Minding Our Business: Advanced Program

MINDING OUR BUSINESS ADVANCED PROGRAM

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Since 1996 MOB has trained and mentored more than 800 Trenton students in starting and running their own businesses. In spite of the fact that MOB students are young adolescents (ages 10 to 14), a good number of these students are strongly interested in running their businesses year-round. The MOB Advanced Program, created in 2004, is designed for these students who need additional training and support to make their businesses sustainable year-round. The program is financed in large part by a grant from the Coleman Foundation of Chicago.

The program involves three components: one week of intensive training at Rider University, a 5 month-long business coaching program, and vending events which provides a safe place for students to sell year-around.

Students live on the Rider University campus during the third week of July. This allows advanced students to concentrate on their training without having to deal with the distractions of their home environments. Central to the training is the development of skills and knowledge for students to make their businesses more sustainable.

The monthly business coaching sessions that follow provide needed support to the health and viability of students’ businesses. At each session a seasoned Trenton entrepreneur share its expertise with students. Students also reflect about their own entrepreneurial experience and plan to run their businesses more effectively.

The key accomplishments of the 2006 Advanced Summer Program are:

The program's effectiveness is evident in students’ perception of usefulness for running their businesses. Most students perceived the entrepreneurship training to be very useful (64%). Also, most students reported that they learned a lot in the training (82%) and most students reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the training (100%).
The majority of the students perceived better changes in self as a result of MOB in their: skills as an entrepreneur (100%), confidence about being able to run a business year-around (82%), and as a better student (91%).
The majority of the students is interested in a career in entrepreneurship (55%), and plans to save money from sales to reinvest in their businesses (91%). On the average, students plan to save 42% of their sales to reinvest in their businesses.
Seventy-three percent of the students indicated in 2006 that they planned to run their businesses year around as opposed to only 52% in 2005.
Seventy-three percent of the students reported that their desire to run their own business is far greater than before MOB Advanced.
Ten months later 44% of the students reported still running their businesses.
Students average $88 sales a month, $45 profits a month, and reinvested 49% of their monthly sales into their businesses.
Coverage in the local media included a half-hour interview of female students and program staff as part of the program “Woman to Woman: hosted by Darlene Womack in WIMG Radio and retransmitted by WZBN TV.