Wisconsin School of Business Coursework in Entrepreneurship - Undergraduate

422– Small Business Management/Entrepreneurship

PREREQUISITES: So, Jr, or Sr st. Not open to grad stdts

This is a challenging, instructive, and valuable class for business and non-business majors who are interested in entrepreneurship.  The course covers broad topics ranging from organizing founding teams, evaluating potential opportunities and their broader context, and assessing risks in pursuing such opportunities.  The course is intended for those who have some knowledge of basic accounting and finance principles but is open to non-business majors.  Course assignments include intensive readings, case preparations, regular writing exercises, and taking active roles in facilitating class discussions.

427 – Entrepreneurial Growth Strategies

PREREQUISITES:  MHR 422, FINANCE 300 & Sr st or cons inst

Rapid growth in small firms creates several problems that can lead to poor performance and business failure.  This course traverses key topics in entrepreneurial management such as intellectual property rights, opportunity assessment, timing, and organization design with the purpose of identifying and managing the small firm growth problem.  This class is for students who are contemplating starting a business alone or with others at some point in their career, or for students who plan to seek employment in small to mid-size businesses following graduation.  Growth issues are studied through lectures by the professor and industry experts, as well as case analysis and class discussion.

434 – Venture Creation

PREREQUISITES: Jr or Sr st; ACCT IS 100 or 300.  Not open to grad stdts

This course is designed for students interested in the entrepreneurial process, with a special emphasis on creating a new venture.  Students will learn how to test the viability of new business opportunities and conduct a feasibility study of their own idea.  Students will present their concepts to a panel of professionals who will evaluate their analyses.  Students are also strongly encouraged to participate in the WI School of Business Burrill Business Plan Competition.

The course prepares students to launch a new venture in several different forms – a traditional for-profit start up, a social nonprofit enterprise, or virtual organizations.  The course is not focused on buyouts, franchising, or launching new ventures within larger organizations.  Many of the concepts discussed in the course, however, can easily apply to these scenarios.

365 – Technology Entrepreneurship

PREREQUISITES: Sophomore or higher st, or Special Stdt

This course focuses on identifying the entrepreneurial and strategic challenges faced by start-ups in two high-technology sectors of the economy – infotech and biotech – and provides tools/frameworks to address these challenges.  We begin with a quick review of the salient characteristics of these sectors and identify the key strategic issues associated with these fields.  After that, we turn our attention to understanding techniques for indentifying and assessing entrepreneurial opportunities in these fields.  Next we examine ways in which such opportunities can be resourced and how critical competencies for a high technology start-up are developed.  Finally, we focus on the strategic challenges that entrepreneurial firms in these fields need to address.  These include evaluation modes of commercialization, engaging in dynamic strategies and shaping the rules of the game in these fields.

365 – Entrepreneurship Residential Learning Community

PREREQUISITES: Restricted to ERLC stdts

The ERLC welcomes 64 undergraduate residents living in Sellery Hall. The ERLC's mission is to teach students to put their ideas into action through the entrepreneurial process. Students who are undecided or from majors as diverse as art history, anthropology, engineering and business benefit from instruction in:  imagining and assessing opportunities, harnessing key resources to make real your ideas (people, funds, structure), learning from doing (tactics and goals),  creating new sources of value (profit/nonprofit, private/social good).  Faculty and staff from across campus provide leadership for the ERLC. All ERLC residents are asked to enroll in this 3-credit course, which fulfills general education requirements and provides students with access to faculty and community members on a personal basis.

365 – Social Entrepreneurship

PREREQUISITES: Restricted to ERLC stdts

The ERLC welcomes 64 undergraduate residents living in Sellery Hall. The ERLC's mission is to teach students to put their ideas into action through the entrepreneurial process. Students who are undecided or from majors as diverse as art history, anthropology, engineering and business benefit from instruction in:  imagining and assessing opportunities, harnessing key resources to make real your ideas (people, funds, structure), learning from doing (tactics and goals),  creating new sources of value (profit/nonprofit, private/social good).  Faculty and staff from across campus provide leadership for the ERLC. All ERLC residents are asked to enroll in this 3-credit course, which fulfills general education requirements and provides students with access to faculty and community members on a personal basis.

 

365 – Arts Enterprise: Art As Business As Art

PREREQUISITES: Junior, Senior, or Grad St, and cons inst

Artists and other creative workers have long balanced their expressive work with business realities—marketing, contracts, funding, financing, patronage, and public engagement. Whether as independent contractors, sole proprietors, company founders, contract artists, project collaborators, board members, or volunteers, successful artists have wrestled with the life of an entrepreneur in a complex and ever-evolving industry. But what if the business side of artistic expression wasn’t just an inconvenience, but an integral part of the expressive palette? What if the tools of business were used with a craftsman’s hand to advance an artistic vision in more elegant and connected ways? This course will explore the dynamic interplay between artistic life and business strategy, and will feature compelling national figures who cross that line everyday. It will offer new perspective and foster new connections for an interdisciplinary group of students, and advance the role of “arts enterprise” on the UW–Madison campus.

Finance 457 - Entrepreneurial Finance

PREREQUISITES: FINANCE/ECON 300, Math 213 or 222, Gen Bus 303 or equiv, & Acct IS 301

Has the objective of reviewing the financial, control, and investment opportunities faced by startup and rapidly growing companies in entrepreneurial settings.  The main objective of study is to consider and select financing vehicles which are appropriate to securing the organizations' money requirements and to understand and analyze the issues in the institutional framework in which those decisions take place. Topics and issues covered include:  evaluation of a variety potential high growth opportunities; financial benchmarking of early stage and growth enterprises; market-based, earnings-based, and asset based approaches to the valuation and pricing of an organization at various life stages; the types and timing of financing; and a variety of harvest strategies.