Introduction

In February 2009, The Network Journal partnered with the National Minority Business Council, Inc. (NMBC), to establish an Entrepreneurship Boot Camp targeting individuals transitioning from employee to entrepreneur and early-stage entrepreneurs. A 12-hour course of instruction and engagement, the Boot Camp focuses on creating successful business or social entrepreneurs. Its instructors are business veterans who themselves have made the successful transition from employee to entrepreneurship.

The Boot Camp coincides with President Obama’s recognition and encouragement of the spirit of entrepreneurship. “In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted -- for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom,” the president said in his inaugural speech in January.

Today, in the face of the challenges confronting the global economy, it is small businesses, including minority-owned enterprises that are being turned to for long-term solutions to revive these ailing economies. Long recognized by political and business leaders as the engine of growth for the economy, small businesses--and by extension the entrepreneurial sector--is where much attention is expected to be paid.

In structuring the Entrepreneurship Boot Camp program, serious consideration is given to the state of the current U.S and global economies and how these realities are changing the roles and attitudes of today's business as well as social entrepreneurs.

Benefits of participating in the TNJ/NMBC Entrepreneurship Boot Camp include a one-year subscription to The Network Journal; six-month membership in the NMBC, which was established in 1972 as an organization of business owners; networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs; and continued access to the instructors.