Benefits

• Learn entrepreneurial skills in preparation for starting or expanding your business
• Acquire skills to operate your home business
• Strengthen your business management techniques for increased success
• Gain skills for supporting entrepreneurs

• Complete the 5 required courses (35 hours)
• Can be completed within 1 semester up to a maximum of 3 years

Required Courses

All courses in this program are offered each semester.

Entrepreneurship and You
Explore your entrepreneurial characteristics and learn which ones to leverage in your business. You will define your purpose for starting this business and establish success criteria. Develop successful entrepreneurial strategies to be effective in business. The business planning canvas will be introduced in this module and developed throughout the program.

Subject (for registration): Small Business Training

Planning Your Business
Learn how to articulate your business vision, mission and values, and understand how they inform your decision-making and planning. You will learn how to design an effective value proposition that will resonate with customer motivations. Explore your business operations, identify the required resources to deliver your business and evaluate the associated risks.

Subject (for registration): Small Business Training

Marketing Your Business
Learn how to associate the value proposition, customer information, distribution challenges, and competition strengths and weaknesses into a marketing strategy. Expand on your business operations and identify human resource needs and professional services required.

Subject (for registration): Small Business Training

Managing Your Business
Define business start-up strategies and costs, along with ongoing operation expenses. With the start-up and operational costs defined, you will examine revenue streams and potential financial resources needed to start and operate the business. Explore financial record-keeping basics required for success.

Subject (for registration): Small Business Training

Launching Your Business
Examine the feasibility of your business, refine your business planning canvas and present your plans to your classroom peers and the instructor. The presentation process will allow for peer input and idea-sharing to strengthen your business plan and implementation strategies. In addition to the business planning canvas, you will complete an individual business implementation plan with actions, timelines and resources.

Subject (for registration): Small Business Training

Optional Course

These courses are not required for your Entrepreneurship Certificate of Completion.

Taxation Basics
Learn 10 important concepts of taxation to help you gather the information necessary to do a basic business tax return. Understand what additional accounts need to be set up in the general ledger to facilitate ease in preparing for filling a tax return. A practical exercise is included in class time to reinforce the key concepts.

Subject (for registration): Accounting

Refer to your Confirmation of Registration for course specific information.

"The most realistic, applicable and eye-opening course I've ever taken - a must for anyone wanting to open a business." - Dina Jaher

"Amazing course. It has definitely set me on the right track to owning my own business." - David Eyre

"This is by far the best entrepreneurship course I have taken. During the course I went from ignorant…to entrepreneur!" - Joelle Kirby, Dental Hygienist

Judy McMillan-Evans M.Ed .
Judy McMillan-Evans is an adult educator with over 25 years of experience in both classroom and on-line instructional design and delivery. She is so excited about the world of education that in 2013, she completed a Master's in Education. She also holds certificates in both adult education and group facilitation from Mount Royal University.

Judy is the lead instructor and designer for MRU's Entrepreneurship program, a project she has led for 22 years. In 2006, Mount Royal University awarded Judy with their Distinguished Faculty/Teaching Award based upon her excellent student engagement and program results.

Judy is a generalist in the field of business, with over 40 years of business ownership. She loves to teach about entrepreneurship, business planning, human resource management, marketing, financial management and business operations. She is also a specialist in not-for-profit management and community economic development.

In everything she does, Judy offers fun, passion, experience, knowledge and creativity with a strong focus on quality education.

Erin Melnychuk

Erin is a community economic developer who uses traditional economic and business development tools in non-traditional ways to tackle issues within our communities. Erin is particularly passionate about poverty reduction and believes business is a powerful tool for change.

Erin began her career in the co-op sector. She then went on to work for an award-winning community economic development organization in Calgary, called Momentum. There, she led the Business Development Department for 10 years, designing and delivering business training programs and wrap-around support services for individuals experiencing barriers to meaningful employment, who strive to use self-employment as a pathway out of poverty. The business training programs boast an 80% success rate (of businesses successfully launching 90 days post program) and loan repayment rates of 95%. She currently leads Momentum's Community Initiatives Department, which focuses on building the capacity of the community to embed community economic development approaches into their work.

Erin began instructing in Mount Royal University's Entrepreneurship Certificate Program in 2018 and has supported the redevelopment of the program to resonate with today's entrepreneurs. Erin is a graduate of Simon Fraser University's Community Economic Development Program