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The program at Cal State San Bernardino allows students to experience the business world firsthand while helping local grow through various community outreach programs. One local businessman calls the center an invaluable resource for the region.
In 1999, while he was working for the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, Mike Stull was asked to join the advisory committee for something called the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship, a start-up project at Cal State San Bernardino.
The goal was to go beyond classroom instruction – although the program would include that – and teach students how to be entrepreneurs and function in the business world.
They would work with local businesses, gain hands-on experience and ultimately learn how to star their own business, the ultimate act of entrepreneurship.
Three years later, even though he had no academic background, Stull was asked to run the program. It was an offer he didn’t have to think about for very long.
“I knew right away that it was a good idea,” said Stull, the program’s director. “It was a blank canvas, and I liked that.”
By the time Stull took over, the program had obtained a small start-up grant and had secured about 1,000 square feet of office space donated by Arrowhead Credit Union.
“The grant was for $10,000 to $20,000, somewhere in that range,” Stull recalled. “It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get the thing started.”
During Stull’s 14 years as director, the center has put together academic programs that lead to business degrees for undergraduate and graduate students.
It has also developed support programs, including its Lunch With an Entrepreneur events and the annual of Spirit of Entrepreneur awards. The latter has become a major event within the Inland Empire business community.
The center’s goal, Stull said in an interview with IE Business Daily earlier this year, is to teach its students how to be business people, starting with coming up with an idea for their own business. After that, assuming their idea was workable, they learn how to manage that business.
Sometimes, the hardest part is convincing the students they can carry out their idea.
“Confidence is an issue you always have to address, because they don’t have any experience running a business.” Stull, who once ran his family’s aviation electronics business, said last spring. “I tell them it’s not really complicated, you’re just going to have to work incredibly hard if you want to succeed. There’s no way anyone can know how much work is involved in starting a business unless they’ve done it.”
When he took over, Stull knew one of his first tasks – along with establishing academic programs – was to make a connection with the business community. As it happened, the U.S. Department of Transportation was looking for small to medium-sized businesses nationwide to help it with a number of projects.
“We helped [businesses] get access to capital and contracts,” said Stull, who estimates that the center worked with several hundred businesses in connection with the transportation program for about two years. “That’s the kind of outreach program that we need to do. When we put something like that together, I know we’re doing our job.”
The center is unique because it gives students hands-on experience running a business, unlike most business schools, which involve mostly classroom instruction.
“It’s a different experience from most schools because it’s more of a training ground,” said Stull, a Rialto native who graduated from Cal State San Bernardino in 1988 with a degree in management. “It’s the best way to learn, by doing. We’re a lot more experience-oriented than most business schools.”
The center is an “incredible” resource for the Inland Empire business community and one that more companies should take advantage of, said Mark Mitchell, director of TriTech Small Business Development Center, which is affiliated with the Riverside Community College District.
“I hesitate to say this because I don’t want to offend anyone, but I really prefer hiring [center for entrepreneurship] graduates over any other school around here,” Mitchell said. “We’ve hired about six of them, and they all knew how to think critically, which is a big part of succeeding in the business world.”
