“It’s difficult for any startup, but even more so for anything social media related, especially with sites like Facebook in the picture,” said Wade Sikkink, chief marketing officer for Collaborative Health Solutions, a health-care information service that launched its own social media portal, Medizzle, on May 19. “You’ve got to have a reason for people to come to you that they don’t have at another place. The question we get a lot is, ‘Why wouldn’t I just form a Facebook Group, or a Yahoo! Group or a Google Group?’”

For Medizzle, that reason is the site’s host of social networking tools aimed at sufferers of chronic illness. One such gadget is an algorithmic matching tool that sorts users by their illness, the sickness’s risk factor… even individual symptoms. People and groups are sorted by relevance and then rated according to compatibility with the user on a scale of one to five stars.

“We have the ability to provide tools that aren’t as important to a general audience, but there’s value in talking to someone who has not only other same illness, but also the same symptoms,” said Sikkink, who works out of the multi-city company’s Lincoln office. ”Our tools let people find exactly who they want to find, down to the symptom, whereas with other sites, you’ve just got scour profiles and message boards.”

Medizzle also boasts an extensive illness database, a comprehensive list of more than 750 illnesses and corresponding symptoms. The site also offers unparalleled privacy controls, including state-of-the-art encryption and a unique take on inputting user information.

“Unlike other sites, all we require is an email address and a unique user name,” Sikkink said. “Once you’re in, you decide what information you want to add. Of course, the more info you give us, the better our matching tool does.”

Since the social media portal’s launch a couple months ago, Sikkink has been hard at work promoting Medizzle and Collaborative Health Solutions. He and the other members of CHS attended May’s TechCrunch Disrupt event in New York City. Although the startup event didn’t have much to do with the medical field, Sikkink still considered the overall experience invaluable.

“We demoed our product non-stop,” he said. “At events like (TechCrunch), you give your pitch about a hundred times a day; you get your five-minute pitch down to a science. I’d encourage any startup to get out to these events, because it gives you that exposure, gives you that practice.”

CHS also signed Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, an umbrella company composed of more than 15 clinics nationwide dedicated to treating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, on as an advertiser and partner. But for the most part, Sikkink has promoted Medizzle through word-of-mouth. The service now has several hundred users, with numbers steadily climbing following an initial spike coinciding with the product’s launch.

“We’re off to a pretty good start, given our level of non-advertising,” Sikkink said. “We’re going to have to continue to find other interesting things to draw people in. It’s growing on its own now, things are happening, but it’s just a process that takes some time to slowly build up.”

Throughout their 25 years as small business owners, Mike and Sharon Schilling have whittled entrepreneurship down to a science.

Since starting a farm supply company back in 1985, they’ve also created a seed supplier, a fertilizer plant and numerous other businesses, parlaying each previous venture into the next. In 2002, the couple’s entrepreneurship culminated in growing grapes at a nine-acre vineyard near Pawnee City. And, given that successful entrepreneurship is inextricably bound to innovation, it’s unsurprising that the couple’s latest venture — a combination winery/microbrewery — is the first of its kind in the nation.

“Back when we applied for our license in 2005, they told us we were the first company to apply for both a winery and a brewery license,” said Sharon Schilling, co-owner of SchillingBridge Winery and Microbrewery. “We realized the economic impact a winery has on a small town and the dollars that come into a community because of one, and Mike wanted to start a microbrewery as well.”

In addition to satisfying their own goals and ambitions, the Schillings hope their latest venture helps breath new life into the Pawnee City area. Now in its fifth year, the winery/microbrewery presents a compelling vision of the future young people can have in a rural area, both through the jobs it provides and the community growth it encourages.

“It seems like a lot of you people can’t wait to get out of small towns and go off to experience the rest of the world, but I think there are kids who want to stay in their hometown because they love small town living,” Sharon said. “We’re just providing an opportunity for those people to remain in small towns.”

“We don’t necessarily want to do all the job creation, but rather inspire other entrepreneurs to get out here and do what Mike and I did 25 years ago: come back to their hometown, start a business and create their own jobs,” she added.

In addition to once again experiencing that legendary small town hospitality, entrepreneurs returning to their former homes find themselves blessed by another essential perk: familiarity. Having lived in that small town once before, according to Sharon, puts one more in tune with the needs and opportunities of that community.

