NAIT’s Mawji Centre is unveiling a new Entrepreneurial Blue Book Program that will take NAIT students through every step of starting a business.
The program is offered in two different formats: taking the program in a cohort of 30 students or individually at the student’s chosen pace. The only requirement of doing the program at the student’s pace is that they must finish while they are studying at NAIT.
Cecile Wendlandt is the coordinator of the Mawji Centre at NAIT.
“The Blue Book Program is the program that takes students from, ‘hey, I have an idea for a business’ to actually getting them to start their companies,” said Wendlandt
The program is free and the 30 student cohort option means students will have support from their peers.
If students take the cohort option, they will have fellow students to bounce ideas and collaborate with over the school year.
“Over the next seven months, we estimate that three to five hours a week is what they need to be able to put aside to just focus on their startup,” said Wendlandt.
There will be eight milestones to hit in the first semester and six milestones in the second. There are $500 milestone payments for the students who take the cohort version of the program.
Some of the milestones include a personality profile to help you better understand where someone’s strengths and weaknesses are, creating a one page business plan, and writing and filming a three minute business pitch.
Students in the program will also take part in the Mawji Centre’s pitch competition in November, Pitch it to Me. The top five video pitches from the competition will get to make their pitch live in front of different mentors and potential customers.
The program is also for students who have just started a business and might not know the steps to make it succeed.
“If they’ve got a business, but they haven’t gone through any of [the] processes, then [I] see great value in them going through [this] process,” said Wendlandt.
For more information on the Entrepreneurial Blue Book Program go to the Mawji Centre’s website.
