Entrepreneurial Education the Key to Successful Startups!

“People exposed to entrepreneurship frequently express that they have more opportunity to exercise creative freedoms, higher self esteem and an overall greater sense of control over their own lives” – National Standards for Entrepreneurship Education.
 

Overcoming the challenges of a Startup can be an extremely daunting task. Not only do these difficult tasks interfere with the success of a new business, they can be easily prevented from the early stages of development. Quite often the lack of entrepreneurial education and knowledge plays a dominant role in the prevention of a successful business venture.

 

Curious about what the current success rate for small businesses and entrepreneurs is in Canada? Around 85% survive the first year, with a decline to 70% for two years, and an even bigger decline to 51% for survival within the first five years – according to StartUp Canada. This poses a great threat to entrepreneurs across the country, and can become extremely discouraging when looking at the number of businesses that do not succeed. How can a Startup avoid this? Seemingly the lack of knowledge in regards to funding, founding team issues, and lack of knowledge of how to engage with customers and receive feedback, among many others play a very large role in startup failures. But these challenges can be avoided with prior knowledge of resources, expertise, and simply the education on how to start a business and what you need to be successful. Fortunately there are many resources and programs available to inspiring entrepreneurs, but not very many individuals are aware and familiar with them.

 

This September NORCAT (in conjunction with MaRS Discovery District) will be launching an Entrepreneurship Education certificate program, Entrepreneurship 101. This program is a series of free weekly web-streamed lectures, in addition to in-person lectures which will be delivered by “been there, done that” local entrepreneurs. This program will teach post-secondary students, as well as local entrepreneurs, various key features that are deemed crucial in regards to any Startup business – no matter what industry you’re interested in, there’s something beneficial for every entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship 101 focuses on a wide range of introductory topics such as finding appropriate funding for your business venture, communication and marketing strategies, developing strategic business plans, and many more. The goal of this program is to introduce entrepreneurs to the world of business and what key components you’ll need to a have a successful business. Upon completion of the program, those individuals who have been present for the majority of lectures will receive a NORCAT Entrepreneur Education certificate – attendance will be taken weekly to monitor this.

If you are interested and wish to sign up for Entrepreneurship 101, please visit our registration page www.norcat.org/ent101. For all other NORCAT Entrepreneurship resources please visit the NORCAT website, www.norcat.org and follow us on Twitter, @NORCAT #ent101norcat