Session 1

Building Your Own Business

Entrepreneurship in Business Design

A highly-interactive and immersive program designed for students who are eager to explore the world of entrepreneurship and starting their own business. Through hands-on learning and team collaboration, students explore and utilize the nine building blocks of the "business model canvas." At the conclusion of this program, teams will deliver their "business pitch" to the class and judges.

Eberhardt School of Business Dean Lewis R. Gale leads the students in learning about the exciting real-world business fundamentals. Guest speakers also address the class and provide examples of how they built their own business with creativity, tenacity, teamwork, and strategy.

Curriculum

By the end of the program, students:

  • understand of how entrepreneurs identify opportunities, solve problems, and create value;
  • learn the Business Canvas Model to design a viable business for any industry;
  • build teamwork, leadership, and communication skills;
  • research and prepare a basic financial plan for day-to-day operations of a small business;
  • present a compelling "business pitch" supported by visual materials and strategic reasoning.

Through hands-on learning, students are assigned into small groups to collaboratively develop their own 鈥渇ood truck鈥� business concept using the Business Model Canvas. This tool is applicable to any industry, and students will gain insights into real-world business fundamentals including design, customer discovery, marketing, budgeting, and branding.

students at Trail Coffee
Planned Topics

Using a left-brain and right-brain approach to how humans receive and digest information, the program covers the building blocks of any successful business.

  • The left side focus is on efficiency and the internal structure of the business. Topics covered are resources, activities, partners, and cost structure.
  • The right side focuses on value creation and the customer. Topics covered are segments, relationships, channels, and revenue streams.
Lewis Gale
Faculty Lead
Lewis Gale

Dean, Eberhardt School of Business

PhD in Economics, Arizona State University, 1994
MS in Economics, Arizona State University, 1994
BA in Economics, California State University-Fresno, 1989

Dr. Gale has deep experiences in business school leadership, serving as the Eberhardt School dean from 2010 to 2016 and as interim dean in 2021鈥�22 and 2023鈥�24. Previously he served as business school dean at Weber State University from 2005 to 2010 and at University of Louisiana-Lafayette from 2003 to 2005. Dr. Gale's primary area of research is international economics. His articles have ranged from international trade and the environment to import competition effects on domestic industries, from the responsiveness of elderly migration to state policy changes to regional economic development and prosperity.

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