If at any point you wondered about becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business or managing a business, you may be a great candidate for Heald's Associate in Applied Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship.

The Business Administration program with a concentration on Entrepreneurship educates students on business fundamentals as well as the needed skills to know how to start a small business.

Similar to Heald's Business Administration program, students will study marketing and sales, finance for entrepreneurs, and the analysis and evaluation of real business cases by successful and not-so-successful entrepreneurs. Additionally, students will create their own sample business plan at the start of the program and will develop it throughout their education at Heald. In their final course, the students' completed business plan will be presented to a group of local entrepreneurs.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: JOB DUTIES
What is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is someone who begins a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes the financial risks and accountability. The most obvious form of an entrepreneurship is that of starting new businesses. The entrepreneur is the main person behind a firm or business and must demonstrate his or her quality as a leader, choose and delegate to the right managers, formulate policies, and direct the overall operations of businesses and corporations, public-sector organizations, nonprofit institutions and other organizations.

In a small start-up, usually run by a business owner, responsibilities include accountability for the accuracy of financial reporting, purchasing, hiring, training, quality control, and day-to-day supervisory duties.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: WHAT'S THE JOB OUTLOOK?
According to a national study of entrepreneurship, funded in part by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in May 2010, more than 10 million American adults were involved in the process of starting nearly six million potential new businesses at any given time. According to the study, minorities were 50 percent more likely to start a business than Caucasians.

Additional key findings of the study showed:

• Blacks are 50 percent more likely to engage in start-up activities than whites. Hispanic men are slightly more likely than white men to be involved with start-up.
• Education significantly predicts nascent entrepreneurship, particularly for blacks and Hispanics. Approximately 26 of every 100 black men and 20 of every 100 Hispanic men with graduate education experience report efforts to start a new business. This compares to 10 of every 100 white men with graduate education experience.

Additionally, a number of reports cite women entrepreneurs are growing at a rate of three times that of men, particularly in developing countries as a means to improve the standard of living and reduce poverty.

History has shown that despite the challenges of local entrepreneurs or a mogul in the making, a savvy entrepreneur looks at the current economic climate for potential revenue-generating opportunities and considers ways to capitalize on the resources and the available workforce. Many business magnates have used opportunities presented in a down economy just as they would in a prosperous one to build their empire.

The take away is that anyone with a quality education including solid business fundamentals, and who exhibits resourceful thinking and a clear vision can foster the entrepreneurial spirit and add to the economic growth.

Through Heald's Associate in Applied Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship, you may get more than career training. You can learn how to capitalize on the "American Dream."