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Alumni with business roots can help entrepreneurs

How do you learn how to start a business? Trial by fire is one way, but it can help when you have some seasoned veterans on your side.

The student-run Buena Vida Coffee was fortunate to have some prominent business alumni — Jim Sartori, Bus Ad ’77, among them — who were willing to share their expertise and provide start-up funds. Sartori worked with students to help them develop a retail strategy.

“Jim Sartori and a group of ‘investors’ in the coffee project made this work, largely due to the efforts of Charles Ries (of University Advancement),” says Dr. Linda Salchenberger, former James H. Keyes Dean of the College of Business Administration. “Applied learning projects of the future will be true partnerships — students, faculty, alumni and business supporters.”

Marquette’s Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship plans to add other student- and faculty-run businesses, starting with Dr. McGee Young’s business H20Score this fall. H20Score’s focus is on helping communities conserve water resources.

“We would welcome more alumni support, especially with respect to serving on an advisory circle,” Salchenberger says.

Alumni can help by providing advice, micro-financing or mentoring to incubator residents. To get involved, contact Tina Quealy, associate director of the Kohler Center, at tina.quealy@marquette.edu. — NSE