Entrepreneurship: April 2010 Archives

I am here in Louisville with twenty-eight of our Belmont students at the annual International Career Development Conference of the collegiate division of DECA, Delta Epsilon Chi.

Interest in entrepreneurship continues to be strong at this conference.  I was amazed to see the high level of interest this year in the conference-long event called the Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Each year the students participating in this event are given a specific prompt and told to develop a new business that takes advantage of the issue in the prompt.  Here is this year's challenge:

"The Challenge is simple--create a business concept that capitalizes on the new Louisville Downtown Arena currently being built right next to the Galt House Hotel. NOTE: Your business concept, whether it's a product or service, may not be "located" inside the arena itself."

The student teams will be making their initial pitches this afternoon in a speed dating style format developed by my friend George Solomon from George Washington University. 

The top teams from the preliminary rounds will then refine their pitches for the finals tomorrow.

The entrepreneurial energy and the optimism of these students is motivational to all of us involved with the event.

Let me share a little entrepreneurial inspiration with all of you this morning.  Ben Cunningham sent along a video that was posted at Club for Growth that brought a smile to my face this early morning:

Sam's Club is a regular stop for many small business owners. 

Sam's Club has launched a new program called Giving Made Simple that should be near and dear to many entrepreneurs.  The program supports education and entrepreneurship, as Sam's Club believes they are essential to the growth of our economy and communities. 

Giving Made Simple is a online voting campaign that allows Sam's Club members and associates to determine how Sam's Club will distribute $4 million in charitable contributions to eight selected nonprofit organizations dedicated to youth education and entrepreneurship.

The organizations that were selected to participate in this program are Kiva, Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF USA), Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), Accion USA, Junior Achievement, YMCA, Girls, Inc. and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

Sam's Club members and associates can log onto http://www.samsclub.com/giving, and vote for the non-profit organization they would like to see win the largest donation.