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From Basement to Benz

Entrepreneurship in flux

From left: Matt Togstad, Scott Resnick and Jon Hardin are three of the four full-time employees at Hardin Design & Development.

From left: Matt Togstad, Scott Resnick and Jon Hardin are three of the four full-time employees at Hardin Design & Development.

Hardin and Resnick’s experience highlights a growing trend among college graduates. More and more young people in Wisconsin are starting their own businesses. So much so, that both UW-Whitewater and UW-Madison offer undergraduate degrees in entrepreneurship, and UW-Madison offers a youth entrepreneur camp for junior high school students.

Professor Joan Gillman, director of special industry programs at UW-Madison, sees a huge drive to make entrepreneurship a part of academics throughout Wisconsin’s four-year, two-year and technical schools.

“We plant the idea for starting businesses in the high schools,” Gillman says. “There is a huge drive to make entrepreneurship a part of all curriculum.”

Small Business Development Center locations throughout Wisconsin help to do just that. According to the consortium’s 2008 annual report, the 12 business centers and four specialty centers are available to any Wisconsin resident looking to start a business. The business centers, located at each of the four-year campuses in the UW system, focus on education, counseling and outreach for small-business owners.

But that’s only the beginning. UW-Whitewater’s Innovation Service Center helps entrepreneurs make smart decisions about new products or services. The center analyzes all aspects of a new businesses’ development, from profitability, to supply and demand, to market size and existing patents.

According to their website, the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network⎯a joint venture of the UW-Extension and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce⎯aims to “provide seamless access to a statewide network of entrepreneurial resources and expertise to create new ventures.” This network connects entrepreneurs to service organizations and economic development groups around the state and also helps Wisconsin entrepreneurs connect to one another.

“The program fosters collaboration among these groups,” says Kim Kindschi, executive director of the UW-Extension Division of Entrepreneurship & Economic Development. “We are very focused on using human resources and intellectual resources wisely.”

The focus on entrepreneurship, particularly among young people, comes at a time when the economy sits in disrepair and job security dwindles. The poor economy, paired with young people’s lack of a nest egg, propels some to start a business.

“This recession is hitting young people harder, I think, than recessions have in the past,” Gillman says. “The recruiting has slowed. So when you’re young and you have little to lose, what’s a little more risk?”

Balancing the risks

While it’s true that many young people may not have much to lose should their businesses fail, there are several risks unique to this group. Gillman cites lack of focus, undercapitalization and an inability to match supply and demand as key challenges for young entrepreneurs. But the biggest risk, she says, is their lack of experience.

“If you’re just going into something, you have no idea how to run a business,” Gillman says.

Other Small Business Development Centers around the state echo this concern, emphasizing a lack of a support network among young startups.

“On the other hand, you don’t have a large network,” says Steve DeWald, director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UW-River Falls. “Most service businesses are sold by word of mouth. You’ve got to get out there and work that network.”

Gillman and DeWald agree that the benefits of entrepreneurship outweigh the risks, while others, like UW-Oshkosh SBDC Director Robert O’Donnell, worry people will get carried away in the startup process.

“Patience is the hard thing,” O’Donnell says. “We have a tendency to look for instant gratification. We think, ‘If I make it, they will come.’ We have to focus on customers’ needs.”

Hardin and Resnick have fallen prey to this impatience in the past, and they recognize this as one of the pitfalls of quick success.

“When companies start making a lot of money, the temptation is to grow really fast,” Hardin says. “We grew to the point where we had a staff of at least 40. Literally, 30 of those people, their jobs are now all done by Scott.”

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