Have you ever wanted to start your own business but weren't sure how to make it work?
MARQUETTE COUNTY -- Three years ago, Scot Oliver of Skandia lost his job. But he wasn't about to let that setback defeat him.
A little over a year ago, Oliver and his family started A & M Café in his hometown. He cooks and his mother is a waitress and helps with the bookkeeping.
Although the café has been successful, Oliver says there were challenges he didn't anticipate when he began his business venture.
"We had built our own house and we just kind of hand drew the plans, and I thought that's what you did here,” said Oliver. “But then we found out if you own a commercial building, you have to get architect approved drawings--they have to be stamped, which we didn't really put that into our budget."
And there were other things--difficulties with plumbing and budgeting appropriately for advertising.
But while Oliver did almost everything on his own, some aspiring entrepreneurs in the U.P. are attending the N.M.U. College of Business Entrepreneurship Academy at the Jacobetti Center in Marquette. The program is geared to provide entrepreneurs with the tools they need to be successful.
It all starts with a business plan.
"In actuality, only about 30 percent of people who start a business actually do a business plan,” said N.M.U. instructor and entrepreneur Raymond Amtmann. “But the fact is that by creating a business plan, it puts you much farther ahead and gives you much more likely success."
Throughout the six-week sessions, community members and N.M.U. students will learn what guidelines should take precedence when organizing a plan unique to their business.
"It has to be realistic, and you have to develop a plan that is measurable so that you have measurable goals,” Amtmann said. “You have to have integrity and have to follow through 100 percent of the time."
Although Oliver didn't participate in a program like the academy, he recommends it to anyone who wants to take a risk and be their own boss.
"If you go into this blind like we did, you're going to run into some problems, probably more than if you knew what to look for," Oliver said.
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