Entrepreneurship Classes

Offered during Fall Semester

Students learn to use technology commonly used by entrepreneurs in the following areas: presentations, networking, blogging, social media, design, basic websites, eCommerce, and prototyping. This course satisfies the Information Literacy requirement for Entrepreneurship majors. Entrepreneurship majors take this concurrently with Entrepreneurship 101.

Offered during Fall Semester

Students often struggle with knowing how to define their future. Whether one is trying to choose a major or to figure out how to go about pursuing a career using that chosen major, it’s a process that’s often filled with uncertainty and angst. By approaching these challenges as a designer would approach creating a product, students will use proven design methods to understand who they are, what they want to do, and how they can build a life full of joy. During this class, students will explore how to apply design thinking principles to their lives while learning more about themselves and how to connect their work to God’s work.

Offered during Spring Semester

The Lean LaunchPad uses the Customer Discovery process and the Business Model Canvas to collapse the infinite possibilities of a startup into a set of solvable problems. Students will be taught how to use the information that they collect from customers to validate and/or invalidate their business model hypotheses. Throughout the course, the teams will modify their business models as they iterate, pivot, and/or restart their ideas. It provides real world, hands-on learning on what it’s like to actually start a company. This class is not about how to write a business plan. It is a practical entrepreneurial lab in which the goal is to create an entrepreneurial experience that includes the pressures and demands of the real world in an early-stage startup within the constraints of the classroom and with a limited amount of time. Students will work in teams, learning how to use a business model to brainstorm and test each critical element of a company. Students will also learn how to develop customers in real business scenarios, testing product viability and authentic demand.

Offered during Fall Semester

This course will provide a foundation for understanding the essential components of a successful eCommerce system, including eCommerce strategy, target market analysis, search engine optimization, integrated marketing, web usability, payment processing, current technologies, data management and fulfillment systems. Case studies and actual business scenarios will be examined in detail, and students will have the opportunity to explore practical applications in the marketplace by working in teams to design and operate their own eCommerce ventures during the semester.

Offered during Spring Semester

This course will explore the foundational principles and essential components for launching a successful entrepreneurial endeavor on the Internet. The course will cover important topics related to Internet Entrepreneurship, including key entrepreneurial models, business concept development, opportunity analysis, advanced search marketing techniques, understanding user behavior, and creating a viable Internet model for business endeavors. Case studies and existing businesses will be examined in detail. Students will have the opportunity to study the journeys of successful Internet Entrepreneurs, to hear from experts in the field, and to create an original Internet business model in a team with other students.

Offered during Fall Semester

This course introduces the student to entrepreneurial thought and the process for innovation and idea generation. Students begin to develop their own entrepreneurial mindset and the business skills essential to the entrepreneurial experience. Students are introduced to the basics of business and challenged to think creatively about forming businesses or designing products to solve customer problems and address unmet needs in the commercial and social arenas. Through experiential learning, case studies, business writing assignments, and creative thinking exercises, students will develop a disciplined thought process for starting and running their own enterprise. This course satisfies the Speaking-Intensive requirement for Entrepreneurship majors. Corequisite: Entrepreneurship 102 for Entrepreneurship majors. All other majors may take the course as an elective without the corequisite.

Offered during Spring Semester

The purpose of this course is to understand the theory and practice of sales as it is approached in the environment of a startup business. The class will explore strategic selling methodologies, such as partnership development, channel development, and seminar-based sales, as well as specific sales skills and techniques. Students will learn about the particular challenges of selling in the context of a newly launched business, and they will have the opportunity to meet and interact with sales professionals who have specialized in this sales context. Throughout the course, students will have opportunities to practice sales skills.

Offered during Fall Semester

How might one “do good while doing well?” Social entrepreneurship is an accelerating field of study and practice in today’s world of shrinking governmental services. Students study highly effective non-profit as well as for-profit social enterprises to learn the unique aspects of entrepreneurship used to facilitate meaningful social change. Practitioners of existing successful social enterprises act as guest lecturers and coaches.

Offered during Spring Semester

This course explores the relationship between entrepreneurial theory and practice and the execution of church ministry and mission work, with a particular focus on the ways in which entrepreneurship can be employed in the service of Kingdom of God. In addition, the development of “kingdom-minded” businesses providing blended value will be explored in detail. Students will learn about need identification, opportunity analysis, ministry model development, strategic planning, and reputation building in the context of faith-based organizational experience. Concepts related to organizational launch, growth, development and sustainability will also be addressed throughout the course. Students will apply diagnostic and problem-solving skills to case studies, while identifying entrepreneurial strategies to address challenges and opportunities. Students will work throughout the semester in project teams with a local church ministry or mission endeavor.

Offered during Fall Semester

Students will probe the subject of content marketing as a core discipline for 21st century entrepreneurs. They will learn essential concepts for strategic content development and web-based thought leadership and will acquire skills for use with practical web applications. Students will engage in a semester-long project using WordPress to publish Internet content for their own website idea, or for a company or organization, employing techniques learned in a class. The structure of the class will include two teaching sessions per week and a WordPress lab. Students may not receive credit for both Entrepreneurship 328 and Marketing 328.

