St. Louisans have always had a pioneering spirit—it was a gaggle of St. Louis businessmen, after all, who backed Charles A. Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight in 1927. Entrepreneurship is just another way this spirit manifests itself in the Gateway City.
As part of the RCGA’s “School to Careers” grant, six leading area business people participated in a daylong session to hammer out an occupational profile of a successful entrepreneur. Their specialties range from clothing and accessories, retail to engineering, medical/law, physical fitness services and international consulting.
The group came together to focus on identifying the academic skills and levels that they felt were critical for entrepreneurs to possess during the start-up and initial operation phase, or the first three-to-four years, of a new venture. “Solid basic academic skills and education are keys to success,” emphasized Courtney Price, president of The Entrepreneur Education Foundation and co-creator of Premier FastTrac Entrepreneurial Education Programs. The local group of entrepreneurs agreed and decided to focus on the skills of applied math, reading for information, locating information and writing. Writing, they agreed, is the most important skill for entrepreneurs to posses as everything from a business plan to marketing brochures to loan applications has to be written succinctly and persuasively. Funds are not always available to start-up companies to hire professional writing services to perform these functions.
The group used a process called Work KeysTM, a work force development system designed by ACT, Inc., to identify the academic skill requirements for an entrepreneur. The group recognized that the career choice of entrepreneur is popular—six out of 10 high school students indicate an interest in becoming entrepreneurs—but students don’t always realize that high academic skills are critical to business success. “Every business closure is catastrophic to the business community and entrepreneurial failures continue to increase as more new ventures are launched,” Price says. A venture’s success is directly related to the entrepreneur’s knowledge, know-how and support systems. Entrepreneurial education, therefore, is an integral part of a venture’s success, helping create economic value, jobs and healthier communities.”
And this is why the information the group of local entrepreneurs hammered out is so important. Students and adults interested in preparing for careers as entrepreneurs need reliable information about the skills that are critical to success—and what better source for this information than from successful entrepreneurs. Students and adults have an opportunity to assess their current skill levels using the Work Keys system while still in school and can then compare their skills to the Work Keys profiles—including the entrepreneur profile. They can then take advantage of coursework and opportunities to strengthen skills to better prepare for their entrepreneurial ventures.
For more information regarding the entrepreneur profile or the Work Keys system, contact Margaret Kenyon, director of Work force Development at the RCGA @ 314/444-1132.
