Entrepreneurship (Certificate)

Program Advisor: Karen Hines, Associate Professor of Business

Learn to launch and lead new business ventures with BCC’s Entrepreneur Certificate. Our goal is to equip students with an understanding of the fundamental building blocks of the entrepreneurial process to help them create a sustainable successful business

Entrepreneurs turn problems into opportunities that create economic and social value, for themselves, for their organizations, and for society at large. Our Coursework will help develop an entrepreneurial mindset and understand entrepreneurial finance, small business management, marketing, and legal issues for small business owners. Entrepreneurship is a strong backbone of Berkshire County. Our program supports the development of businesses and business ideas within the Berkshire Community and beyond.

We offer a strong core of business courses that will provide skills needed to start a business or launch a new idea or concept.

Learn how to identify business opportunity and analyze viability of opportunities from various points of view.
Understand the leadership skills and personal characteristics needed for success in starting and managing a small business.
Analyze a set of financial statements to determine strengths or weaknesses of the business.
Understand the basic principles of business law, contracts and agency, intellectual property and product liability.
Demonstrate proficiency in computer applications as required to operate and manage a small business.
Examine management theory and practice, and explain basic business methodology and management issues.
Be able to identify and analyze the marketing strategies of an organization that can be used to advance its mission.
Develop a business plan.
Understand the techniques useful in achieving the full potential from limited resources and improving productivity and effectiveness.

Career Outlook - This certificate prepares graduates to start and manage a small business, and to move into management and supervisory positions.

Admissions Requirements

Documentation of high school graduation or alternative high school credential. Reading and writing competency at a college level as shown by high school GPA of 2.7 within the past ten years,
Accuplacer assessment, or completion of a college composition class. Math at a college level as shown by a high school GPA of 2.7 within the past three years Accuplacer assessment, or completion
of a math course of MAT-028A or higher.

Standard Business Degree Requirements for BCC. Prereq. ENG-020. 4/5 Graduation Requirements with Suggested Block for Program Completion

Expected Outcomes

At BCC, students will learn the fundamentals that will help them learn to better the odds of creating sustainable success in developing a business. Coursework will help develop an entrepreneurial mindset and understand entrepreneurial finance, small business management, marketing, and legal issues for small business owners.

Our curriculum and program are based on providing students the opportunity and skills to improve on each of these competencies.

Opportunity Recognition: the capacity to recognize changing conditions or overlooked possibilities in the environment that represent potential sources of profit or return in a venture
Opportunity Assessment: the ability to have the flexibility to evaluate the structure of opportunities to accurately determine their feasibility
Risk Mitigation: the ability to recognize and take necessary actions to reduce the probability of a risk occurring or reduce the potential impact if the threat were to occur
Conveying a Compelling Vision: the ability to conceive the image of a future entrepreneurship opportunity and to articulate that image in a manner that empowers followers to respond to it
Creative Problem-Solving skills: the ability to think quickly, think creatively and laterally, evaluate options, to resolve customer and employee issues and questions - while being profitable, engaging, emotionally rewarding, and socially valued.
Value Innovation / Creation: capabilities at developing new products, services and/or business models that generate revenues and bring about a fair return
Tenacity/Perseverance: an ability to sustain goal-directed actions when confronting difficulties and obstacles that impede goal achievement
Building and Using Entrepreneurial Networks: social interaction skills that enable an individual to establish, develop and maintain relationships with others who assist them in advancing their work or career
Data analysis: the ability to handle data well and use it in the most effective way
Communication skills: Develop good communication skills to inspire others to be more confident in expressing their opinions and encourage them to give feedback, which can speed up the process of finding solutions.
Critical thinking: to enable entrepreneurs to identify problems and turn such issues into opportunities.

Graduation Requirements

Program Courses

CIS-102	Fundamental Computer Literacy	4
BUS-111	Principles of Accounting I	3
COM-107	Introduction to Oral Communication in Business	3
-	Or
BUS-247	Business Communications	3
BUS-208	Principles of Marketing	3
BUS-206	Principles of Management	3
ECO-211	Principles of Microeconomics	3
BUS-251	Law for Business I	3
BUS-216	Small Business Entrepreneur & Management	3
Total Credit Hours:		25

Total Credit Hours: 25

Suggested Pathway to Graduation

First Semester

CIS-102	Fundamental Computer Literacy	4
BUS-111	Principles of Accounting I	3
BUS-208	Principles of Marketing	3
BUS-206	Principles of Management	3
COM-107	Introduction to Oral Communication in Business	3
-	Or
BUS-247	Business Communications	3
Total Credit Hours:		16

Second Semester

ECO-211	Principles of Microeconomics	3
BUS-251	Law for Business I	3
BUS-216	Small Business Entrepreneur & Management	3
Total Credit Hours:		9