Venture Out: An Entrepreneurial Introduction to Business

Abstract

Venture Out is a semester-long project which introduces elementary business skills and concepts from an entrepreneurial perspective. Student teams research and select a product to sell to students, create a mini-business plan, and present their plan to a board of judges from the business community. If their request is approved (up to $500), teams purchase and sell their product. After repaying the loan, teams donate their profits to a beneficiary and they reflect on their performance and lessons learned. Venture Out benefits students, the academic business program, and the community in tangible ways. Venture Out and other classroom-as-organization (CAO) programs are described.