REAL's Mission and Vision

The REAL Entrepreneurship Mission is to develop entrepreneurial talent through action learning and to foster the creation of sustainable enterprises.

The REAL Entrepreneurship Vision is a healthy, vibrant economy in which small business and successful entrepreneurial activity plays a vital role, where people develop the skills they need for productive participation, and where all people with entrepreneurial interests and aspirations have access to high quality entrepreneurship education.

Since the REAL program began in North Carolina in 1985, over 12,000 entrepreneurs have received intensive training and more than 500 high school, post-secondary, and community-based organization educators and administrators have participated in REAL Entrepreneurship’s professional development seminars and week-long Institutes.

In addition, over 1,500 entrepreneurs, bankers, accountants, and other professionals have provided assistance to REAL Entrepreneurship participants and graduates through REAL’s Community Support Teams. This reinforces REAL Entrepreneurship’s community-driven model of fostering a culture of support within communities for entrepreneurship.

REAL Entrepreneurship is a subsidiary of The Sequoyah Fund, Inc., a Community Development Finance Institution committed to lending and training for small businesses. The Sequoyah Fund, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is located in Cherokee, North Carolina. Sequoyah Fund purchased REAL Entrepreneurship from NC REAL, Inc. in 2015.

Program Goals

 

Because youth and adults enter the program with differences in motivation, maturity, resources, and other elements of "readiness" to become entrepreneurs, the emphasis on specific goals may be different in high schools, post-secondary schools, community-based organizations, associations, from class-to-class in a particular setting, and even from student-to-student within the same class.

Understanding the relative importance of the program goals is critical to establishing appropriate expectations for your program's outcomes.

The goals of REAL Entrepreneurship are to help students:

  • Identify and develop entrepreneurial talent
  • Increase self-awareness and understanding
  • Develop critical thinking and life skills
  • Learn about the local community and identify opportunities within it
  • Develop business knowledge and skills
  • Experience a comprehensive planning process
  • Produce business plans
  • Create and/or expand viable enterprises

Desired Outcomes

What does getting REAL mean?

The REAL Entrepreneurship course is designed to help participants develop skills, expand their knowledge, and create tangible products - including new enterprises. A summary of these three areas follow:

SKILLS

REAL Entrepreneurship gives participants opportunities to develop skills which increase their likelihood of success as entrepreneurs and which better equip them for life and the world of work, regardless of their ultimate career choices. We have received ample feedback from students who chose not to start a business, but who nonetheless found the skills they learned in REAL Entrepreneurship made them better employees. These skills include:

LIFE SKILLS: Abilities related to living an effective and successful life

  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Working effectively with others
  • Problem-solving
  • Communication
  • Understanding the world of work
  • Operating effectively within organizations
  • Personal empowerment and effectiveness
  • Using numbers, data, and technology
  • Business effectiveness

OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION: The ability to recognize favorable circumstances

OPPORTUNITY EVALUATION: The ability to measure and analyze opportunities for their feasibility and practicality, including:

  • Self-assessment
  • Community analysis
  • Industry analysis
  • Market analysis
  • Financial analysis

OPPORTUNITY REALIZATION: The skills required to seize opportunities, including:

  • Opening an enterprise
  • Managing time and resources
  • Getting and keeping employees and customers
  • Managing assets
  • Operating legally and ethically

KNOWLEDGE

REAL Entrepreneurship seeks to increase participants' knowledge in the following key areas:

  • SELF: personal attributes, attitudes, needs, goals, and capacities, especially as they relate to career choice
  • PLANNING: effective planning strategies and process for business and other undertakings
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP: the personal and professional realities of owning and operating a small business
  • BUSINESS: marketing, operations, and financial management
  • LEGAL REQUIREMENTS: permits, licensing, taxes, and other necessities of operating a small business legally and ethically

PRODUCTS

REAL Entrepreneurship students create a number of products, including:

  • JOURNAL: a documentation and evaluation tool that chronicles the process of analyzing self and community, planning an enterprise, and writing a business plan
  • ORAL PRESENTATION: several opportunities for oral presentations in front of peers which culminate in the presentation of the business plan to an audience beyond the class itself
  • BUSINESS PLAN: a comprehensive and substantive document which addresses an identified business or market need, is based on research of the local community or broader market, and is written for a significant enterprise, economic in nature, including for-profit and for-cause (nonprofit) ventures and projects
  • VIABLE VENTURES: businesses, community services, or projects which students implement themselves or offer (in the form of completed business plans) to other entrepreneurs, agencies, or organizations for implementation

Educational Principles

 

The development (and potential execution) of a business plan for an enterprise of the participant's choosing is the central project of the REAL Entrepreneurship course. It is the primary vehicle for achieving REAL's desired outcomes.

First, the business plan is an end in itself - a detailed "road map" for an enterprise the participant may open and operate, depending upon its feasibility. It may include elements of a "life plan" describing steps the student will take to achieve his or her career goals. Second, the planning process is a means to help participants develop the knowledge and ability to identify, evaluate, and realize opportunities.

In order for the business plan to be both a useful document and an effective vehicle for the acquisition of skills, the process by which the REAL Entrepreneurship course is taught is critical to participants' success. REAL is built on the following educational principles:

  1. Students and instructors work together on enterprises that reflect student needs, desires, and concerns.
  2. In order to infuse the process with student choice, design, revision, execution, reflection, and evaluation, the role of instructor is that of facilitator, coach, team leader, and guide, rather than "boss" or "sage on the stage."
  3. The instructor ensures the academic integrity of the program by creating opportunities for students to master certain basic competencies during the presentation and execution of the business plan.
  4. Student action, rather than passive receipt of processed information, characterizes work in the REAL program. The process emphasizes peer teaching, cooperative learning, and teamwork.
  5. Students connect with their communities and market, and they work with individuals and groups outside the classroom environment.
  6. There is an audience for student work beyond the instructor. The audience may include individuals, small groups, or the community at large, but it must be an audience the students want to serve, engage, or impress.
  7. REAL's course content builds progressively toward established goals, allowing students to apply and benefit from past experience as they acquire new knowledge and skills.
  8. REAL instructors model entrepreneurial attitudes by implementing policies and practices that allow students to think and work creatively.
  9. The REAL course provides participants with ample opportunity for conscious, thoughtful reflection on their work.
  10. The program includes constructive, honest, ongoing evaluation of skills, knowledge, and changes in student attitudes.

© 2016 The Sequoyah Fund, Inc. All rights reserved.