Dear prospective students (and interested parents, I presume),

I am writing to you to tell you a little bit about a class offered at Grove City College. I am not an entrepreneurship major – I am a senior, business management major and it is too late for me. There is still time for you though!!! It took me four years, but I am currently in an Entrepreneurship class called Internet Entrepreneurship. Now that the semester is coming to a close I can saw with confidence that I learned more real-life-applicable information than i have in any other class. Now, officially, the 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 Digital Entrepreneurial 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 Plan in a team with other students.” Sounds cool, right? Like you might want to take the class? You should! We had the opportunity to hear from real-life, successful businesspeople who went out on a limb and started a business and created great things. We used critical thinking in creating our own business idea and pitching it to the class. We were engaged and encouraged to think creatively and integrate our passion with our knowledge of the business world. We learned how to use todays technology to our advantage. We leaned how to how to identify what the consumer wants, create content, and reach those who need the information we are providing.

Entrepreneurship should no longer be this mysterious, obscure, questionable major – Entrepreneurship is real and it is empowering.

Sincerely,

Inspired Student, aka Mattie Hanley

I read an article in the Collegian today about a student, Andrew Yellis, who tweeted a comment about Peachtree software. Little did he know how far this little tweet would go. He was sitting in class when he said “getting a quick-books demo…in class. Silly professor – doesn’t she know Peachtree is what all the cool people use?” Peachtree saw the tweet, Re-Tweeted it (which is a big deal!) and sent him a thank you package (filled with Starbucks coffee, gift cards, and their latest software) for mentioning their product! He then thanked Peachtree on his public blog and his story ended up on blogs everywhere. Before he knew it he was offered a all-expense paid trip to Atlanta, Georgia (their headquarters) to attend a company conference to “discuss marketing approaches for the online social networking arena. That is the experience of a life time and all because of a little Twitter use. Who knows what other opportunities will arise from from this. Maybe I should get a Twitter account…

I recently discovered a site called Swapmamas.com. Now, I don’t have any kids, but I can appreciate the benefits of this site. The site conducts iteslf somewhat like Ebay, but rather than bidding on items and then purchasing them, you post your child’s outgrown clothes and swap them for a similar amount of clothing that is the size you are looking for. The site relies on the honor system since there is no transfer of money, just an agreement to trade “boxes.” Clothes are expensive and, especially for kids, you can’t use them for long before you need new ones, weather it be because you outgrew them or grew tired of them. If only there was something like this out there for adults! A bona fide fashion swap!

I recently saw an article about Lady Gaga and her baffling success. Lady Gaga is immensely talented, she is not only a singer, but she is an artist, a fashion designer, and an entrepreneur. Lady Gaga has the amazing ability to keep reinventing herself and this is the key to her success along with the sense of mystery and surprise that always keeps us guessing and wanting more. She has been compared to Madonna for this reason, but it took Madonna 10 years to reach achieve her fame, where as is took Lady Gaga 18 months to achieve the same level of fame (from the article I read) – thats less than a fifth of the time!

Lady Gaga uses the internet like no other celebrity I have ever heard of. Social media sites are booming with anything Gaga. The release of her new video caused servers around the world to crash because of the high traffic the video was bringing in. Vevo – the YouTube run Official Music video player – is used for Lady Gaga’s videos a whopping TWENTY percent of the time.

She is aware of the rise of social media and is crafting herself to fit into the parameters of these tools. She is a genius.

I had never heard of Creative Commons until Tom suggested it as our blog topic in class. Now that I have spent some time exploring the site I can say that I am really glad that we chose it to write about.

As it says on the site itself “Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.” Comparable to Wikipedia, it is also a Wiki - a place where people can post their ideas and knowledge on a central area and they can be updated, edited, and improved upon by other knowledgeable people interested in contributing.

Ideas and information travel across the country in seconds now and the increased flow of creative juices is exponentially! This site is great for encouraging the free sharing of ideas and as a resource to those seeking information on almost anything you can think of!