The Center for Entrepreneurship’s Small Business Institute has been at the forefront of innovation in the Orange County market for decades. Every year, we place student teams with local companies to help spur business innovation in marketing, sales, finance, operations, and leadership. These teams of mostly graduating seniors are paired with mentors from the private sector and their professors and they end up having a huge economic impact not only for the businesses that they do consulting projects for but for the region as well.
Recently, Ms. Charlesetta Medina, Manager with the Small Business Institute, was interviewed by the Daily Titan about how we’re able to help local businesses. Here is a taste of what was in the story:
The SBI is a national non-profit organization in its 39th year of business. The center is part of the 14 Centers of Excellence within the Steven G. Mihaylo College of Business and Economics and a program for entrepreneurship.
“We’re a very tiny center but we do make a huge economic impact,” Medina said. “So when you talk about the value for small businesses in our local economy, it’s key.”
That’s what’s really began to turn our economy, is the ability for those small businesses to have held on and still allow for new ones to emerge, Medina said.
Medina reaches out directly by mail to nearly 20,000 local businesses. Then she takes those responses and figures out, “is (SBI) a benefit to them.”
The students involved in SBI take on about 40 small businesses per semester and close to 100 businesses a year.
“They get to work in a team environment, with support and resources from the center, from mentors and from faculty,” Medina said. “And they’re able to bring that really fresh perspective to businesses, many of whom may have been in business for a number of years and they feel like they know their business very well.”
Yet, the generation of students now are able to bring new insight and a new perspective on how to do some of those same tasks, in new and innovative ways that helps that business, Medina said.
To read the rest of the story please click here.
Wouldn’t you like to have this kind of work done for your company? Maybe you know of a company that would benefit from our services. Either way, if you are interested in our services please contact Ms. Charlesetta Medina at 657 278 3464 or by email at cymedina@fullerton.edu to find out more about our program.