By Ebony Chappel

Data from 2014 compiled by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) shows for the fourth year in a row, the U.S. has experienced tremendous growth in the area of business ownership with a minimum of 13 percent of U.S. adults starting and running new businesses. Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the number of entrepreneurship focused post-secondary offerings.

According to findings published by the Kaufmann Foundation in their 2013 report titled “Entrepreneurship Education Comes of Age on Campus,” in 1985, there were approximately 250 courses in entrepreneurship being offered at college campuses in the United States. By 2008, that number grew to more than 5,000 at two-year and four-year institutions. In 2013, there were well over 400,000 students following this course of study.

With this increase in interest, comes a growing need for resources. In 2010, Ivy Tech Community College addressed this need by adding a set of course offerings for current and future business owners. Steve Bryant, the executive director of the Gayle and Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship in Bloomington, said the program was developed out of a sense of urgency.

“We always had a strong connection with the small business development centers around Indiana. The Bloomington small business office was moved to Terre Haute and left a void. There was a lack of resources for local business owners,” he said. Bryant, who has been the executive director since the program’s inception, drew on his own past experience to help bring the vision to life. “I was part of senior management for a small biotech company in Bloomington. When I came aboard the startup it had no sales. I grew it to a $5 million business,” he said.

Like most institutions of higher learning, Ivy Tech already offered business administration curriculum with all the usual trappings of courses on finance and marketing, but nothing geared toward those wanting to embark on a path of business ownership.

“The vision and the challenge was to create something from scratch that would have an impact on our students and provide them a lot of skills to leave here and start their own enterprise,” said Bryant. “My boss at the time, Chancellor Bob Weichart, had the vision.

He wanted Ivy Tech students to be able to study entrepreneurship while they were enrolled, with the hopes that they would start something on their own upon completion.” In 2010, the team behind the creation of the program started with a white paper and in 2011 the first courses were offered at the Bloomington campus.

In August of 2014, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (CHE) approved the expansion of it to all 31 Ivy Tech campuses in the state. The addition of online classes three semesters ago helped to triple enrollment. The student pool boasts 60 percent female and 45 percent ethnic minority enrollment.

Currently, the program offers an 18-credit-hour Certificate in Entrepreneurship, designed for students with knowledge in other fields of study acquired either through postsecondary education, through industry or life experience, and a 31-credit hour Technical Certificate, which includes the entrepreneurship courses and adds an accounting, marketing, computer, communication and college success course. Entrepreneurship courses include Entrepreneurial Marketing and Market Research, Venture Growth and Development and Entrepreneurial Tax and Finance.

Business plan development is an integral component of the program and business plan writing software is utilized. The mission is simple: to provide practical solutions and teach students how to apply academia in real world situations. An essential part of what Bryant believes sets Ivy Tech apart from the pack.

“I think we have a lot of very good four year business programs and masters level programs like Indiana University, Ball State, Purdue, Notre Dame and various independent colleges,” he said. “What sets us apart is all of our faculty have owned and operated small businesses in some format so you have a lot of people that have a lot of experience to share and that is really vital to how rich the experience is going to be for the student.”

Another element of the experience is in teaching students how to maximize use of their immediate professional network by reaching out to others who may be able to assist them in their endeavors.

“We have a lot of students who want to start food trucks, so the first thing I tell them to do is to talk to someone who owns a food truck so that they can decide what they really want to do. That business owner can let them know the good, the bad, and the ugly,” said Bryant. “It will give you a good idea about what you really need to know before you step out there and spend your hard-earned money or something borrowed from a bank only to realize it’s not working in a year or two.”

In addition to the certificate program, Bloomington’s campus offers a peer-to-peer learning experience via a CEO roundtable, youth programs, and personalized business consulting available to area business owners. “If at least 10 of those people finish and go on to start a successful business, that’s what we’re after and if we talk 170 people out of a bad idea that was going to cost them lots of money and energy that’s a success story too,” said Bryant. “The statewide impact on a few small businesses, particularly those in rural communities, can help have a major impact on the entire state.”

For more information on Ivy Tech Bloomington’s Gayle & Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship visit Ivytech.edu/bloomington/entrepreneurship.

By Jessica R. Key

Glossophobia or speech anxiety tops the lists of things many people fear most. According to the Mayo Clinic, fear of public speaking can range from slight nervousness to paralyzing fear and panic. Though numerous professions require public speaking to small and/or large groups, messengers of information experience unease when talking to a group.

