created a team who worked with us for 11 weeks. They created the brand, the logo, the agenda, the promotions, the Quick Response code, everything. They knew how to market to students, to people their age. They developed a thorough event plan, even developing their own marketing agency to promote the event. The student participation exceeded all our expectations.

PBN: It sounds like a high level of student involvement.

ROBITAILLE: The university encourages internships and DWE (Directed Work Experience) teams that gain real-world experience. Last year, we had a team of finance and accounting students work with the city of Newport.

PBN: Tell us about the “Shark Tank” competition similar to the television show, where students competed for a $5,000 grand prize.

ROBITAILLE: The winner of our shark-tank competition, Timothy Silva, has moved into the International Center for Entrepreneurship, and we’re helping him incubate his business. He wants to develop a food truck that runs on biodiesel fuel. The business will be vertically integrated, and he will use local and organic food. He is also reaching out to solar companies to explore the use of solar panels to power lighting and some of the equipment. By winning the competition, he received a $5,000 support package. He will be at the center for two rigorous terms. … Our goal is to have multiple student ventures being incubated here at the same time. •

INTERVIEW

John F. Robitaille

POSITION: Executive in residence, Larry Friedman International Center for Entrepreneurship, Johnson & Wales University

BACKGROUND: Robitaille first served in the U.S. Army for six years before working as an employee-relations manager for Frito Lay. In 1981 he became the area manager for labor relations at Continental Can Company for five years before acting as the general manager at Total Communications. He founded Perspective Communications in 1987 as its president and CEO. In 2008, he became the senior adviser to Gov. Donald L. Carcieri. In 2010, he was the Republican Party candidate for governor, losing to independent Lincoln D. Chafee.

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in business, Providence College, 1970; master’s degree in human-resource management, University of Utah, 1976

FIRST JOB: Working at a service station pumping gas, fixing flats and tuning up engines, when he was 15

RESIDENCE: Portsmouth

AGE: 63

The Road to Ruin

Governor Chafee has called his tax and spending plan the “pathway to prosperity,” but it’s actually the “road to ruin” for Rhode Island families and small businesses.  I’ll-conceived and politically motivated, it does nothing to stimulate the economy, create jobs or cut the cost of state government.

We have a spending problem - not a revenue problem. Balancing a structurally flawed budget by raising taxes simply kicks the can down the road and ignores the cost drivers that create excessive spending and dramatic budget growth.

According to the 2010 census, during the past ten years Rhode Island’s population grew by a puny 0.04%, yet during that same period of time our state budget grew by a whopping 62.5%. Where’s the money going?

A recent RIPEC (Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council) report showed that over the past decade our state budget has increased by over $3 billion dollars, primarily due to increased expenditures for public personnel costs and social service entitlements.

When Rhode Island families and small businesses have had to cut back and learn to do more with less, those who serve the public and those who receive from the public must realize that no one is immune from substantial cut backs.

Raising taxes now, in lieu of budget cuts, may appease the public employee unions and the poverty advocates, but it will disproportionally hurt ordinary Rhode Island families and push more small businesses into bankruptcy.

The hard cold truth is that we must reset both government spending and public expectations. One way to start would be to initiate zero-based budgeting. It will force every department to evaluate what they do, why they do it and what’s the return on the investment. Each budget line item must be examined and justified, or eliminated – no exceptions.

Until this budget process is completed, there should be a total spending freeze, including a temporary wage-freeze for all public employees. There must also be an immediate increase in employee contributions to their healthcare coverage with a minimum of 25% for everyone - including members of the general assembly.

We must also reform the public employee pension plans, increase the minimum retirement age, stop the pension spiking schemes, and end automatic COLA.  If we fail to act now, it’s projected that annual taxpayer contributions to the retirement system will skyrocket to over $1 billion by 2030.

There are organizational and operational changes that must be made. If unattainable through collective bargaining, the general assembly must legislatively implement a one-time suspension of seniority-driven bumping procedures so we can reorganize and consolidate many state functions and departments.

Waste, redundancies and inefficiencies add up to millions of dollars in “hidden costs” that could be eliminated through the implementation of best practices and LEAN management techniques. A joint labor-management effort would certainly make sense, but that doesn’t appear likely in this politically charged environment.

On the social services side, we must crack down on welfare fraud and abuse, evaluate eligibility rules and reorganize our human services department into one centralized agency. By eliminating fraud and abuse and implementing better controls and management, we will have ample resources to help those who are truly in need.

And while we are at it, let’s ensure our social service programs are actually helping people and not simply entrapping them in a harmful co-dependency with government entitlements. For example, we must end the incentives for women to have additional children out of wedlock, and place more emphasis on education and skills training as a pathway to self-reliance.

Our cities and towns must cut spending as well.  Granted aid to cities and towns has actually decreased over the past few years, however additional local savings can be realized if we eliminated all unfunded mandates, such as minimum staffing, and give our municipalities the freedom and the tools to better manage their budgets.

And finally, our unemployment benefits are among the highest in the nation. We have to trim back both the amount and the duration of benefits. And let’s tell the federal government they’ll have to wait for us to pay back the $290 million we borrowed for the unemployment insurance trust fund.

Here’s a plan, they can take the high-speed rail money earmarked for RI and pay down the loan. Our small business owners cannot afford an increase in the UI tax and we certainly cannot afford a new train to nowhere.

Let’s not allow this administration to railroad us into believing we can tax our way out of this recession.  If there ever was a time to be engaged in your government, it’s now.  

Governor Chafee’s badly flawed budget proposal is now in the hands of the General Assembly.  Tell them to derail this harmful sales tax scheme, cut spending to the bone and give small businesses a chance.