Entrepreneurship1


Undergraduate Programs

2008 Top 25 Best Undergrad Schools for Entrepreneurs

The Center for Entrepreneurship is designed to prepare those students who believe that they will want to pursue an entrepreneurial career. Entrepreneurs and small business owners are responsible for 77 percent of new jobs created in the past 20 years.

Studies have shown that right after college is an excellent time in the lives of new graduates to begin an entrepreneurial career path. A variety of options are available to students interested in making the most of their entrepreneurial education: a major in entrepreneurship, a special integration of entrepreneurship and music business or a minor in entrepreneurship.

Learning Objectives

The Center for Entrepreneurship has five main objectives that serve as the heart of its program and that are taught to all entrepreneurship students, no matter what track they are taking for their entrepreneurial education.

  • Ethics and values -- In addition to exploring issues of business ethics that relate to small business and entrepreneurship, students will examine their own personal values and aspirations to help guide their entrepreneurial careers.
  • Knowing the numbers -- Entrepreneurs must be intimately familiar with the financial health of their businesses, particularly in regard to cash flow and other limited resource management and forecasting.
  • Business plan -- Students will be expected to develop a full understanding of how to create and utilize a business plan.
  • Opportunity scanning and recognition (entrepreneurial market research) -- Students must understand how to identify and evaluate potential opportunities in the marketplace.
  • Managing growth in entrepreneurial companies -- Students will learn the unique set of skills necessary to guide a company through its most perilous time period: rapid growth.
Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Major

Belmont's College of Business offers a concentration in entrepreneurship for students pursuing a bachelor's in Business Administration (BBA). Entrepreneurship students balance classroom learning with participative experiences such as mentoring from faculty and community entrepreneurs, internships and opportunities to use the students' businesses as living laboratories. Our undergraduate entrepreneurship major is designed to prepare those students who will someday pursue an entrepreneurial career.

In addition to the degree requirements of the College of Business, the following courses are required for a major in Entrepreneurship:

Entrepreneurship (18)

ETP 3000 Foundations in Entrepreneurship (3)
ETP 3700 Entrepreneurial Financial Management (3)
ETP 4500 Entrepreneurial Venture Management (3)
MGT 3270 Human Resources Management (3)
Choose six (6) hours from the following:
ETP 3500 Family Business (3)
ETP 3800 Service Learning in Entrepreneurship (3)
ETP 4400 Launching n Entrepreneurial Venture (3)
FIN 4300 International Corporate Finance (3)
MGT 3250 Event Management (3)
MGT 3390 Restaurant Management (3)
MGT 3910 Lodging Management (3)
MGT 4180 Operations Management (3)
MKT 3220 Personal Selling (3)
MKT 4320 Retail Management (3)


Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Minor

Students who are not typical business majors can also take advantage of Belmont's Center for Entrepreneurship through our entrepreneurship minor. Since so many students intend to choose an entrepreneurial path within their chosen field of study, this minor serves to complement these students' other interests by giving them the key entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and experiences that will dramatically improve their chances for success.

Recent studies by the Chronicle of Higher Education consistently found that almost 40 percent of college students include owning their own business as a significant career goal. At Belmont, Entrepreneurship minors come from all across the University and can choose from 57 majors, including art, music, education, music business, pre-law and graphic design.

The following courses are required for a minor in Entrepreneurship:


ACC 2410 Accounting Principles (3)
ACC 2420 Managerial Accounting (3)
ETP 3000 Foundations in Entrepreneurship (3)
ETP 3700 Entrepreneurial Financial Management (3)
ETP 4500 Entrepreneurial Venture Management  (3)
MGT 3230 Business Ethics (3)
Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Courses (ETP)

ETP 3000. Foundations in Entrepreneurship (3). This course will provide a basic understanding of the entrepreneurial process. Students will examine entrepreneurship as a career. A comprehensive self-assessment will help the students to better understand their own personal aspirations, and assess their unique skills and competencies. Students will learn about opportunity assessment for new venture ideas. An overview of business plans will be presented.

ETP 3500. Managing the Family Business (3). This course explores the unique personal, interpersonal issues, and business issues associated with the family-owned and managed firm. Topics include challenges and opportunities for family businesses, the dynamics of family interactions within the family business culture, conflict resolution, estate planning, and succession planning. This course requires significant participation of family members of the student's own family firm.

ETP 3700. Entrepreneurial Financial Management (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000. This course examines the process of financial forecasting for a new venture, effective financial management of an emerging business, sources of financing, bootstrapping, and exit planning.

ETP 3800. Service Learning in Entrepreneurship (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000 or Instructor's permission. This course will integrate service learning experiences in start-up entrepreneurial ventures into a seminar that examines a variety of issues common in entrepreneurship. The start-up ventures used for this course will include those supporting inner city economic development, newly created non-profits, or entrepreneurs seeking economic independence through business formation. Students will work with these entrepreneurs to assess their specific business needs, evaluate possible solutions, develop a plan of action, and assist with implementation. Self-reflection will be an important part of this process.

ETP 4400. Launching an Entrepreneurial Venture (3). Prerequisite: ETP 3000 or Instructor's permission. Students will integrate experiences from either running or starting-up their own business ventures with the theory, concepts and models they are learning in their other entrepreneurship and business courses. The goal of the course is to assist students in implementing their businesses in a manner that is consistent with sound theory and values. The class is project based and uses a contract-learning model of evaluation.
Gen. Ed. designation: G (Global Studies) and EL (Internships, Clinical, Practica).

ETP 4500. Entrepreneurial Venture Management (3). Prerequisites: ETP 3700. For Social Entrepreneurship majors SET 4015 is an additional prerequisite. This course will serve as the culminating experience for Entrepreneurship majors and minors and for Social Entrepreneurship majors. Students will participate in the development of a business plan for an actual venture they intend to start. If they do not intend to start a venture, students will be teamed up with those that have a legitimate idea for a new business. Students will examine the growth process and learn how to effectively manage the growth phase of a business.
Gen. Ed. designation (Undergraduate Research).

Music Business Option

Because Nashville is a thriving city for both music and small business, the Center for Entrepreneurship built a successful relationship with Belmont's Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business. Students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship and music business have three options to integrate these two areas of study:

1.  Students can take extended coursework in entrepreneurship within the music business program using our core courses as electives within the music business major.

2.  Students can integrate music business courses into a major in entrepreneurship, using these courses as part of the electives within the entrepreneurship major.

3.  Students can double major in music business and entrepreneurship within the business degree.