“That’s what I feel like a lot of people don’t understand: If you want to start a business, go to a small town,” Sharon said. “It’s so much easier. And look to your hometown first. Generally, you’ll better know what to expect, and overall, you’re going to get a much better response to your business.”

But even then, a small town set-up isn’t a guaranteed formula for instant success. Like any other business venture, location and a home-turf advantage are no substitute for copious amounts of good, honest work.

“The definition of entrepreneur is a risk-taker, though you can reduce some of that risk by going to a small town with a great idea, taking it further and trying to provide some jobs,” Sharon said. “But even in a small town, as an entrepreneur, you’re going to be working 8, 10, 12-hour days, 5 or 6 days a week; really working.

“My husband and I go home every day and joke ‘We’re so glad we’re making this look so easy.’ Like anything worth doing, it takes long hours and hard work.”

It’s no secret that entrepreneurs — well known for working unconventional hours on side projects, often while holding down full-time jobs — fit squarely into that time-strapped demographic. It’s the very nature of those day-devouring schedules that spurred the creation of NxBizSuccess, an online portal that automatically brings entrepreneurs the information they need, often before they know they need it.

“The purpose of NxBizSuccess is to get real-time business information to entrepreneurs when they need it and where they want it — a lot of times, startups need this information yesterday,” said Tonia Franklin, NxBizSuccess web project manager and regional coordinator for NebraskaEDGE. “This portal serves as a way for individuals to go online and receive the information they’re looking for in an interactive way.”

Connected to 9 different social media outlets and boosting an impressive stash of 125 educational videos (ranging in content from small business profiles to how-to interviews with resource providers), NxBizSuccess certainly has plenty of information to dish out. But the crown jewel of the portal’s infrastructure is by and large its prestigious entrepreneur podcast.

Automatically uploaded to users’ iTunes accounts, NxBizSuccess’s instructive podcasts have enjoyed prominence as Top 25 downloads on iTunes U. iTunes U is a subsidiary of iTunes dedicated to educational content, attracting uploads from universities the world over, including the likes of Yale, Harvard and Oxford. Since the portal went public in November 2009, eager entrepreneurs have downloaded over 1200 CDs worth of NxBizSuccess podcast data.

Tonia Franklin, NxBizSuccess web project manager and regional coordinator for NebraskaEDGE

“The economy today is mobile — people are liking this attitude of having everything within their handheld devices,” Franklin said. “Entrepreneurs are very busy people. A lot of Nebraskans hold multiple jobs at once, so obviously time is an issue.”

The entire project was built from the ground up with entrepreneurs in mind. Originally conceived as a way for rural entrepreneurs to educate themselves while waiting for a NebraskaEDGE course to be offered in their area, NxBizSuccess was brought into existence by a grant from the Nebraska Enterprise Fund following an increase in state financing of projects related to microenterprise expansion.

In addition to its videos and podcasts, NxBizSuccess also posts entrepreneurial-themed scholarly articles and keeps a running, statewide list of all available training courses. The portal also recently added a new mechanism that allows organizations such as chambers to have their own private forums.

“This is a way for us to encourage entrepreneurial growth across the state of Nebraska, especially while entrepreneurs are waiting for that EDGE course to come to their community,” Franklin said. “It’s a social platform for entrepreneurs in general to come online, get info and also communicate with other members who are out there and really learn from each other.”

The program is in its infancy but has already seen positive feedback from both the University and from students enrolled.

Over the next several years, the program will offer applied undergraduate research, internships, field placements, camps and study abroad opportunities, among other programs all focused on developing entrepreneurship and agribusiness.

Mark Gustafson is the Founding Director of Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program

Mark Gustafson, the founding director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program and the Paul Engler Chair of Agribusiness Entrepreneurship of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, has been one of the major pioneers of this program. He said numerous opportunities for students will provide them with tools to help them with their businesses after graduation.

“There will be opportunities for undergraduate research in the area of entrepreneurship,” Gustafson said. “After the students go through the program, there will be a minor for students who complete the program.

“Once they’ve gone through that, they can apply for funding out of events for capitol funds.”

The donation money is dispersed throughout the next ten years, which means most of the projects and different goals of the program will not happen for a few years. The main purpose right now is to get students involved and enrolled.

