THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410220227
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Since 1988, aspiring entrepreneurs have found a friend at Old Dominion University.
ODU's Entrepreneurial Center has helped approximately 200 companies - ranging from manufacturing to electronics and software - get off the ground in the last seven years.
University president James Koch said, ``It has truly helped create or save several hundred jobs. It's a service that people could really use. The primary benefit is to the business and job creation. The secondary benefit is to the students and faculty.''
For a fee based on the time commitment of each individual project, men and women with ideas for new ventures can receive help in drafting a business plan for their companies, get help networking or referrals to other companies and receive advice, said director Dennis Ackerman, who works out of the ODU/Norfolk State University Higher Education Center in Virginia Beach.
The fee for projects ranges between $50 and $80 per hour, depending upon the scale of the project. Major projects entail anywhere from 100 to 150 hours of work; anything less than 100 hours is considered a minor project. For example, the Columbia-Presbyterian/Moscow clinic (described on D1) was a major project, for which Worldwide Medical paid fees.
Some of the other local companies that he and his staff have helped are Infinet, a Norfolk-based Internet provider; NKL Industries in Chesapeake, which specializes in electronic safes for fast-food industries; and InterLearn, specializing in technology and education projects, including the exhibits at Nauticus.
Most of the projects assumed by the center deal with some form of technology or technological transfer because funding comes from the Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon. The Herndon center, a nonprofit agency set up by the state to foster the transfer of technology to private business, supports the entrepreneurial program through a contract with ODU.
As director, Ackerman culls through about 900 referrals a year from interested business people but reviews 100 closely, referring the rest to another other organizations or individuals. From the group of 100, he signs contracts to work with about 20 companies.
This fall, the Entrepreneurial Center has started teaching a class on how to run a business in its first year. The class, operated through the university's continuing education program at the college of business, is run by J.R. Bullington, a former ambassador and director of the university's Center for Global Business.
``What we're trying to do is come up with innovative ways to show people how to come up with a business and manage them properly,'' Ackerman said.
Although he receives requests for help from international and national companies, Ackerman views his main goal closer to home.
``My job is to create jobs and tax in Virginia,'' he said. ``That's the bottom line for my program. I get calls from Maryland or North Carolina but if I don't see direct benefit to Virginia, I pass.''
Some projects, like Columbia-Presbyterian/Moscow, generate more taxes than jobs but Ackerman looks for a combination of the two. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
``What we're trying to do is come up with innovative ways to show
people how to come up with a business and manage them properly,''
said Dennis Ackerman, director of ODU's Entrepreneurial Center. The
center recently helped open a health clinic in Moscow.
by CNB