This course provides opportunities to learn and experience the concept of creating your own business in conjunction with future leadership skills. Students are exposed to what it means to be an entrepreneur and strategize about what could make for a successful business. We will have some guest speakers in the course to offer students real world experience on how they’ve built successful businesses. In addition to learning about creating business, the class will also dive into important leadership skills needed to be successful in today’s job market. Course activities will focus on Total Participation Techniques to engage all learners in the classroom. Students will utilize various resources to research, problem solve, and demonstrate a strong understanding of the topics. The course will be heavily focused on real world application of the material. Therefore, we’ll have projects based on where the content will apply in the real world and help students shape a “true” understanding.
Unit | Timeframe | Big Ideas (Statements or Essential Questions) | Major Learning Experiences from Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
Success and College | September | Preparing for Success Preparing for College Financial Aid | Help students learn the characteristics of what makes people successful beyond high school and college. Ability to review college in a number of different ways, in more depth, using websites and resources. Finding out how to use college acceptance information in terms of how it impacts them financially. Loans, Grants, Scholarships, and Financial Aid Calculators. |
Organizational Skills and Resume/Cover Letter | October | Organizational Skills Resume Cover Letter | Help students learn the characteristics of what makes successful people organize better. Give students an in depth resume opportunity to develop, edit, get advice to fine tune the resume. Same with the cover letter, develop skills to create and refine along the way by mocking out writing one for a desired position. |
Interviewing | November | Communication Skills Empathy | Help students uncover the benefit of strong written and oral communication skills to enhance their future. Interviewing effectively due to learned communication skills is a benefit of this unit as well. Empathy is helpful to put yourself in another’s shoes and will impact the student as they attempt to build future leaders in the business world. |
Networking | December | Traditional Networking | Students find out the benefits of LinkedIn on building a career, how to connect and the various tools that are on this social media platform. Uncover traditional networking and going to events, talking to others and being curious to build connections to then use to find opportunity. |
Business Plan | January | Brainstorming for Idea What is the right Idea Executive Summary | Introduce how Entrepreneurs might brainstorm for business ideas and how to use your creative side to come up with ideas. Use resources and teaching to start an Executive Summary section of the Business Plan, develop the initial skill set needed to show others your business idea. |
Business Plan Development | February | Company Description Competition and Industry Analysis | Offer students insight on how to communicate what their company will be doing and how it will function, mission, and goals. Gain the ability to analyze competition in the marketplace by researching the industry and how their company can find its place in the market, how it can find success. |
Business Plan Development | March | Operational Plan Sales and Marketing Plan Financial Plan | Get in depth on the nuts and bolts of the operational side of a business and the day to day functions to help show a possible investor how you plan to build the business. Develop your marketing strategy to influence possible customers to buy your offering. Then how you will use your sales force to bring in profitable revenues. Show a possible investor, lender, or angel how you plan to gain financial being to run the initial stages of this business plan. |
Business Plan Closure and Presentation | April | The Business Plan on the Whole Presentation | Develop all the sections of the business plan by combining them all together as one functioning document. Use taught presentation skills to share the business plan with classmates and gain feedback on the pros/cons of this new idea/creation. |
Entrepreneurship Alternatives | May/June | Real Estate as Income Shark Tank | Understand what it takes to be a real estate investor and make profit/income like an Entrepreneur would but through the lens of real estate properties. Come up with a shorter business idea that would be able to be presented to a group of Shark Tank judges. |