“The donation money comes in over ten years, so initially we’ll focus on getting the courses in place we need to and identifying students by getting them scholarships,” Gustafson said. “In the years to come, some of these other things will enhance the program.”

Students in this first year were required to already have been enrolled in the college of agribusiness.

“We’ll make sure the students selected have the full experience, including study abroad and internships,” Gustafson said. “I think it will be a really interesting program and provide a great opportunity for kids who want to grow their own business.”

There have already been a couple dozen applicants for scholarships through this program.

Paul Engler and his wife Virginia

Gustafson’s initial focus has been on recruiting students, getting a minor in the  Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship set up at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, selecting students that will become Engler Scholars and funding additional entrepreneurial courses.

He also has been involved with beginning the process of developing the Big Red Entrepreneurship Camp next year and identifying and creating study abroad opportunities.

Gustafson said many faculty, including Kathy Thornton, Interim Director of the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship, Dean Waller and Jill Brown of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and Dean Dickey of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, are heavily involved with the program and its development.

“Paul Engler is taking an active interest in the program which will be very helpful as we build a network of successful agribusiness entrepreneurs to provide mentoring and internship experiences for the students and speakers for the future lecture series,” Gustafson said. “It is very exciting to be on the ground floor of this program.”

Gustafson expects this program to continue to grow. He said the applicant pool was limited this year but as the years go on, the word about this program will spread. He hopes the program will educate students about the benefits of entrepreneurship in Nebraska at this crucial time in the economy.

“This comes at a really good time from a rural economic development point of view,” he said. “A lot of people tried to bring other industries in and they’re starting to realize that it’s better to try to help businesses within your community grow and to help individuals start businesses.

“Nebraska as a whole is highly dependent on the Ag industry so adding value to the agriculture industry is beneficial.”

To find more about the $20 million gift from the Engler Foundation and watch video of Paul Engler and others check out this article on the University of Nebraska Foundation web site.

Callahan presented the challenge in 2006 to David Graff, a student at the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at UNL working in the Husker’s media relations and sports information department.

When Graff and two other Raikes School students, John Wirtz and Brian Kaiser, showed Callahan a web-based prototype a month before spring football practice started, Callahan said he wanted it for that season.

“We couldn’t deliver on that, but that’s kind of when we woke up to ‘There’s definitely something here that could be a legitimate business,’” Graff said.

Like the founders of Allied Strategy, also Raikes School graduates, Agile Sports founders say factors including the Raikes School’s Design Studio projects and the way the school enables relationship-building played into the success of their startup.

Wirtz said the Raikes School’s Design Studio, where students get real-life software development and management experience, built leadership and communication skills that help graduates in any business setting, including entrepreneurship.

“It was a pretty incredible experience to get at age 22 or age 23, when you are managing two teams of six people, working on projects for IBM and Microsoft,” Wirtz said.

In addition, Wirtz and Graff both said time living, working and studying together at the Raikes School made starting a company together easier.

“You build up such a familiarity working with your classmates that it made the transition to the three of us starting a company a lot easier for us,” Graff said. “I mean, we had been working together for five years. We understood how one another worked. We understood what each other’s strengths and weaknesses were,” he said.

And, Allied Strategy had set a path Agile Sports could follow and build on.

Allied Strategy’s investor contributed funds to the Design Studio project for Agile Sports’ Virtual Playbook because the investor wanted to encourage Raikes School students’ entrepreneurship, said Colby Thomson, Allied Strategy’s chief executive officer.

In addition, when Graff, Wirtz, and Kaiser pooled funds for an office and to hire an intern, Agile Sports moved into the same office building where Allied Strategy was housed.

That space resulted not only in the collaborative startup atmosphere that became Turbine Flats, but also the kind of stories you tell your grandkids. The building’s tenants were hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

“Really, the breaking point was when Brian was writing code in his gloves and complaining about how tough it was to type,” Wirtz said.

While the two companies no longer share a building, their executives still meet to talk about business.

In 2006 and 2007, Graff, Agile Sports’ chief executive officer, Wirtz, chief operating officer, and Kaiser, chief technology officer, worked with UNL football coaches and staff to build out the product.

