Entrepreneurship: Evaluating New Business Ventures

Program Curriculum

 Speakers:
Jerry Nelson, Joan Fulton, and Maria Marshall
Purdue University

Purdue's New Ventures Team/Agricultural Innovation and Commercialization Center (AICC) is an integrated extension program developed in response to needs in the area of business development expressed by citizens of Indiana. New Ventures Team/AICC has filled a critical void and actively assists citizens of Indiana and the rest of the United States to evaluate ideas for new business ventures, start businesses that contribute to personal income and the economy of Indiana, and grow start-ups into successful businesses.

The integrated program is multi-faceted to provide assistance for individuals and groups from different backgrounds and with different needs via:

Consultations: New Ventures Team/AICC meets with individuals and groups who are considering a new business opportunity, and provide them with education on how to effectively evaluate, start, or grow their business venture. Since this was a new area of programming for Purdue Extension, a vital component of the program was extensive training for the County Educators to be able to provide effective consultations.

Publications: Currently, twenty publications are available in print and on the internet. These publications provide useful information about business planning, and many contain worksheets that help users apply the principles and concepts directly into their own evaluation and business planning process.

Workshops and Conferences: New Ventures/AICC has been active in the leadership, development and delivery of workshops and conferences throughout Indiana as well as national audiences, strategically partnering with other Extension programs and state agencies.

Web-Based Business Planner: INVenture, an easy to use, systematic, Internet-based business planning tool, guides entrepreneurs step-by-step through the business planning process. In each of the steps, the entrepreneur answers key questions that drive the business creation process resulting in a professional business plan that may be taken to potential partners or investors.

Click here to return to the Agenda.

For more information about the conference, contact the conference co-chairs: Cindy Bigger, cbigger@umn.edu, (888) 241-0843, or Rick Maurer, richard.maurer@uky.edu, (859) 257-7582.

For questions, comments or concerns about the 2006 NACDEP Conference website, contact emilye@srdc.msstate.edu.