麻豆影院

Moved by their clients鈥� tenacity, student consultants worked night and day to fortify entrepreneurs with what they needed to succeed.

Students who鈥檝e ventured on the (EESA) program collectively agree: It ranks up there as one of the most life-changing experiences they鈥檝e ever had.

Described by students as the most hands-on, entrepreneurial learning experience of their college careers, EESA is a six-week summer course for credit, transforming students into consultants to help low-income, emerging entrepreneurs in the early stages of building their businesses.

This past summer, business, engineering, and arts & sciences students from the 麻豆影院 formed teams with local South African students as well as those from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Florida.

Their assignment: Do anything and everything to set up their entrepreneurs for success. But no one said it would be easy.

Erick Mueller, the executive director of Leeds鈥� Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, has co-led the program for 11 years. 鈥淓very year I think, 鈥楾here鈥檚 no chance I can do this again.鈥� But then I hear students say 鈥榃ow, I achieved more than I ever thought I could.鈥� That鈥檚 what keeps me going back year after year.鈥�

The summer of 2023 was an intense, sometimes grueling six weeks. If the days felt long, the nights felt even longer. Pushed to solve business problems quickly, teams burned the midnight oil designing logos and implementing budgeting tools. They developed deliverables for every aspect of their client鈥檚 businesses, including marketing and sales, employee contracts, customer relations, and inventory management, to name a few.

Sorely needed renewable energy

Students became emotionally invested in seeing their clients succeed after spending countless hours with them, learning about their lifestyles, hardships, culture and community.

Madison Cataldo鈥檚 (Mgmt, Entr鈥�23) consulting team鈥檚 first task was to rebrand Troy Hufkie鈥檚 business, which sells, installs and maintains generators, inverters, batteries, solar panels, and security systems. A South African entrepreneur, Hufkie had named his company 鈥淭he Business Consulting鈥濃�攁 misleading representation of his business. Given the prevalent demand for his services due to ongoing electricity blackouts (load-shedding) and rising crime rates, the team renamed it 鈥淓coDefend,鈥� supported by the tagline: 鈥淧owering your Future, Protecting Your Present: Alternative Energy, Security, and Generators."

Beyond that, they implemented a comprehensive HR program, modernized his website, created and executed an extensive prospecting and sales program, established a new financial management program, and introduced a new CRM platform.

鈥淢y time in South Africa was extremely听transformative. The experience of making a substantial impact was immensely rewarding and left an enduring impression on me. The entrepreneurs' resilience, hard work, and their ability to confront challenges without complaint were truly inspiring,鈥� Cataldo said.

An African creation

Stacey Jane Smith owns a personal wellness and skincare company that produces locally sourced products听native to听South听Africa, called African Secret.

Once they got to know Smith and her business, the first thing student Forrest Mondlane Jr. (Mktg鈥�24) and his team realized was that she needed a major rebranding of her products. Thus ensued a packaging makeover to convey high quality and validate increasing the price鈥攁ll accomplished with zero budget.

Mondlane鈥檚 team also streamlined the production process for more efficiency; Smith makes her products by hand. They established an effective bookkeeping system to replace a haphazard system of tracking revenue and expenses. Lastly, they got African Secret into more stores and trained Smith on building relationships with retailers.

鈥淭he most challenging piece was having our entrepreneur accept big change. While she was open to it, we could tell there was some hesitancy听in some of the things we were suggesting,鈥� Mondlane said.

But by the end, he said, the most rewarding part was seeing how inspired and empowered she felt. 鈥淲e could see that she was realizing the true value of her business, and we were able to distill a newfound confidence that her products were meant to be out there making a change in personal care.鈥�

Big rewards from big effort

鈥淟eading this program,鈥� Mueller said, 鈥渋s the most intense thing I do all year. But I do it because it literally changes lives. Students see right before their eyes how they make lives better.鈥�

This year, they changed the lives of 16 entrepreneurs and families.

To date, 136 CU 麻豆影院 students have participated in EESA and emerged with a newfound respect for the听critical role entrepreneurship and innovation play in the economic development of a nation.

Why Leeds听 Deming Center for Entrepreneurship听 Leeds Centers of Excellence