Agile Sports followed Allied Strategy’s lead winning business plan competitions as a source for funds.  Agile Sports’ list of wins includes:

• - Semifinalist, 2007 Global Moot Corp Competition; $2,000
• - Winner, second annual Nebraska Business Plan Competition (predecessor to Invest Nebraska’s East 2 West Nebraska Venture Competition) winner; $25, 000
• - Grand prize, Venture Challenge 2007 in San Diego, California; $15,000 cash and $15,000 in consulting services
• - First place, graduate division, Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship-hosted New Ventures World Competition; $15,000
• - First runner-up, Big 12 New Venture Championship; $3,000
• - First place, graduate division, eighth annual UNL Venture Plan Championship; $1,000

“So in total we won more than $60,000 in cash that allowed us to continue to bootstrap and the three of us to eat ramen, to pay our interns, and to slowly increase that intern staff,” Wirtz said.

In early 2007, Agile Sports hired its first full-time employee, now their Hudl product manager. And, they began pursuing a first round of investment funding.

Wirtz said Agile Sports signed the UNL football program as its first paying client before the funding round closed.

“We were really proud of the fact that our first beta customer was also a paying customer,” Wirtz said.

The Raikes School’s namesake, Jeff Raikes, became one of the company’s investors along with an acquaintance of his and Nebraskan angel investors. Raikes is chief executive officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, formerly a division president for Microsoft, and a Nebraska native.

“(Jeff Raikes) is not only our lead investor but also just a huge mentor for us from the beginning,” Wirtz said.

The New York Jets were the first professional team to sign up for Agile Sports’ Hudl Pro product, which works with teams’ existing high-end video systems.

In the spring of 2008, Agile Sports began adapting the Hudl Pro system so high schools could use it with only a laptop and camera.

“Our engineering team did an amazing job, and by the end of July, we had an end-to-end video capture all the way through to online video analysis system rolled out to about 11 pilot partners,” Wirtz said.

Agile Sports designed Hudl for any sport and priced it so small programs can afford it. More than 1300 programs, mostly football and basketball teams, but also a bowling and an ultimate Frisbee team, use Hudl today.

The company recently completed a second round of funding. This year, Agile Sports achieved profitability and expects seven figures in revenue, Graff said.

And, as a Lincoln Journal Star article reported, recent deals mean that Hudl Pro clients now include seven of the Bowl Championship Series conference teams. A total of 13 programs, including three professional, now use Hudl Pro.

Agile Sports has 18 full-time employees and three interns. More than 60 percent of the full-time employees were Raikes School students.

The company has not only retained Nebraskans for employment but even brought one back from Austin, Texas. However, Wirtz and Graff both said young people leaving the state for a few years is okay, and more than okay if they bring back valuable experience.

“I think one of the key success factors we want to be looking at is how many are coming back within four to five years,” Wirtz said.

Thomson of Allied Strategy said he hopes other Raikes School students see entrepreneurship as feasible.

“I think it’s sort of inherent that kids in college have dreams and ambitions and ideas,” Thomson said. “I think the thing that it takes is making them feel it’s practical,” he said.

Recent Press and recognition

NebraskaEDGE aims to create a long lasting learning environment for the state’s up-and-coming small business owners. Since 1995, the program’s been teaching the NxLeveL entrepreneurship course to rural communities in a unique fashion: the course’s instructors don’t come to the communities where they teach so much as they come from them. Trained by NebraskaEDGE associates and certified by representatives from NxLeveL, business leaders from around Nebraska have presented the 12-week, 45-hour course to some 2,500 entrepreneurs during the program’s 15-year run.

“NebraskaEDGE is not the (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) going out and offering this training — we utilize the resources and leaders these communities already have, so as businesses grow, those networks within the community grow as well,” said Marilyn Schlake, associate director of NebraskaEDGE. “We like to see individuals who are seriously thinking about starting a business and have an idea of what they want to do mixed in with experienced business owners who’ve been there, done that and have some battle scars.”

Different instructors teaching each course means a variety of skill sets come to the table, which gives NebraskaEDGE the opportunity to better tailor individual curricula to meet each community’s needs.

“When the experienced business leaders can share their experience with the new entrepreneurs, it helps build that network within the community,” Schlake added. “It also helps those business owners get re-energized, that sensation of seeing new entrepreneurs excited and thinking ‘Oh, I remember that feeling!’”

As most entrepreneurs already demonstrate a natural propensity for outside-the-box thinking, Schlake said the program strives to disseminate as much practical information as possible. NebraskaEDGE walks individuals through all facets of business ownership, starting with business plan formation and plugging along through marketing, advertising strategies and finances. That last item is one new entrepreneurs need to scrutinize the closest, she added.

