Entrepreneurship Courses (ETP)

ETP 3000. Foundations in Entrepreneurship (3). Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing. This course will provide a basic understanding of the entrepreneurial process. Students will examine entrepreneurship as a career. A comprehensive self-assessment will help the students to better understand their own personal aspirations, and assess their unique skills and competencies. Students will learn about opportunity assessment for new venture ideas. An overview of business plans will be presented.

ETP 3300. Franchise Management (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000.  Franchising is a major form of business ownership and a strategy for growing ventures.  This course examines franchising from both the perspective of the entrepreneur as a franchisee and as a franchisor.  Topics will include selecting a franchise, developing a franchised business model, and legal issues associated with the franchise relationship.

ETP 3400. Venture Management (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000.  Entrepreneurs need to develop basic systems and processes for their businesses as they start-up and begin to grow.  This course examines how entrepreneurs effectively develop control processes and human resource systems.  There are a variety of legal issues that entrepreneurs face related to the launch and growth of their ventures.  Students learn to apply these legal issues to new and growing ventures.  Finally, students will explore how the entrepreneur begins the transformation from running the business alone to building a professionalized organization.

ETP 3500. Managing the Family Business (3). This course explores the unique personal, interpersonal issues, and business issues associated with the family-owned and managed firm. Topics include challenges and opportunities for family businesses, the dynamics of family interactions within the family business culture, conflict resolution, estate planning, and succession planning. This course requires significant participation of family members of the student’s own family firm.

ETP 3600. Building Stakeholder Relationships (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000.  Attracting stakeholders and the resources they control is a fundamental task for any entrepreneur.  Entrepreneurs must learn to effectively network to attract investors, partners, advisors, employees, customers, and suppliers.  This course examines the process and actions that lead to effectively attracting key stakeholders and building sustained relationships with the over time.  The ethical responsibilities associated with these stakeholder relationships will also be addressed throughout this course.

ETP 3700. Entrepreneurial Financial Management (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000. This course examines the process of financial forecasting for a new venture, effective financial management of an emerging business, sources of financing, bootstrapping, and exit planning.

ETP 3800. Service Learning in Entrepreneurship (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000 or Instructor’s permission. This course will integrate service learning experiences in start-up entrepreneurial ventures into a seminar that examines a variety of issues common in entrepreneurship. The start-up ventures used for this course will include those supporting inner city economic development, newly created non-profits, or entrepreneurs seeking economic independence through business formation. Students will work with these entrepreneurs to assess their specific business needs, evaluate possible solutions, develop a plan of action, and assist with implementation. Self-reflection will be an important part of this process.

ETP 4200. International Entrepreneurship (3). Prerequisities: ETP 3000 and INB 3300.  This course provides students with an overview of key trends and developments in international commerce as it influences the entrepreneurial sector of the economy.  The course familiarizes students with selected theories and concepts of international business and with the ways in which they affect entrepreneurial ventures.  Students will work on projects that will examine the international dimensions of starting and growing an entrepreneurial venture.

ETP 4400. Launching an Entrepreneurial Venture (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000 or Instructor’s permission. Students will integrate experiences from either running or starting-up their own business ventures with the theory, concepts and models they are learning in their other entrepreneurship and business courses. The goal of the course is to assist students in implementing their businesses in a manner that is consistent with sound theory and values. The class is project based and uses a contract-learning model of evaluation.
Gen. Ed. designation: G (Global Studies) and EL (Interships, Clinical, Practica).

ETP 4450 Special Topics in Entrepreneurship (3). This course offers the student an opportunity to explore and study a special current entrepreneurship topic not covered in other entrepreneurship courses.

ETP 4500. Venture Planning (3). Prerequisites: ETP 3700 and Senior Standing. For Social Entrepreneurship majors SET 4015 is an additional prerequisite. This course will serve as the culminating experience for Entrepreneurship majors and minors and for Social Entrepreneurship majors. Students will participate in the development of a business plan for an actual venture they intend to start. If they do not intend to start a venture, students will be teamed up with those that have a legitimate idea for a new business. Students will examine the growth process and learn how to effectively manage the growth phase of a business.
Gen. Ed. designation: EL (Undergraduate Research).