Offered during Spring Semester

Students will explore the fundamental principles and best practices in the field of search engine optimization. They will learn and develop the essential knowledge and skills required to achieve favorable organic rank in the most important search engines and will become familiar with and interact with experts in the industry. Case studies and actual business scenarios will be examined in detail. Students will have opportunity to conduct SEO research for small businesses and non-profit organizations in a semester-long project. Students may not receive credit for both Entrepreneurship 330 and Marketing 330.

Offered during Spring Semester

This course provides an awareness and basic understanding of the legal issues frequently encountered by entrepreneurs. The course specifically examines the legal issues surrounding the organization, financing, and operations of a company, including ownership structuring, the raising of capital, federal securities requirements and exemptions, determining valuation, intellectual property, board formation, human resources, and exit strategies. Students may not receive credit for both Entrepreneurship 303 and Management 303.

Offered during Fall Semester

Students study the ethical decisions business professionals face in small business, family business, and corporate business settings. Students analyze selected case studies and discuss their analysis with the class. Students will interact with business professionals as they study and analyze “living” cases in which one or more of the parties interacts with the class. Through these discussions, students will come to understand what constitutes an ethical issue and the different philosophical, theological, and practical perspectives from which individuals may approach an ethical decision. Students are challenged to begin thinking through and developing their own ethical framework as well as to realize the implications of Christian faith in making ethical business decisions.

Offered during Fall Semester

This course focuses on the strategy and operations issues involved with managing an existing company beyond the startup phase using a global business simulation game. While the course is open to non-entrepreneurship, business, and accounting majors, it presupposes a basic understanding of business functions and language. The core feature of the course is a simulation tied to students’ weekly business decisions involving recognizing opportunities, assessing risk, developing resources, and implementing a course of action

Offered during Fall Semester

This course will include a comprehensive survey of research around the dimensions of successful entrepreneurial leadership and the development of an entrepreneurial leadership assessment tool. Students will have opportunities to hear from, engage with, and assess several successful entrepreneurs, further developing their understanding of the dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership. Students will complete a comprehensive assessment of their own strengths and weaknesses relative to these dimensions using a variety of assessment tools and will prepare and present a personal entrepreneurial leadership development plan with specific strategies to leverage strengths and accommodate for shortcomings.

Offered during Spring Semester

An upper-level course that will focus on the dynamics of owning and operating family-owned businesses, franchise businesses and acquired small businesses. Appropriate for students anticipating working in a family business, students who are considering acquiring and operating a franchise business or students considering acquiring and operating an existing small business. Students explore the key management issues facing these types of business today including interpersonal relations, succession/transition, business functions of marketing, sales, financial management, etc., in the special context of the unique challenges and opportunities of the family-owned, franchise and small business. Students will hear from and interact with family, franchise and small business owners who have agreed to visit classes and share their experiences

Offered during Fall Semester

This course covers financial skills used by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from the startup of a venture through its harvest. This includes a wide variety of topics including the financial elements of a business plan, the evaluation of new business opportunities, financial planning, sources of financing at different stages, valuation methods, essentials of security law, and methods of harvesting an investment. Prerequisite: Finance 301.

Offered during Spring Semester

This course provides students from all majors with a vehicle for turning their business and non-profit ideas into concrete viable business plans. Either as individuals or as teams, students research, create, and present a plan for a viable business or non-profit organization. They are coached by the instructor and may also be matched to an appropriate mentor with experience in their area of interest. Successful completion of this course requires students to participate in the campus-wide business plan competition held during the spring semester. This course satisfies the Writing Intensive requirement for the Entrepreneurship major. Prerequisite: Entrepreneurship 430 and a business or non-profit idea.

Offered during Spring Semester

In this course, students have a unique opportunity to explore real-world innovation concepts in the context of working directly with a corporation. Corporate representatives work directly with Grove City College students each semester, providing students with business and technology concepts that engage them in terms of research, strategy, innovation and business case development. Students from a variety of disciplines collaborate in groups to explore, define, strategize, and develop the concept. The course utilizes a service-learning model, and benefits from the constant support of representatives of the partner company, who regularly attend classes for input and feedback. At the end of the semester, students present their findings and recommendations to corporate executives.

This course is designed to analyze the most important legal issues in the contemporary music industry, including how these issues began, how they have evolved, and where they are headed. Students will explore copyright law, including fair use and public domain, and how it affects sampling, interpolation, and mashups. The course will explore contracts related to songwriting, 360° deals, revenue sharing, and more, in addition to legal documents related to bands, booking, and touring. Students will also explore contemporary and new means of creating and disseminating music, including streaming audio/video and augmented/virtual reality, and explore associated legal implications. Students may only receive credit for one of ENTR 324, MNGT 324, or MUSI 324.

Offered during Fall Semester

This course is designed as an introduction to the business of music, providing students with the latest instruction on best practices for music creators, consumers, and facilitators working in this field. Students will have the opportunity to learn the fundamental principles involved in the entrepreneurial and legal dimensions of the music business, exploring the structural and functional components of this ever-changing and rapidly growing industry. Particular attention will be given to the challenges of starting, growing and managing a music business in the digital era. Students may only receive credit for one of Entrepreneurship 326, Management 326, or Music 326.