Experts understand those feelings. “You feel so vulnerable up there. You’re the only one speaking, people are watching you and you’re not really sure they’re receiving you or if you are conveying the message properly. You just want everyone to understand what you’re trying to say,” said Rita Barber, immediate past district governor for District 4 of Toastmasters International; and a career and presentation strategist for All Phase Technologies.

Barber recalls her first speech and said she crossed her ankles and folded her arms because she didn’t want her audience to see how nervous she was. In time, she said she learned to be a master speech giver.

Barber is not an anomaly and said the fear of public speaking can be overcome with simple strategies. Read on for tips that will have you giving speeches like your favorite speaker in no time.

Do the ‘before work’

If you are well versed on the topic at hand, prior to taking the microphone, half of the battle has been won.

“You need to know it cold. There’s a difference between memorizing your content and knowing it. Memorizing it, you’ll go too fast, miss a lot of points – you’re too busy reading the monitor in your mind. Knowing your content means you let go of ‘it has to be said exactly this way’ because you realize people are not going to remember what you say, but about how they feel about what you had to say,” said Barber.

Less is more

Barber said in today’s technology-laden world, speakers oftentimes think they must have a high-tech, razzle-dazzle speech complete with a power-point presentation in order to keep the audience’s attention. This is far from the truth. Barber said the key to a great speech is to understand the key message you want the audience to know and use that to construct a great message. If one must use technology, don’t put on the slides what you plan to tell the audience. Tools like Power Point, Prezi and Haiku Deck are meant to underscore the speech, not give the speech for you. “Plus technology isn’t always fool proof,” she said.

When taking the podium remember…

“Whoever it is you are speaking to, they want to see you succeed. Nobody wants to watch you fail up there, if for no other reason than they don’t want their time wasted. Once you realize people are rooting for you, that takes a bit of the fear away,” said Barber.

Focus

Whether you’re speaking to a few people or thousands, you only speak to one person at a time. When you realize that, it begins to take the sting out of it. When talking, focus on one person at a time and look them in the eye.

Special delivery

How the presentation is delivered is also key to a good speech. Barber said once you are able to let go of the fear, tell your truth the way you see it. “We may not know what the person is talking about, but we know if the person is telling us the real deal. Speak your truth.” Speak clearly and keep a steady cadence to make sure audiences have time to absorb what you are conveying.

Work at it

Barber said if Serena Williams taught you everything she knew about tennis, but you did nothing with that knowledge, her teachings were in vain. The analogy applies to public speaking. Professionals must continuously work at public speaking to develop a sense of confidence. “Someone once told me, ‘you may always have butterflies when you do a speech, but the idea is, can you get those butterflies to fly in formation,’” said Barber, who also encourages people to join an organization like Toastmasters to further hone their public speaking skills.

By Leslie L. Fuller

If you visit Indy’s Kitchen on 2442 N. Central Ave. one morning, you will discover a dozen cooks whirling around a prep table. Peta Gay and Larry Wharton are preparing dishes for their Taste of the Caribbean Indy food truck and look up smiling is Indy’s Kitchen owner and operator Linda Gilkerson giving a cook’s tour of the incubator’s two industrial kitchens. On one counter, assembled 9×13 foil pans from the Food Florist, are neatly stacked for transport to the Indianapolis City Market.

On wire racks in the rear of the building, jars of Kombucha are steeping which will ultimately sate the thirst of customers of Presto Kombucha. On the wall, a marker board gives the schedule for the next four days: Kids Rule cooking class, Sunday, Ceres’ Basket, Real Clean Foods, Calliope. Monday and Tuesday, Food Florist.

In the catering list, the names include 3 Carrots, Harris, Citizen Hash, Taqueria, Scratch, and the Twisted Sicilian. The names on the wall and the kitchen activity give witness that a plethora of delicacies come out of the two kitchens housed here: pies, Italian food, food that is rolled, baked, fried, food that represents the dreams of entrepreneurs and small business operators who rent this space.

At 5 years old, the business incubator Indy’s Kitchen boasts about 70 current customers and 10 alumni. It seems like a small scale, with everyone present seeming to know each other, yet a recent economic study revealed this small space has an annual $5 million impact on the Indianapolis economy, said Gilkerson. “I know we were doing big things,” she said. “I think we’ll continue to do the same things.” She and her husband, Tom Abeel, are the business partners for Indy’s Kitchen, along with their friends, Paul Pickett and William Powell, who are also a couple.

