The REAL Entrepreneurship Mission is to develop entrepreneurial talent through action learning and to foster the creation of sustainable enterprises.
The REAL Entrepreneurship Vision is a healthy, vibrant economy in which small business and successful entrepreneurial activity plays a vital role, where people develop the skills they need for productive participation, and where all people with entrepreneurial interests and aspirations have access to high quality entrepreneurship education.
Since the REAL program began in North Carolina in 1985, over 12,000 entrepreneurs have received intensive training and more than 500 high school, post-secondary, and community-based organization educators and administrators have participated in REAL Entrepreneurship’s professional development seminars and week-long Institutes.
In addition, over 1,500 entrepreneurs, bankers, accountants, and other professionals have provided assistance to REAL Entrepreneurship participants and graduates through REAL’s Community Support Teams. This reinforces REAL Entrepreneurship’s community-driven model of fostering a culture of support within communities for entrepreneurship.
REAL Entrepreneurship is a subsidiary of The Sequoyah Fund, Inc., a Community Development Finance Institution committed to lending and training for small businesses. The Sequoyah Fund, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is located in Cherokee, North Carolina. Sequoyah Fund purchased REAL Entrepreneurship from NC REAL, Inc. in 2015.
Because youth and adults enter the program with differences in motivation, maturity, resources, and other elements of "readiness" to become entrepreneurs, the emphasis on specific goals may be different in high schools, post-secondary schools, community-based organizations, associations, from class-to-class in a particular setting, and even from student-to-student within the same class.
Understanding the relative importance of the program goals is critical to establishing appropriate expectations for your program's outcomes.
The goals of REAL Entrepreneurship are to help students:
The REAL Entrepreneurship course is designed to help participants develop skills, expand their knowledge, and create tangible products - including new enterprises. A summary of these three areas follow:
REAL Entrepreneurship gives participants opportunities to develop skills which increase their likelihood of success as entrepreneurs and which better equip them for life and the world of work, regardless of their ultimate career choices. We have received ample feedback from students who chose not to start a business, but who nonetheless found the skills they learned in REAL Entrepreneurship made them better employees. These skills include:
LIFE SKILLS: Abilities related to living an effective and successful life
OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION: The ability to recognize favorable circumstances
OPPORTUNITY EVALUATION: The ability to measure and analyze opportunities for their feasibility and practicality, including:
OPPORTUNITY REALIZATION: The skills required to seize opportunities, including:
REAL Entrepreneurship seeks to increase participants' knowledge in the following key areas:
REAL Entrepreneurship students create a number of products, including:
The development (and potential execution) of a business plan for an enterprise of the participant's choosing is the central project of the REAL Entrepreneurship course. It is the primary vehicle for achieving REAL's desired outcomes.
First, the business plan is an end in itself - a detailed "road map" for an enterprise the participant may open and operate, depending upon its feasibility. It may include elements of a "life plan" describing steps the student will take to achieve his or her career goals. Second, the planning process is a means to help participants develop the knowledge and ability to identify, evaluate, and realize opportunities.
In order for the business plan to be both a useful document and an effective vehicle for the acquisition of skills, the process by which the REAL Entrepreneurship course is taught is critical to participants' success. REAL is built on the following educational principles:
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