People young and old are being drawn to entrepreneurship. Whether it’s the appeal of being your own boss, the flexibility in determining your own hours or the adrenaline rush that comes with the balancing act of navigating risk and reward, many individuals are eager to claim “business owner” as their
professional title.
While there will always be a level of trial and error that comes with doing something that hasn’t been done before or taking something that has been done and transforming it into something new, many tried and true entrepreneurs have worked to pave the way for the next generation of young, inspired minds. Fayetteville Technical Community College offers programming to help equip students and community members with the knowledge and skills they need to get their ideas off the ground.

Dean of Business Programs Kelly Gold and new Director of the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Ricardo Murphy spoke with GFBJ about the services, courses and new developments FTCC has to share with the community. 

FTCC currently has 84 students enrolled in its entrepreneurship program which allows participants to work towards either an associates degree or a certification. 

Courses offered through the degree program, resources through the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and programming with the Small Business Center all complement one another.

Murphy is a business owner himself which allows him to use his first-hand experience to help inform the programming he orchestrates for the community. “With me having prior experience and being a business owner myself, I think the initial startup part is often skipped… we try to get straight to making money, but not really understanding how to set up the business…social media kind of promotes this pathway where it’s so easy to get these things started, but it skips over a number of important pieces,” shared Murphy. Murphy intends to help new entrepreneurs get on the right track from day one by promoting programming that features speakers and lessons that explain the process of structuring the business in the initial startup phase so that new entrepreneurs make sure their business is “legal and legit.” Community members can participate in free 90-minute webinars that cover topics pertaining to budgeting, marketing, planning and more.

THE UPCOMING SCHEDULE INCLUDES: 

Sept. 26: Dynamite Marketing on a Firecracker Budget for Small Businesses

Oct. 3: The Treasure Hunt: Finding the Funds for Your Small Business 

Oct. 10: Creating a Winning Business Plan 

“...We get to offer these places the things that people have the hardest time with which is knowing whether they should be an LLC or sole proprietor and you know, the baseline stuff [such as] your marketing and target marketing and then your funding, so the places that a lot of businesses really have the hardest time is where the Small Business Center helps the most,” commented Gold. 

Beyond starting a business, entrepreneurial skills can help give professionals in all disciplines a leg up in the workforce. 

“…If business does what it’s always done, you’re out of business,” remarked Gold. “... In today’s market, you’ve got to change what you’re doing to keep up.” 

FTCC’s entrepreneurship courses range from the basics such as traditional marketing and leadership to broader concepts such as innovation in creativity. 

“...When you walk in the door with this background, you’re going to help make a difference in that business if they’re open to maybe changing and noticing what they can do differently…we’ve got to be looking towards the future. How do we make adjustments now that are going to make us competitive two years from now? [It’s about] seeing those things before everybody else is doing them,” shared Gold. 

Students enjoy hands-on learning experience and activities that spark productive competition. Gold shared that a favorite exercise among students is the competition modeled after the popular TV show Shark Tank where students are able to pitch their own ideas. Additionally, FTCC is working with a global university in Kenya in an opportunity that allows FTCC’s entrepreneurship students to judge which business plans proposed by entrepreneurship students in Kenya are awarded grant funding. The students will then follow up to see the process and the progress made by the awardees in their business plans.

“...This is not just about reading books. This is about being able to actively do and make decisions based on what you have learned and based on where a business needs to go,” added Gold.

Another opportunity for students and community members to connect with entrepreneurs and put their skills to work is the 1 Million Cups program. 

“We bring in a small business, and they can be very successful or they can be struggling, and they come in and present their business and then they ask for feedback, what can they do better, and then we ask them how we can help,” explained Gold. 

Feedback can range from advice on marketing to advice on ways to diversify. Meetings are open to the public and provide a great space for networking and an opportunity for people to learn from the experiences of other entrepreneurs. 

Moving forward, Murphy and Gold shared that one of the college's goals is to expand outreach to youth in the community. One aspiration is to offer a specific High School Certificate for entrepreneurship. As of now the high schoolers can take some of the entrepreneurship courses, but Gold shared that in Fall of 2025 they hope to have taken the necessary steps to provide them the opportunity to work towards certification. Additionally, Murphy shared that they are looking to bring back the young entrepreneur camp, a summer program for kids that the college has hosted in past years. 

Another event that Murphy is working to bring back to campus is the Food Truck Summit. This event invites local food truck owners or those looking to get in the business to come out and meet with the health department to learn about the process and procedure of getting a truck set up, what it takes to run and what's required. 

FTCC is actually purchasing a food truck that will be used for their culinary arts program. Gold expressed that this truck could be beneficial for the entrepreneurship program as well to help provide training in food truck management.

With the addition and evolution of programming, the goal remains the same: to provide the foundation needed for starting or growing a business.

These resources are not just for students. Community members can take advantage of the services provided by the small business center at no cost. 

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For more information about programming or to register to attend visit http://tiny.cc/ftccsbc2 or contact the Small Business Center at FTCC at ftccsbc@faytechcc.edu or 910-678-8496.