A Boost for Young Entrepreneurs

One of the great things about being an entrepreneur in the 21st century is there's no age barrier. The days when you were pretty much required to slog away in middle management in corporate America for decades before banks considered you mature enough to take out a loan and strike out on your own are so gone. Now, the Internet has made starting up on a shoestring easy, and businesses routinely sprout in college dorm rooms--thinkMark ZuckerbergandFacebook.

Just in the past few weeks, I've read about Boston University studentAlex Hodara, founder of real-estate brokerageHodara Real Estate, and about business-plan competition winner Omar Soliman of the University of Miami/Coral Gables and his partner Nick Friedman of Pomona College, whose companyCollege Hunks Hauling Junk(don't you love that business name?) has becoming a growing franchise. There'sMatt Rhodesin Thousand Oaks, Calif., who foundedT.O. Student Tutoringwhile still in high school.

Now, young entrepreneurs who dream about starting their own businesses before they can legally drink are getting a boost.

I wrote acouple weeks agoabout theEwing Marion KauffmanFoundation's effort to build a national entrepreneur movement. Well, they have not rested from this task--last week theyannounceda $75,000 grant to theUniversity of Miamito supportThe Launch Pad, a career-center program designed to help college students launch new companies while they're still in school.

Usually, career centers focus on finding students jobs and entrepreneurship centers focus on helping their smaller group of students learn how to start businesses, and never the twain shall meet. The U-Miami'sToppel Career Centerwill break ground by integrating entrepreneurship into their career advice and making that knowledge available to all students.

发射台始于2008年9月,爵士ved 750 students and alumni to date, consulting on 300 proposed ventures and seeing 20 new companies launched from their efforts. With the Kauffman's support, The Launch Pad will reach more budding entrepreneurs.

如果发射成功ssful, maybe other universities will pick up on the model and bring entrepreneurship resources to their whole student bodies.