Entrepreneurship Minor

Entrepreneurship Minor

Live your life on the economic frontier.

Entrepreneurs can recognize business opportunities and know when to seize them. They use creativity, ingenuity and solid business skills to influence investors, raise capital and start their own ventures. They can identify emerging technologies and bring commercially viable ideas to fruition. Entrepreneurship is an exciting lifestyle as much as a career choice. The Entrepreneurship minor will prepare you to live your life on the economic frontier, give full expression to your personality and build wealth for yourself.

Why study an entrepreneurship minor at UCCS?

  1. Support and Guidance

    If you have an idea or concept you wish to build into a business venture, UCCS offers entrepreneurial support through resources such as The Garage, the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship Club.

  2. AACSB Accredited

    The UCCS College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance College Schools of Business (AACSB) which ensures your professors, classes and fellow students are of the highest quality. Only 5% of business schools worldwide have achieved this distinction.

  3. Exceptional Faculty

    Our leading instructors are nationally and internationally recognized for their research and instruction. Receive personalized guidance from professors with real-world experience in their field. 

  4. Ethical Curriculum

    The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at UCCS instills principle-based ethics education throughout the business school, resulting in a high standard of ethics in our students and graduates.

  5. Real-World Experience

    The College of Business houses its own Career Development Center, dedicated to providing business students with assistance in career development, internship opportunities and job placement. 

  6. Global Perspectives

    The College of Business incorporates international business cases into the curriculum to ensure you are prepared for cross-cultural and international business opportunities. For those who wish to study abroad, the College of Business maintains partnerships with business schools across the world.

Entrepreneurship Courses

  • Principles of Entrepreneurship

    This course introduces students to entrepreneurship and the processes that are involved in launching and operating a successful venture. Understanding the new venture as a collection of logical decisions and systems will be the focus of this course. You will be exposed to the process of creating a new venture idea, examining market feasibility, testing financial models and preparing a go-to-market strategy.

  • Advanced Principles of Entrepreneurship

    This course focuses on entrepreneurial principles associated with analyzing the feasibility of a new venture. Each student will apply the principles from other classes to analyze the feasibility of a self-chosen venture concept.

  • The Business Plan

    Those interested in a new or growing business must possess a comprehensive business plan if they hope to compete in the marketplace. A comprehensive business plan is necessary to attract sources of financing and to evaluate the viability of a venture; it is also a requirement for companies that want to be considered for joint ventures with larger corporations or those that are transitioning from entrepreneurial to professional management. This course focuses on all facets of business plan development including assessing the competitive environment, developing venture concepts and growth strategies, creating market approaches, building a cohesive management team, launching operations and developing financial projections. Students create a business plan that addresses their individual organizational needs.

Entrepreneurship Faculty Spotlight
Tom Duening, Ph.D.
Dr. Thomas Duening is the El Pomar Chair for Business & Entrepreneurship, associate professor of management and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. He has over 25 years of experience in teaching entrepreneurship and running entrepreneurship centers. Dr. Duening is well known for his advocacy of entrepreneurship as a life path, and for his research into human potential. In addition to having written 17 books on business and entrepreneurship, he also publishes widely on topics in management, organizational behavior and positive psychology. Duening believes that his teaching is most relevant not when people learn particular concepts or lessons, but when they are encouraged to change the trajectory of their lives to strive for things they previously thought unreachable.

What Our Students Are Saying

Lee Haider
Class of 2020
"I wanted to attend a college that could provide me the resources, network and overall environment to help launch a startup. Our startup has competed in international startup competitions as well as state-wide angel investment competitions. I am beyond thankful for all of the professors that have taken an interest in me and helped me grow as an entrepreneur, student and innovator."
Sharon Erale-Palmer
Owner, Swirl Wine Bar
"I used what I learned from classes on marketing, research and trends and put it all in my (business) plan. (When I went for a small business loan) they recognized me as a good business owner. "