The Entrepreneurship Club debuted this month after being approved by Asbury Student Congress.
The club aims to inspire, educate and equip students to develop innovative ideas and pursue entrepreneurial ventures. Through the various projects, resources, mentorship and networking opportunities, the club hopes to help students build creativity, leadership and business skills.
“College does a great job of preparing students to get jobs once they graduate, but we kind of want to flip the narrative,” said club organizer Hallie Bryant. “We want to show students that they can create their own jobs, start their own businesses and turn passions into something that they can pursue in the future.”
The idea of the club started last semester when Awesome Inc.’s relationship manager, McKenzie Haynes, contacted Asbury to see if they would like to start a partnership.
“She reached out to us last semester and was interested in having a partnership with us,” said Bryant. “We kind of just talked through the logistics of what the Dayton Business Club was at the time, what was expected out of the Entrepreneurship club and got things rolling from there.”
While the opportunity presented by Awesome Inc. to Bryant was something that gained her interest, her experience with the organization helped to reassure her about the idea of the partnership.
“Over the summer, and through the experience of entering with them, I kind of got to really understand what they were about as an organization, but also felt more prepared to be able to start the club on campus,” said Bryant.
Awesome Inc. is a Lexington-based organization that supports entrepreneurs and startups through programs like workshops, mentorships and networking events. Through the partnership, and the $10,000 grant, the club will give students access to real-world mentorship, resources from experienced entrepreneurs and the ability to bridge the gap between classroom learning and actual experience.
For the club, there will be two monthly meetings that give students different experiences to help prepare them. One monthly meeting will be a workshop for club members, so they can have actual experience of creating their business, going through the steps of finding a problem, creating a solution to the problem and creating a product and mission statement. Additionally, they will have to create a marketing strategy, so for each month they can work step-by-step on different things for creating their business.
Through the various projects, Bryant hopes that the club will provide students the fundamental skills needed for pursuing a successful business.
“What I’ve heard from students is that they get more knowledge based on experience, so I think students actually being able to walk through and problem solve on their own will help much more than just being able to read from a textbook on how to start their own business,” said Bryant.
The second monthly club meeting will consist of guest speakers and networking events. At the meeting, students will have the ability to interact with an experienced entrepreneur and listen to the speaker discuss their experience and tips the person has for students.
For the spring, the club has plans for a variety of opportunities. The club will start their meetings in the spring, Awesome Inc. will have various events, and the Pitch Competition will be held.
The Pitch Competition will consist of four to five students pitching their business or business idea in front of everyone attending the competition. The students who compete will also have the chance to be mentored and coached by experts to help prepare for the pitch. The competition gives students a chance to practice pitching, get feedback from professionals and showcase their entrepreneurial skills. The Competition is open to anyone on campus. While the date for the competition is to be determined, students can contact Hallie Bryant for more information at hallie.bryant@asbury.edu and keep an eye out for things such as chapel announcements and emails.
Photo courtesy of Alanna May.
