Fall 2023

Undergraduate Courses

ENT 101: Intro to Entrepreneurship (4 credits) - Michael Riedlinger

Available to introduce key elements of entrepreneurship early and generate more entrepreneurial activity during the student’s college careers.The course will explore the entrepreneurial process and examine the factors that lead towards entrepreneurial success. We will also examine the skills and behaviors necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. Students gain the knowledge, skills, concepts, and strategies relevant for start-up and early-stage entrepreneurs. A purpose of the course is to present the basic concepts and tools of business analysis, and to instill the methods of crafting a well-conceived business model. The student will be called on to probe, question, and evaluate all aspects of a potential ventures external and internal situation. He or she will learn to tell the difference between winning business models and mediocre models, and become more skilled in spotting ways to improve a ventures strategy or its execution.

Graduate Courses

TEM 401: Economics, Marketing & Strategy (4 credits) - Paul Nelson

This course presents fundamental concepts of microeconomics, marketing, and strategy to provide a foundation for understanding the economic marketplace and for identifying and assessing entrepreneurial opportunities. We begin with the study of consumer and firm behavior and the resulting demand and supply conditions in markets for goods and services. Using equilibrium analysis, we then investigate the determinants of market structure, prices, output levels, firm profitability, and consumer welfare when firms and consumers interact in the marketplace. Building on the economic model, we explore marketing issues, in particular the value proposition for new products and strategies for market entry, distribution, pricing and product positioning. Additional strategy topics include game theory and its managerial implications, incentive conflicts and contracts, and the relationship between government regulation and the business environment.

TEM 402: Accounting & Finance Primer for Entrepreneurs (4 credits) - Kurt Wojdat

This course is designed to present the fundamentals of financial accounting and analysis to enable participants to understand and use the principles of finance and accounting information to better structure business decisions. The accounting module will present skills required to interpret and analyze common financial statements, and evaluate a companys past and potential future performance. Topics of discussion will include transaction analysis, cash vs. accrual accounting, financial statements and analysis, development of budgets and pro-forma statements, and depreciation and inventory methodologies. The financial module will present skills required to understand how companies make investment and financing decisions. Topics of discussion will include net present values, an intro to financial instruments, the tradeoff between risk and return in financial markets, capital budgeting and investment decision-making, choosing a capital structure, and using the weighted average cost of capital.

TEM 440: Screening Technical Opportunities (1 credit) - Mark Wilson

This course provides a process used to quickly assess the commercial merits of raw technologies. This course focuses on the very earliest stage of concepts where information is greatly lacking and the time and money to research such answers is also limited.Students, in group format, will select and thicken? two technologies of interest. Thickening will involve a cursory evaluation based upon technical merit, early market indicators, human resource availability, and business challenges. Teams will use a template to present the results of their investigation to a panel. Teams must state whether or not each technology is worthy to bring forward into TEM 441 and TEM 411.

ENT 422: Generating and Screening Entrepreneurial Ideas (2.5 credits) - Mark Wilson

As the foundation course in Entrepreneurship, this course covers: idea generation, opportunities screening, entrepreneurial characteristics. This course outlines a critical evaluation process used by successful entrepreneurs to prioritize new venture ideas. The focus of this course is on the technical and market evaluation of very early-stage ideas when information is greatly lacking, and the time and money to research such answers is also limited. Students, in group format, generate and filter their own ideas and evaluate them based upon technical merit, business challenges, and early market indicators. Teams present their idea-filtering rationale to a panel for review and feedback. Behind this evaluation process, the class review reference material on the subject and several accomplished entrepreneurs will share their personal experiences. While the nomenclature align most directly to high-technology for-profit start-up companies, parallels to low-tech-no-tech, intra-preneurship, non-profits, and social entrepreneurship will be discussed.

Eastman School of Music Courses

ALC 210 / ALC 410 / JCM 261: Entrepreneurial Thinking (2 credits) - James Doser

An entrepreneurial person is one who transforms an idea into an enterprise that creates value. Musicians have been entrepreneurial thinkers throughout history, and continue to be so. Entrepreneurial Thinking helps students to recognize the entrepreneurial potential they posses, appreciate the role of entrepreneurship within society and in their own professional lives, and understand and implement the processes and skills of entrepreneurship. Students envision, develop, and present a Capstone Project in this course, titled ‘The Big Idea’. This is a project, initiative, product, business, or other entrepreneurial idea chosen by the student. Essential concepts covered in this class include idea generation, assessing potential value and feasibility, market analysis, writing for business, developing marketing strategies, budgeting, types of business structures, funding, contracts, legal issues, and best practices for effective presentations. This course may also serve as a resource for students wishing to submit applications to the IML Grant and Mentorship Program, Eastman/ArtistShare Program, and Paul R. Judy Grant Program.

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Questions?

Contact Catherine Livingston, Program Assistant.