Powell also owns the Monon Coffee Shop, which has one of its two locations at Indy’s Kitchen. The same things have included renting the kitchen out to a restaurant auditioning cooks for a chef’s position and children’s cooking classes. However, Indy’s Kitchen primarily is known as a place where people who dream of launching their own food-related company, whether it’s a cupcake bakery or a food truck, can get started without encumbering themselves with significant debt.

Here, as they rent a commercial cooking space by the hour, they will find numerous other like-minded folks with the same dreams, said Wilkerson. “We cook and eat together,” she said. Along with the food and fellowship comes an exchange of information and insights about business plans, food packaging and pricing, food trucks vs. catering, and hiring employees. Some of the businesses leasing the kitchens here will outgrow the space and move on to their own kitchen.

Alumni include the carryout-meal company Avec Moi, started by Kris Parmelee, which now has its own building. In Gilkerson’s view, Indy’s Kitchen greatly benefited by launching in time to address the needs of the hungry Super Bowl crowd. She also sees the rise of the local food truck movement, now an established part of the city’s food culture, as having its genesis during this time period. Besides Taste of the Caribbean, food trucks associated with Indy’s Kitchen include Spice Box, Caveman Truck, Bacon Babes, Calliope Sno-Balls, Cosmic Chrome Café, Der Pretzel Wagen, Far-Out Fred’s, Gaucho’s Fire, Gobble Gobble, Groovy Guy’s Fries, Huge Impact, Kona Ice, Lunch and Munch, Pierogi Love Indy, Seoulrito and many more.

Wilkerson believes it is generally unrealistic for companies to expect to collect grant money, although Indy’s Kitchen did receive a $100,000 windfall from a community block fund. “It was through King Park community development,” said Gilkerson. “They wanted us to stay in the neighborhood.” The monies had to be used for equipment, which Indy’s Kitchen used for an ice machine, a new cooler, a tilt skillet, and new food processor, among other purchases, she said. And Develop Indy identified Indy’s Kitchen as possessing potential to grow other small businesses and awarded $9,000 for technical assistance, a fund that was used to pay consultants to help the incubator’s businesses, as well as pay for the Economic Impact Study created by student researcher Santiago Hope.

Getting started at Indy’s Kitchen is not a huge investment, Gilkerson pointed out. Hourly rates run a high of $24 and a low of $14 depending on how many hours one purchases and if they use the kitchen services during peak or off-peak hours. Chefs can also rent a rolling storage shelf for $3; a rolling storage rack for $100, and or shelves in the walk-in cooler for $40 or $50, depending on size needed. A shelf in the freezer will set you back $40 or $50.

For information about Indy’s Kitchen, call (317) 426-2996 or email manager@indyskitchen.com.

Resources: Indy’s Kitchen recommends these business resources to its new entrepreneurs. Business Ownership Initiative offers classes for entrepreneurs. They are located at 4755 Kingsway Drive, Suite 314, Indianapolis, 46205; (317) 917-3266. Small Business Development Center offers classes and one-on-one counseling at Ivy Tech Community College, Suite 147 9301 E. 59th St., Indianapolis 46216; (317) 916-7529.

Your business plan

Name of business

Name of owners

Business type: is it sole proprietor, partnership or corporation

Business concept

Description of product

Your marketing plan

List of start-up expenses

Source of start-up funds

List your support team

How much time will you devote to your business?

Steps to get started

Tour the kitchen and ask questions.

Submit your plan to Indy’s Kitchen.

Sign a rental agreement and pay a $50 membership fee.

Obtain a license from the Marion County Health Department or the IN State Board of Health.

Show proof of product liability insurance with Indy’s Kitchen named as additional insured.

Indy’s Kitchen research

The related businesses generate $5,077,211 each year.

Of that figure, current clients account for $1,473,611 and alumni, or businesses who have gone out on their own, generate $3,603,600

Indy’s Kitchen businesses provide a total of 256 jobs with combined annual salaries of $1,939,208.

Of these jobs, 44 percent are full time, 56 percent are part-time.

The workforce contains 60 percent low-income residents, 29 percent are minority, 54 percent are women.

Indy’s Kitchen businesses generate $529,252 in state sales tax revenue. These businesses generate $574,426 in income tax revenue from salaries and wages.

Indy’s Kitchen occupies around 27,000 square feet of commercial space in the City of Indianapolis.