“We hit the financials really, really hard, so even if they don’t end up being the accountants for their businesses, when they hire and talk with an accountant, they’ll know what all the numbers thrown their way mean,” Schlake said. “As a new startup, the projections you have are almost always going to be off-base, so come back and tweak those often.”

NebraskaEDGE has two upcoming courses scheduled: an August course in Holdredge catering to Phelps and Kearney Counties, and a September course held in Red Cloud that will serve Webster and Nuckolls Counties. For anyone unable to attend either course, NebraskaEDGE offers its entrepreneurial curriculum online as well.

In addition, to teaching entrepreneurial basics, NebraskaEDGE also imbues entrepreneurs with other vital skills, such as knowing who and when to ask for help, and the even important attribute of attention to detail.

“Do your homework: see what opportunities are available, contact experts and mentors who can give you useful feedback,” Schlake said. “Oftentimes with a startup enterprise, you don’t have a lot of facts to go on for your local area. We can find statewide, nationwide data, but in smaller, local regions, it’s hard to find a customer base and numbers you can run. Be diligent and be realistic.”

The startup stories of two Lincoln companies that raised significant outside capital demonstrate the ways the Raikes School fosters entrepreneurial development. Formerly known as the J.D. Edwards Program, the school not only blends computer science and business management education, but also aims to integrate entrepreneurial concepts and examples throughout the curriculum.

“The vision is that we don’t teach entrepreneurship as a senior elective,” said David Keck, Ph.D., director of and professor for the Raikes School. “We are continuously building the entrepreneurial perspective into everything we do from the ground up, without distracting us from also doing accredited, rigorous, scholarly work, but we do encourage students to take entrepreneurship elective courses.”

As an example of this integration of entrepreneurial topics, Keck said in his finance class he has deemphasized bond capital calculations and emphasized equity venture capital calculations like pre- and post-investment value, related risk and return and the number of shares issued to the venture capitalists.

The stories of Allied Strategy and Agile Sports demonstrate an ongoing collaborative relationship between the companies and the school. The school provided a setting, education and tools that fostered startups capable of attracting significant capital. In turn, the companies’ founders, all graduates of the program, give the school feedback on how to improve entrepreneurial education, serve as mentors for students and have hired Raikes School students and graduates as interns and employees.

Founders of both Allied Strategy and Agile Sports say the close relationships they formed at the school with students of similar interests and abilities were important to their companies’ formation.

“Never underestimate putting all those people in the same place and having them get to know each other,” said Colby Thomson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Allied Strategy.

The Raikes School’s setup primes the pump for such relationships to develop. Honors students with interests in business and technology leadership sleep, eat, study, attend classes and work under one roof at the Kauffman Academic Residential Center, modeled after Oxford University’s residential colleges.

In addition, founders of both companies say a unique feature of Raikes School education, Design Studio, was a key component in their businesses’ growth and development.  Design Studio enables juniors and seniors at the Raikes School to work as technologists and business managers on real-world software development projects.

Milestone celebration

For Allied Strategy, the idea for their main offering occurred after the students who would become the company’s founders participated in a Design Studio project with Mutual of Omaha their junior year. Working with the company helped the students understand problems in the insurance industry. Thomson and Allied Strategy’s other founders, Jeff Runyan, Allied Strategy’s chief operating officer, and Britton Nielsen, the company’s chief information officer, realized they could create a solution for some of these industry-wide problems.

“You never really have the ability to be confronted with that unless you see inside of a system, and say ‘Wow, there are huge opportunities here,’” Thomson said.

Companies who want to contract Design Studio projects pay a fee to the Raikes School for the work. Since students aren’t paid for Design Studio work and projects are considered “work-for-hire,” the University of Nebraska-Lincoln doesn’t maintain rights to intellectual property students create, which is an incentive for companies offering students these experiences.

In 2003, while the founders were still students, they decided to contract a Design Studio project with the Raikes School to work on their ideas for Allied Strategy.

In addition, the founders took a business plan writing class available to all UNL students that resulted in an award-winning plan for their company. In 2004, they won the undergraduate division of the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship’s New Ventures World Competition, earning a $7,500 prize. Their team was the first Nebraska winner in the competition’s 18-year history.

