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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1997)
Student entrepreneurs apply lessons outside classroom Some business students are working to make their idea a reality By Scott Pesznecker Freelance Reporter Everyone has probably held a job while in school. However, a small number of students have gone a step further and started their own businesses. "There is a higher percentage of students with ideas for wanting to go into business, but there [is] not a significant number of students in the School of Business that ac tually have one,” said Mark Lang, head of entrepreneurships at the Lundquist School of Business. Because of the decrease in the number of job openings in major companies over the past genera tion, the focus of prospective businessmen and business women has shifted from major companies to entrepreneurships. According to the Webster’s Third New International Dictio nary, an entrepreneur is "one that organizes, promotes or manages an enterprise or activity of any kind.” Entrepreneurships are based more on an attitude with spirit than anything else,” Lang said. “In the business school we try to teach students to recognize those opportunities and give them tools to be successful in pursuing those opportunities.” Senior Michael Fern and Karl Weselak, a graduate from the business school, are opening a shuttle network that will trans port people from Eugene to the Portland International Airport. “We had market research done for us by a nationwide company,” Fern said. “The results told us how many people in Lane Coun ty that should fly out of Eugene are lost to PDX. The number of passengers was 20 or 30 percent.” Fern, a student in the business school, was inspired to start the business while riding a shuttle van in Portland to the airport. “I’ve been in Eugene for two years, and I’ve talked to lots of students and business people,” Fern said. "Lots of business flies out of Portland. It was kind of spur-of-the-moment, but we did market research to see if any other Eugene service did this and there weren’t any.” Teamwork has been helping Fern and Weselak in the early stages of their business, which they are hoping to have open for travelers in time for the holiday season. Weselak said teamwork has been critical while preparing to open the business. “When I first went to the busi ness school, 1 realized that every thing was group work, and I hat ed it,” Weselak said. “After I graduated though, I realized that hearing other views and realizing that other people may have better ideas helped me to open up and think about better ways of doing things.” Many new businesses find it hard to get funding from banks and other major investors to turn their ideas into reality. It is not uncommon for beginners to seek financial assistance from family, friends and private investors. When most businesses start up, it’s hard to persuade outside people who don’t already have trust in you to invest in your ideas,” Fern said. “We were helped out by family and friends. They have trust in us.” Paul Anthony, a junior and business manager, said hands-on learning within a business should be “in the curriculum for all stu dents.” “The best thing about taking classes and owning a business is that I can apply what I’ve learned from home and school,” Anthony said. “It’s great to be able to apply education immediately. If I find a financial technique or a structur al plan in class that I like, then I can go to the office afterwards and make some changes.” Anthony manages Music Pub lishing Company. His company has between 15 and 25 interns or employees. “We provide original music for films, CD-ROMs and animations,” COURTESY In costume at the Hillsboro 4th of July parade, junior Dan Laws shakes hands with a young girl. Laws takes part in many events such as this through his business. Anthony said. “We have yet to do music for a video game. ” Music is not the only thing that his company deals with. Anthony said they work with people of all types to copyright any intellectual property “that can be put into a tangible medium.” “It’s pretty controversial be cause lawyers think that we’re in truding on their business,” An thony said. “We’re not offering legal assistance; we just have a simplified version of the business forms so that ordinary people can understand copyright law.” It is even possible for someone to manage a business without pri or business training. Dan Laws, a junior majoring in fine arts, had the desire to own a costume that was movie-quality, so he made one. “It was about six months ago when I made my first costume,” Laws said. “It was so detailed that I started getting requests from people who wanted the same kind of quality that I put out.” With a single costume taking several weeks to construct, Laws finds himself at a disadvantage because he doesn’t have a full fledged business partner. “Right now I’m only making one particular costume,” Laws said. “The demand for it is so high that it surpasses my ability to make the needed amount.” Compared with schools across the nation, the Lundquist College of Business is one of the best of its kind. Last year it was rated as one of the top 35 entrepreneur schools in the nation by Success Maga zine. This year, it was named the model entrepreneur program at the Masters of Business Associa tion level for graduate students. (greetings % send one to a friend! 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