The Sprott School of Business Entrepreneurship Co-op Program, sponsored by Carleton University’s Co-op Office as well as the Sprott School of Business has been established to encourage students with great ideas to set up their own businesses during a four month co-op work-term starting in May 2003.

Applications will be considered from Business co-op students in 3rd and 4th years that are enrolled in 42.491: Entrepreneurialist Culture. Students, who are accepted, will receive $4,000 from the program during the summer of 2003 (paid at the rate of $1,000 per month) to further develop and launch their enterprises.

24 January 2003

Deadline for applications for the Entrepreneurship Co-op Program.

To apply, a Business Model and Description must be submitted to Professor Shaobo Ji (sji@sprott.carleton.ca).

29 January 2003

Presentations by selected candidates (15-minute presentation followed by a 5 minute Q & A).

30 January - 4 February 2003

Final selection of successful candidates.

5 February 2003

Notification of successful candidates.

Application

The Business Model and Description should have some or all of the following characteristics:

1. it can be marketed using guerrilla marketing (substituting brains for money in the marketing wars);
2. it can be started using bootstrap capital;
it creates value beyond just having a JOB;
4. the business model is right;
5. there is ‘pixie dust’ in the equation.

To get some idea of the type of business model that will be accepted in this program, please see gradeAstudent.com. This business was started by graduates of 42.491 using bootstrap capital and is a successful startup. Their business model completely reinvents the computer repair industry, which is an enormous industry but quite fragmented and noted for its low levels of service and productivity. They are in the business of computer repair: both on-site and on time.

A Committee made up of Professor Shaobo Ji, Professor John Callahan and Dr. Bruce Firestone will review your business model and description. It should be no more than ten pages plus a covering letter. The Committee will notify successful candidates by February 5.

Successful candidates are expected to seek out a mentor. They must meet with their mentor a minimum of once per month.

The successful candidates must also report on their startups at the end of the co-op term (and no later than September 8, 2003). This report follows the form of a case study—the students will tell their story for the illumination of other students who follow. They must also include financial reports including both an income statement and balance sheet. They must tell sum up the lessons learned—what they did right, what worked and … what didn’t. They must show how their business model evolved and changed over the course of the program.

In summary then, each award winner will be expected to produce a report on his or her experiences for the following September, which will include:

1. the Business Model and Plan;

2. a case study based on his or her experiences;

3. an instructor's manual describing among other matters what he or she has learned-- the lessons that have taken from the experience-- the do's and don'ts;

4. internally prepared financial statements of his or her results.

This Entrepreneurship Co-op Program is only for students who want to be entrepreneurs, who want to start their own businesses and who are prepared to make the sacrifices to not only start a business but succeed in business.

If you are the type of person who needs a lot of ‘infrastructure’ around you to succeed—don’t apply. If your business model requires enormous amounts of capital before signing the first launch client—don’t apply. If you are the type of person who is self-motivated, street smart and never takes ‘no’ for an answer—this program could be suited to you. If you read the 25 Steps to Entrepreneurial Success and they make sense to you and you think you could live that life, then by all means—apply.

Entrepreneurship Track

Entrepreneurialist Culture Front Page

DramatisPersonae.org