They also won prizes in Colorado State University’s Venture Adventure competition and were finalists in the NU Venture Capital Competition round, notable since they were still undergraduates.

In 2004, while working on MBAs at the Raikes School, they contracted another Design Studio project.

In 2006 when the founders graduated, Allied Strategy began full-time operations. The company started out in a shared low-rent building with ISoft Data Systems, Agile Sports, and other startups until some of the businesses moved into Turbine Flats, an office space with a collaborative atmosphere where Thomson is the co-founder and vice president of its board of directors.

Allied Strategy group photo

Their first two Allied Strategy hires after the founders came from the Raikes School, and they contracted a third Design Studio project in 2007.

Today Allied Strategy has about 20 full-time employees and plans to hire several more this quarter.  Eight of their current employees were Raikes School students.

Runyan said the ability to hire developers from the Raikes School was one of their top reasons for staying in Lincoln.

Alumni activities provide another win-win for the school and local Raikes School graduate-founded companies. The founders mentor students and speak at the school regularly. As alumni they can attend small closed sessions with Design Studio speakers, which have included Bill Gates, Tom Osborne, Jeff Raikes, and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams.

Allied Strategy’s mission is to improve the insurance experience for consumers, an issue Thomson is passionate about after watching his mother deal with insurance concerns arising from health issues and a house fire. Their first product, SEMCAT, helps insurance agents compare prices of insurance offerings and enables them to interact with consumers on the Web. SEMCAT is now used by thousands of insurance agents in the United States and European Union and supports more than 250 U.S. insurance companies. The team is planning several new products to assist consumers, and releases new features on a weekly basis.

In an email, Thomson said the company received unsolicited acquisition offers shortly before reaching profitability last year.

In addition to the Raikes School, Turbine Flats and the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship, Thomson said entrepreneurial resources helpful to Allied Strategy include the Kauffman Foundation, the Entrepreneur’s Exchange in Kansas City and Big Omaha/Silicon Prairie News.

In a future post, Nebraska Entrepreneur will examine the history of Agile Sports and its relationship to the Raikes School.

“Quite frankly, with the economy we’re in right now, if kids don’t have entrepreneurial skills and we don’t focus on entrepreneurial businesses acumen, we’re going to fall desperately far behind other countries,” said Christensen, an entrepreneurship and career education specialist with the NDE, as well as a self-described “passionate advocate for entrepreneurship education.” “We’ve been seen as a beacon of entrepreneurship throughout the world, but if we don’t continue to impart that knowledge and make students realize that entrepreneurship is a career option, then other nations could pull ahead.”

Entrepreneurship in Nebraska: Conditions, Attitudes, and Actions by Eric C. Thompson and William B. Walstad

Most Nebraskans agree with Christensen. Accordingly to a series of 2005-2006 Gallup polls (which later became the basis for a 2008 book on Nebraska’s entrepreneurial climate), four-fifths of Nebraskans feel it’s important for schools to offer entrepreneurship education.

And Christensen believes that education should begin as early as elementary school.

“Entrepreneurial concepts can be infused at any time, from kindergarten on — it’s a lifelong process,” he said. “Elementary school kids already go on field trips to observe traditional jobs: fire stations, police stations, grocery stores. But we’d like to emphasize that communities are also filled with entrepreneurs. We need to make young people aware that entrepreneurs are everywhere.”

Ideally, that formal education would segue into a middle school exploration of entrepreneurship as a viable career path, followed by teaching kids practical entrepreneurship skills during their high school years.

In Cody, Nebraska, for example, that high school level of entrepreneurship education comes with a hands-on twist. The 132-person town has been without a grocery store for nearly a decade, but a recently acquired federal grant has given community leaders the means to re-service a convenience store, transforming it from gas station to grocery outlet.

Conceived as a non-profit, the new grocery store will be staffed by high school students, providing them with invaluable skills and giving the entire community an alternative to driving 35 miles to reach the nearest supermarket. Further down the road, said Christensen, the store will become an incubator for students seeking to start their own small businesses.

Even though most Nebraskans appear to be on board with increasing the level of entrepreneurship education in the state’s schools, and even though Cody’s innovative venture shows how such pedagogical measures can benefit both students and the towns they live in, working new courses into an existing curriculum is no easy task.

