Students have successfully created and are running their own businesses through the upper division management class, “Practicum in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management”.

David Rahn, an entrepreneurship and strategy lecturer, came up with the idea for the class last year when there was a major shift in the business world. Rahn is the director of e-Incubator, a program within the Center for Entrepreneurship on campus.

Students need to know how to launch businesses because it’s so cheap and fast to build a website, start marketing and find customers, he said.

“Every plan is filled with hypothesis,” Rahn said. “It’s not until you build something that you know whether it works.”

Chico State provides all of the software for the students, and Rahn teaches students about website development, marketing and email campaigns.
The pace of the class increases each semester and many students change their business plans, which is no problem, he said.

One student changed plans over the weekend and now their business is becoming very successful.

“In about six weeks you can get a business up and running,” Rahn said. “Next semester, it will be five.”

Most schools don’t teach students how to build websites, he said. The lecturer has been asked to speak about his curriculum at several conferences, including one in Texas held by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship in January.

“We are actually leading the way in this,” Rahn said. “It’s the cutting edge stuff.”

Some companies students have created include a custom T-shirt company with logos of San Francisco landmarks and a custom-designed iPhone case store.

An app called Herdit was created by a student for tracking animals and is being tested in the agricultural department.

Students that have been running their businesses successfully for a few months and will present their plans to the Accelerator Fund committee in the Center for Entrepreneurship this week to get funding for their projects.

In the past, Rahn’s students have gotten $10,000 and $4,000 in funding and the money for winners is increasing. Both students pursued their businesses successfully.

“Early customer feedback is important,” Rahn said. “It’s called a lean approach — trying not to do anything that’s wasteful.”

Some students created websites for their family’s businesses. One student created a site selling science toys because his dad runs science camps. Another created a website for his family’s Mexican restaurant.

Scott Hunt, an economics major, successfully created his business, gamersjobworld.com, through the entrepreneurship class.

“I am a believer in this new approach to starting your business,” Hunt said. “The tools and tips provided to me throughout the semester allowed for a new, less costly approach to finding customers interested in the service I provided.”

Josh Pitts, a psychology major, also left the class satisfied.
“Give a starving student pizza and you feed him for a day,” Pitts said. “Teach a starving student how to launch a business website and you feed him for a lifetime!”

Check out some of the companies Rahn’s students are running today:
http://sfgenuine.com/
http://ufactory.myshopify.com/
http://outdoorally.com/
Risa Johnson can be reached at [email protected] or @risapisa on Twitter.