Middlesex Community College: MCC Helps Students Launch Businesses With Certificate Program

Press release from the Middlesex Community College:

Caitlin Buckley

4/7/2021

Middlesex Community College helps students achieve their goals. In Middlesex’s Launch Your Business Now certificate program, students are provided with the knowledge and tools they need to start their own business – from concept to launch.

"If you keep thinking about starting a business but hesitate – or are just not sure how to take the first step ¬– then the Launch Your Business Now certificate program is right for you,” said Stacie Hargis, MCC Associate Professor of Business. “The accelerated format drops you right into the action to get you started. Before you know it, you can be launching your business within the semester and year ahead."

MCC’s Launch Your Business Now certificate is intended for students to take an active approach in starting their business. Designed to be completed over the course of one or two semesters, the 16-week credit program also teaches students how to seek seed money – or growth funding – depending on the needs and goals of their business.

“This program was the best six months of my college investment ever,” said Romany Meas, Owner of Romany Photography. “If you are thinking about starting a business, please start with education. This combined with your hard work can lead to long-term success.”

In the Entrepreneurship and Opportunity course, students use tools and practices to evaluate ideas and business opportunities, test the viability of these opportunities, and prepare a business model to launch or strengthen a venture.

The Entrepreneurship in Action course allows students to apply a workable small business plan to start or maintain a new venture with their business model. With the choice of two business electives, students can choose from a variety of courses that best fit their business model.

Throughout the certificate program, students develop their business with assistance from weekly peer-mentoring and coaching from professors. They are able to write a business plan with financial projections and then create and deliver a 10 minute pitch of their plan. Students also prepare for a presentation to give to potential investors and funders.

“The Launch Your Business Now program was an amazing curriculum that laid out all aspects of getting your business started that I would never be able to learn on my own,” said Jessica Salani, Owner of BodyFuel Café. “The support, education and resources were exactly what I needed to help my business take off.”

There are seven scholarship opportunities available for the Fall 2021 semester to help students in the Launch Your Business Now program afford their education. For more information about the scholarships available or the program in general, visit www.launchatmcc.com or contact Hargis at hargiss@middlesex.mass.edu.

Visit www.middlesex.mass.edu/registration/ or call 1-800-818-3434 to register for MCC’s Summer and Fall 2021 semesters.

Discover your path at Middlesex Community College. As one of the largest, most comprehensive community colleges in Massachusetts, MCC has been a proven leader in online education for more than 20 years. We educate, engage and empower a diverse community of learners, offering more than 80 degree and certificate programs – plus hundreds of noncredit courses. Middlesex Community College: Student success starts here!

This press release was produced by the Middlesex Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.