Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The "New Entrepreneur"

This week our class has teamed up with look-look.com, an L.A.-based trend watching company, to survey entrepreneurs in the SMU community and find out if they match the characteristics of what look-look defines as the “new entrepreneur.” According to the researchers at look-look, young people (ages 19-35) are redefining the path to a successful career.

Students and young professionals no longer feel the pressures of having to fit in with the structure of the business world as it is. They are becoming more and more aware of their ability to create something of their own, something that they are passionate about and finding ways to accomplish that. Self-employment does not carry the same negative connotation it did 20 years ago. Being your own boss has become a respectable position. Others are envious at those who can make a living out of pursuing their dream, while they are still stuck trying to climb the corporate ladder.

Many SMU students are fortunate enough to have the resources necessary in pursuing their goals as entrepreneurs. As students at a small, private university set in the heart of Dallas (now home to the city with the most Fortune 500 companies in the country), students at SMU have incredible networking opportunities as well as a city with everything to offer. SMU also offers a variety of entrepreneurship classes and has its own institute, the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, just recently named by Entrepreneur Magazine as the fifth best entrepreneurial program in the nation.

SMU entrepreneurs share many characteristics with other young entrepreneurs across the country. Both have gained success from having a good education, the capital to start a company, the drive to develop a business plan and the passion behind their ideas to establish a business. Here are two examples that caught my attention:

Trey Chappell is one of the many examples of SMU entrepreneurs that I found in my research. Chappell graduated from SMU in 2000 with a degree in finance. In 2002, he started his own college advising service, College X-ing, that would extend beyond the typical high school college prep courses and offer a more personalized, in-depth approach to finding the right college for high school students and their families. His advice to budding entrepreneurs, “Keep your brain churning; don’t stop thinking up ideas and write them down. Don’t let peers’ negative impressions deter you from pursuing an idea; you’ll be the salesperson, so if you believe in it 100 percent, you’ll get others to buy it.”

Erin Patton, a 2006 EMBA SMU graduate, had already started his own business when he enrolled in the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, but wanted a program that he said would "enhance my effectiveness as a business leader." Patton knew SMU Cox School of Business would be the right place for him to "to interact with the esteemed Cox faculty while gaining exposure to the school’s vibrant alumni network."

An established entrepreneur from the moment he received his bachelor's degree from Northwestern in 1991, he was chosen to launch Nike's Jordan brand by Michael Jordan himself, right out of college. He increased global revenue sales to $350 million in his role and received the Edison Award from the American Marketing Association. From there he started his own brand marketing consulting firm, TMG, which has counseled such clients as Pepsi, Motorola, MTV, Mercedes-Benz and more.

He attributes his successful and growing business to the skills he learned from his Cox professors and his introduction into the Cox network of Dallas’ business elite. “As a Cox alum, you add thousands of business leaders’ names to your rolodex.”

Since graduating from the SMU Cox School of Business, Patton has expanded his New-York based company with a Dallas office and has hired a Cox student as an intern. He also teaches a sports marketing class to Cox MBA students and has just finished writing his first marketing book.

Patton strongly believes that “character counts…for everything.” His advice for budding entrepreneurs is to, “surround yourself with people who are smarter than you…and empower them in ways so they manifest your vision.”




Other entrepreneur sites:
BusinessWeek.com article: “The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier”
Young Entrepreneurs
Young Entrepreneur’s Organization
The Young Entrepreneurs Network
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog