My name is Chris Jia, a third year Bachelor of Business Administration (Co-op) student at the Goodman School of Business. Last year, I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the first cohort of the Kick-Starting Entrepreneurship Program (KSE) offered by Brock University’s on-campus business incubator. I could still recall the practicality and intensity of this training program, but on top of all information acquired, I walked away with tons of motivation and inspiration that sustain every entrepreneur’s life.
When I first heard that the KSE program application was open, I was applying for it with just an idea of starting a website design company since I had some friends who were interested and experienced with coding websites. I was very bold but innocent at the time. We registered the company name, had a logo designed, and wished to get into the local website design market where we would beat all of our competitors. We did our market research and figured out that the supply of web design services might exceed the market demand. Then we tried to turn it into something that Niagara Region doesn’t have – a website design training company. In learning the success of Bitmaker Labs and HackerYou from Toronto, we increased our research efforts to replicate the process in the local market. As the KSE program continued, we had developed our business canvas, talked to many people about our idea, fixed flaws within the business model, and got experienced mentors on board. I thought we couldn’t start testing it until we could secure some seed funding so I kept talking and talking to spread the word in hopes of a potential investor. One day, as part of the KSE program, I attended a “speed dating” type of networking event which allowed people to talk to different business leaders for their project feedback. I was asked many questions about what problems needed to be solved, who the target market is, what the revenue model is, and what resources we required to get started. I could answer them all without hesitation. Then, all of a sudden, a man named Mario asked me “Why not just try it out and see what happens?” I was stunned and reflecting on the same “Why not” question. Days later, our social media was set up, invitations were sent out, and the planning for a pilot test called “Hero Bootcamp” was on the go. I felt we did a good job running the test pilot and received positive feedback from students who attended our program. We eventually terminated the project due to market limitations but it made me realize money isn’t the most critical thing you need for a startup. Sometimes, all it takes to get started is having access to the right resources (eg. Human resources and workspace).
The KSE program had taught us various practical skills, especially through events like Kickstart Weekend and How to Improve Your Pitch. Not only had it enhanced our business theories; it gave us a great opportunity to apply it to a real world business venture. That’s what I liked about this program. It fosters actions after a thorough plan has been made. At the end of the day, a sustainable business is all about making great plans, executing them well, and evaluating to make further improvements.
