Management Development for Entrepreneurs

Management Development for Entrepreneurs

I’ve just finished the classroom portion of the most fantastic course at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. It’s called Management Development for Entrepreneurs, MDE, http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x663.xml, and it’s for entrepreneurs who already own their own business but who jumped in without going to business school first. It’s a 10 week certificate program, with 80 hours of class, about a zillion hours of homework, and a final project called a Business Improvement Project (BIP). Your BIP is based on a series of exercises you do throughout the program: defining your mission statement, evaluating the internal and external environment for your business, and then formulating a strategic plan based on the results.

The picture here is me, www.peace-talks.com, and Patricia Kelly, of www.limerickinc.com, a fellow Make Mine a $Million Awardee.

Ladies, this program was life-changing.

I’m hard at work on my BIP now. What a relief to have some direction based on what I’ve assessed as internal and external strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Prior to MDE, I had a lot of ideas about what might be good projects and lots of marketing ideas, but now I know which of the ideas are most important to do first, and everything else has really fallen into place. MDE has helped me prioritize, know where my money should be spent, and where I need to be spending my time. I've already changed the first page of the web site, www.peace-talks.com, to reflect the additional services which I'm now offering through Peace Talks based on what I learned in MDE.

I can’t wait until February 2007’s graduation! Not only has the class been informative and provocative, I’ve also made some terrific friends. We all have very different businesses, but, like the Make Mine a $Million Awardees, we all struggle with the same issues. It’s an amazing group of people, and their ideas and feedback have been really, really helpful. That, and one is a salon owner who taught me to do my own blowouts on my hair. Fantastic all around!

If you aren’t near Los Angeles, find a business school near you and ask if they offer such a program. For business students, it would be a terrific refresher. For the rest of us, it’s a real formula for success. http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x663.xml

Last but not least, I learned about MDE from Julie Fogg, http://www.activeport.com/, a Make Mine a $Million Awardee in my San Francisco class of June 2006. Thanks to Julie’s suggestion, I not only applied for MDE, but I also applied for a National Association of Women Business Owners LA Chapter scholarship…..so I was able to attend the program free of charge. The Make Mine a $Million connections have been so fantastic! So thanks to Make Mine a $Million, www.makemineamillion.org, to Julie, www.activeport.com, and to NAWBO-LA! www.nawbola.org.