Centralight

Charles Fitzpatrick, director of CMU's LaBelle Entrepreneurial Center, off ers these tips to anyone considering starting a business: • Research the industry, market and competition. • Defi ne your business concept and consider how you'll enter the market. • Consider fi nancing options and resources. Doug Willet (left), owner of Luna Tech Designs, points out some of his technology's capabilities to CMU Research Corp. employees Brian Delaney (center) and Cason Thorsby. The LaBelle Entrepreneurial Center not only prepares CMU students to be future entrepreneurs, it also off ers consulting to small businesses. It is a focal point for new business development and educational activities related to entrepreneurship and small business management. At CMU students can earn a major or a minor in entrepreneurship. Students are not only taught how to start their own businesses – they are encouraged and advised through the process, and many start their businesses in college or shortly after they graduate. Many of the LaBelle Entrepreneurial Center's best students also are engaged with CMU-RC in some way. Some are working with CMU-RC on class projects, some are completing internships, and many others are employees, utilizing the knowledge they've learned in CMU's entrepreneurship program to off er business support to others. Rebuilding through entrepreneurship Even in some of the most diffi cult economic times our country has seen, entrepreneurial activity at CMU shows promise for a recovery spurred by new ideas, and connections continue to be made. "There have been many highly skilled individuals who have been downsized, and they are using this as an opportunity to start their own companies and reinvent themselves," Strang says. "We're successful when they are." For Haystead, CMU's resources continue to be helpful as he decides what direction to take his business. He is seeking advice for plans for a mead tasting room, and he hopes to take on CMU students as interns in the future. "Despite the current economic times, it is a great time to start or expand a business," says Haystead. "It is really scary and intimidating to build a business, and it can make you feel really insecure, but you need a steady and encouraging support system." Haystead takes pride in explaining how his 60,000 bees all work unselfi shly toward the common purpose of creating honey, and he uses that analogy to describe his experience with the CMU-RC. "There's no ego in a beehive," he says. "And at CMU-RC, it's all about a higher purpose – creating business. Building these businesses benefi ts everyone, and who gets the credit doesn't matter. The work that they do has a positive impact on all communities." • • Check into requirements for items such as licensing, insurance, intellectual property protection, zoning and taxes. • Meet with advisors, such as lawyers, accountants and insurance agents. • Develop your business plan, spelling out items such as startup costs, projected costs and revenue, a breakeven analysis, and narrative description of your business. • Obtain fi nancing. 18 centralight spring '10

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