“It’s really tough to add classes, because the necessary academic courses are already taking up a large portion of the students’ schedules,” Christensen said. “Fortunately, the bigger the school district, the more options you have in terms of available teachers and slots to offer entrepreneurship courses.”

However, the eventual widespread adoption of entrepreneurship classes will be well worth the struggle. Among other previously stated benefits, students who see the possibilities entrepreneurship confers are more likely to stay in Nebraska, or to return to the state after completing their education, Christensen said.

“Students really need to look at the what their strengths and their talents are, and then think about how that can lead them into a business they’d be excited about,” he added. “A lot of times young people are going to go off and get an education elsewhere, but part of entrepreneurship education is showing them the opportunities that might exist if they return to Nebraska with the skills and knowledge they’ve obtained.”

The Internet and Non-Profit Organizations Have Aided Rural Businesspeople With Start-Ups

ABC’s News Article “Rural Enterprise on the Rise” highlights GROW Nebraska and how beneficial membership can be for small businesses within the state. The article also showcases Katrina Frey of Heavenly Creations and John Marquis of Ogallala Bay Rum as each explains how GROW has helped take their business to the next level.

Check out the ABC News article to see where GROW started, what it is now and what our future goals are.

Dave Specht took on the challenge of providing consultation and guidance for family businesses.  His work is unique from other similar services because he focuses on the issues and challenges for each family and guides them towards the best route for each person in the business.

“You’re seeing a huge transition of not only wealth but these businesses. Business owners are trying to figure out what they’re going to do with them,” Specht said.  “There aren’t really that many guides to help develop family leaders.  Often times, family members will go back into businesses. They know they want to go back and there’s no path to ownership. They don’t know if they’ll have to buy into the business or if they’ll have to buy over time.

“What we try to do is coach them to have the questions they need to ask before they go back so they’re taking full ownership of their own career development whether they go to their family business or not.”

Specht, a native of San Diego, worked for the largest independent broker dealer in the country and during his last year at the

Sid Dillon car dealership in Fremont, Neb. and Union Bank in Lincoln, Neb. are both successful family-owned businesses.

firm and after several years with that company, he ended up in Lincoln. Specht began his own family consultation firm and established a family business management course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Once the University received funding for the course, he saw a steady successful enrollment on the first day of the second semester. Demand for the course resulted in it being offering for another two semesters.

His course is structured as an application-based class where students learn to navigate their own futures with family businesses.  Every student comes from a family owned business background and they learned from speakers from prominent family companies in the region, such as Sid Dillon in Fremont, Neb. and Union Bank in Lincoln.  Through these discussions, the younger generation was able to connect with current working family businesses and gain mentors in the business world.

“It’s been amazing how business leaders have taken an interest in their development,” Specht said. “The student’s have been willing to ask and find the answers. I would say it’s unique because there’s not another class in the country that accesses the type of business leaders and allows students to interact with them in an intimate basis and ask them direct questions about their own development.”

“I think the University of Nebraska has an opportunity to be a national leader in family business because we’re in the middle of the country and because Nebraska is dominated by family businesses,” he said.

“I think the country would naturally look to the Midwest for a leader in family business.”

He said all family businesses must be aware of “three C’s” when it comes to handing down the business to the next generation: communication, contingency plans and cash flow.

First, communication is essential. Communication from the senior generation to younger generation about the expectations for the business as well as the younger generation communicating with the senior generation about their own expectations is key for success.

“The gap in communication is probably the biggest thing to overcome,” he said.

Speakers from Sid Dillon and Union Bank spoke to Dave Specht's course on family business planning at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

He also said contingency plans are vital in preparing for the worst or other plausible scenarios. The next generation needs to know the answers to these questions.

Cash flow is also important because it determines where all the money is going and where it will continue to go as the senior generation begins retirement.  These three areas are part of the focus of Specht’s work with family businesses and students in the University’s class.

Specht said in recent years, the demand for family businesses are increasing.

“With the economy, I think you’re seeing more considering going back to the family business earlier because there aren’t always as many opportunities.”

Specht helps these families focus on their own personal goals and helps them gain an understanding between the generations as they move forward with the business.

“I think without the focus, it makes the job search more difficult.”

Those interested in working with Specht for family business consultation can visit his website for more information.

Check out this video of a panel Dave led at the Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship