There’s a reason why firms pay top money for MBA interns from some of the top schools across Europe and the U.S. They’re worth it. So the question is… how can you capitalize on what large established companies such as Goldman and McK have known and used for years?

Well, here’s the good news. On average entrepreneurial interest in MBA programmes is high, and annually approximately 10% of MBA’s go off to start companies on their own or join start-ups. Figures differ from school to school and when approaching a MBA programme it’s advisable to see what the school specializes in. NYU Stern for example is known for Finance, whereas IE in Madrid is known for Entrepreneurship.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

That said, get involved with the school, call up the school’s entrepreneurship club, see what activities they have planned and see if you can participate. MBA’s are hungry to know what the life of an Entrepreneur is like, some of the trials and tribulations you’ve gone though, issues that you’ve had with acquiring funding and so on and so forth.

If you’re and earlier stage entrepreneur MBA’s are a fantastic source of critique when it comes to your business model.You can often have them analyze it, dissect it, and present their findings for next to nothing.

When it actually comes to getting an intern. The best thing to do is present your company at the school. Many professors will happily invite you to speak, and if for whatever reason you’re not able to book a class, then the school’s entrepreneurial club will be thrilled to have you. Also, be sure to advertise your position with the school’s career services. They’ll add you to the database, and will in all likelihood include your offer in their weekly newsletter as well as their online application system.

GETTING TO KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU

When it comes to the interview there are a few major things to remember, and while they may seem obvious we’re still going to mention them.

• Treat current students as equals. Nothing is wore than heading in for an interview and having the interviewer ask you to sing your favorite song (true story from a Forture 500 company interview, in fact why don’t we call them on it as this type of practice should stop, it was TechData), and after all you’ll be working with them for a few months.
• Ask questions to see the way the person thinks. Being a start up, you’ll be working closely together, and culture, fit, mix, whatever you call is about the most important thing in building your team.
• Pick someone that compliments you. It’s easy to hire someone just like you and with a similar background. See where your lacking, what can you improve on, and what area of your business needs the most attention, and get the person who can do that job right.

GETTING TO HOPE YOU LIKE ME

Once you’ve chosen your candidate and shortlisted two more be sure to give them an offer that’s fair. If you’ve been funded, offer them a salary. It doesn’t have to be a Morgan Stanley salary, but try and offer something. MBA’s know that you’re short on cash, and they’ll be appreciative of the fact that you can pay them.

If you haven’t been funded and can’t offer cash incentives, be frank and say so upfront. But do express what you can offer, knowledge, insight, networking, day to day entrepreneurial experience.

Did we miss anything?

While entrepreneurship as a whole is a fairly central topic to most MBA curriculum and a good number of schools have entrepreneurship clubs that organize minor events, and amongst other things panel discussions with successful entrepreneurs. A few programmes have taken their involvement with the entrepreneurship community to the next level.

LBS is one such school where it’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Speaker series focuses on bringing in successful entrepreneurs who students can learn from, INSEAD is another with the Global Entrepreneurship Forum will feature a close look at the global trends in angel investing, fire pitches by leading entrepreneurs searching for funding, a panel discussion on effective entrepreneurial leadership and the announcement of an initiative to celebrate INSEAD’s leading entrepreneurs.

At ESADE in Barcelona the entrepreneurship club has organized the “Quest for Talent” a conference inviting not only growth companies to attend and look for top talent form the region’s top MBA programs, but also, strongly focuses on MBA students interested in entrepreneurship as well as on startuppers seeking partners – overall a novel and innovative approach.

In the U.S. schools have been doing this for some time now, the Stanford business plan competition is among one of the most recognized in the country, and MIT’s commitment to entrepreneurship with it’s Entrepreneurship Center, 100k Competition, Executive summary contest, and the b. plan contest goes far and beyond that of other institutions of the same caliber. Though whether “twitch” is a good idea or just more hogwash around twitter is yet to be seen.

It’s safe to say that the collaboration between enterprise and academia initiated by student initiatives is on the rise. But what is more important is the initiative that can be seen at an event such as Quest for Talent and its focus on growth companies. Considering the need for expansion in human capital as well as market, there is a clear need for growth companies to hire and bring on MBA’s to take the reigns and lead those companies forward – and likewise MBA’s should look for jobs within growth companies aside from your typical blue chips, banks, and consultancies. Why? Reason being – more of an active stake in the role, more of an impact on the company as a whole, and of course a possibility of options. If that company goes M&A, or IPO – it means a big cash payout.

Academia is great, and understanding basic as well as advanced business concepts will undoubtedly help any entrepreneur in their journey towards launching the next top startup. However, there has been a recent trend among MBA programmes to focus a more of their coursework on entrepreneruship.

This coursework predominantly focuses on business plan writing, scalability and a lot of the things that we talk about here at f3fundit which in concept is not a bad thing, learning from others best practices and others mistakes gives us a leg up on the competition, however, what it does not do, and never will do, is substitute the real life experience that one gets from actually “doing it”.

Moving from Teaching to Doing

After all, reading every book in the lexicon on football, does not make you a good footballer, you have to go out there and practice, practice, practice. The same goes for entrepreneurs.

In the current academic spectrum, schools and professors are too preoccupied with teaching students theory, rather than having them do. The focus needs to shift to a more hands on approach. The question is how?

As start uppers will tell you, they are always underfunded, don’t have enough time, and are understaffed. The last of these is where the academic and real life – entrepreneurial words need to bride.  Here we don’t mean summer MBA internships at startups, we mean active participation throughout the course year for credit.

Managing Expectations for Startup Internships

Students interested in entrepreneurship need that hands on experience, and truth be told, three months is simply not enough to learn what a student needs to. This bridge also needs to act as a tool to manage expectations of MBA’s and startup jobs.

You’ll find that a majority of top 10 MBA students will have egos, however, the start up process is decisively different than working for even an established SME. While the student may have expectations that he or she will work on strategy formulation, the reality may be that for two weeks the team may spend long hours doing nothing more than making cold calls, or even data entry. Being bootstrapped means that every penny counts and hiring three people at €8/hr to do data entry for three days is sometimes just not an option.

This is something that unfortunately the academic approach lacks, instead of a reality that oftentimes sees longer work hours than investment banking or consulting, the picture is painted that the start upper is an engine of innovation, and that securing financing is something relative to being in California in 1998 and starting a dotcom, whereas the real picture is more attune to a Mad Max style post apocalyptic grind. Which truth be told makes it fun.

Implementing Change

Implementing change is never an easy task especially within institutions that have over time developed bureaucracies and have long embedded traditions and employees with a certain mindsets. One method, that does however prove effective in stimulating change among learning institutions are alumni and current students.

As schools rely on alumni donations on expanding, and as many of the alumni from business schools are or were entrepreneurs their voice should hold mettle among the administration. On the other side of the spectrum, business school students need to actively inform administration of their desire to participate in more hands-on initiatives instead of solely focusing on academic learning whether it be case, or technical, as neither is a satisfactory substitute for “just doing it”.

Free Startup Consulting?

So you’ve got a problem, there’s a process and you just can’t seem to understand how to get around that process while keeping that something vital to your business model. You talk to your partners, they’re stumped as well, friends and family can’t help, and colleagues just don’t have the time to devote to the problem.

What do you do? Get a consultant. Sounds great except for the fact that these guys can charge a couple of hundred an hour and as a startup the last thing you have is a a few spare grand laying around that you can throw at someone who may not be able to provide you with an adequate solution. But there is good news.

And that good news is you’ve got access to consulting clubs and entrepreneurship clubs at universities and MBA programmes. Most majour cities will have at least one university that has a good enough MBA programme, and those students who are in those clubs will be more than eager to tackle any real world entrepreneurship, or consulting issues you may have. Why? Simple, it’s real world experience, and they’re learning from the real – day to day – problems of your company. Not only that they’ll be able to slap that bit about helping you on their CV’s and it’s sure to look good.

But aside from just contacting a club and saying “hey, I’ve got this issue” – turn it into something more, propose presenting your company to these students, and then pose your problem, ask them how they would fix it. If you’re a non-business type entrepreneur where you’ve just recently learned about i.e. business plans & P&L’s, but know how to say… rectify colon cancer (no pun intended), then the business help from these lads and ladies may be exactly what you need and are looking for.

Why not hire a MBA intern?

There’s even a chance that the person you’re pitching to could spend a few good months over the summer with you getting you an your company ready to pitch to the right people. If the relationship between your company and the school and some of the students is a good one, consider hiring a MBA intern.

In terms of a consulting club, this is a bit of a different approach as these guys are going for the MBBB (McK, Booz, BCG, Bain) group, and you should pitch your problem as a possible project for them. They’ll get hands on experience, and you’ll get a report that otherwise would have cost you a nice chunk of change.

Remember, as entreprenerus, we have to be resourceful, and utilize those resources around us effectively, and efficiently. Business schools are a great place to find those resources, the students are motivated and yearn for hands on real world experience. Why not give them what they need?

If interested in working with MBA’s – or if a MBA and interested in working with Startups – contact us – info @ f3fundit.com – we’ll put you in touch.

Do you need a MBA? If you’re a startup entrepreneur the most important thing is knowing the ins and outs of your industry. If you’re starting something new in publishing, know publishing, if you’re starting something new in biotechnology, know biotechnology, if you’re starting a new service that offers someone something, know that something and those someone-ones. Get it?

But what if you just happen to have a damn spiffy idea but don’t know the industry? You could of course try and get a job, lear everything you can, and then take the plunge – or you could simply just go get a good business education.

Why? Well the skills you pick up at a MBA are invaluable and will give you the necessary skill set to effectively tackle any problem, but only that, a MBA changes the way you approach problem solving and business in general. In all it’s a wonderful tool for anyone to have. This isn’t saying that a MBA is the end all answer to all business problems, but it sure is the next best thing.

However, even if you are a specialist in your industry, it doesn’t mean you have good business acumen. Let’s take an example of a group of engineers that developed an iris scan for a mobile phone platform. The initially decided to market the product through an app store directly to the population.

But the question begs, what on earth will the average Joe need an iris scan on his mobile for. In all likelihood nothing, but who may – the military, enterprises, biotech, etc…

Thing is, this group of engineers were excellent at what they did, but when it came to business, they didn’t know a business model from a hole in the wall.

So did these guys need a MBA? As individuals maybe not, you could clearly see that they had a passion for technology more than business, but one thing is certain, a MBA in the team would have been able to align them, point them in the right direction, save them what we can only assume were hours trying to formulate a distribution strategy that was faulty from the onset.

So to answer the question we started off, do I need an MBA. No, you don’t, but it would be a pretty good idea to get one, and if you’re not passionate enough to get it yourself, get someone on the team with one. Remember, the team that founds any project should complement itself.

If you haven’t taken a MBA class on Entrepreneurship, chances are you won’t know where to start, and with the hundreds of pages out there telling you that you can get a sample business plan for your business for only 39.95 that may or may not be good we figured we’d save you the time and money and check this, give it away for free, and something that’ 1/2 way decent on top of that, this outline has time and time again won and been featured in bplan competition finals.

With that, your guide to writing a business plan. Step by step, links to Wikipedia for terms that may be foreign to non business types. Enjoy!

BUSINESS PLAN

Legal Company Name, Names of Partners

Contents

1. Executive Summary.

• 1.1. Introduction.
• 1.2. The Idea.
• 1.3. Sales and Marketing.
• 1.4. Opportunity Assessment.
• 1.5. The Team that will exploit the identified opportunity.
• 1.6. Strategic Investor.
• 1.7. Summary of Financials.

2. The Opportunity.

• 2.1. Introduction.
• 2.2. Summary of Sales and Marketing.
• 2.3. Opportunity Assessment – Market Overview & Trends.
• 2.3.1 Opportunity Assessment & Trends.
• 2.3.2. Market Overview of _whatever industry you’re getting into_.
• 2.4. Segmentation.
• 2.5. Positioning.
• 2.6. Product Strategy.
• 2.7. Pricing Strategy.
• 2.8. Distribution Channel Strategy.
• 2.9. Communication Strategy.

3. Operations.

• 3.1. Identification and Map of Processes.
• 3.2. Analysis of most relevant Processes.
• 3.3. Location.
• 3.4. Technology Development (if any).
• 3.4.1. Technology Implementation (if any).
• 3.4.2. Development Framework of Product (if any).
• 3.5. Hardware Infrastructure (if any).
• 3.6. Subcontracting.
• 3.7. Inventory Management.
• 3.8. Investments + main Cost Drivers.
• 3.9. Launch Plan.

4. Organizations and Human Resources (HR)

• 4.1. Organizational Structure.
• 4.2. Personnel needed.
• 4.3. Job Descriptions.
• 4.4. HR Policies: Selection, Management, Compensation.

5. Financial Plan.

• 5.1. Financial Hypotheses/Assumptions.
• 5.2. Pro Forma Income Statement.
• 5.3. Pro Forma Cashflow Statement.
• 5.4. Pro Forma Balance Sheet.
• 5.5. Financing Need.
• 5.6. Sources of Financing.
• 5.7. Financial Feasibility: BEP Ratios.
• 5.8. Sensitivity Analysis.
• 5.9. Key Financial Charts.
• 5.10. Valuation.

6. Legal Aspects.

• 6.1. Protection and Issues of Intellectual Property Rights.
• 6.2. Standards and Regulations (market specific).
• 6.3. Insurances & Responsibilities.
• 6.4. Social Security.
• 6.5. Fiscal Obligations: Taxes.
• 6.6. Official Documentation.
• 6.7. Legal Structure.

7. Company Growth and Development Strategy.

• 7.1. Company Growth Strategy.
• 7.2. Risks, Problems and Assumptions.
• 7.3. Exit / Payback Strategy.

Appendices: Illustrations, Process Design, Website Design, Functionality anything else you believe is relevant.

—-

If you have any questions, let us know. And we’ll do our best to answer them.

“Xavier Flores (ESADE MBA, ‘09) is one of the founders and the Managing Partner for Latin America and Europe for The XV Global Development Group, a Barcelona-based company that develops strategies and provides support, investment and fund-raising for the international growth of Spanish SMEs through our global network of trustworthy collaborations and strategic alliances”

For many, business school provide knowledge and experiences that go beyond books and lectures, for others who have no interest in business school this knowledge can be hard to attain, and often results in years of on the job learning. However, that’s not to say that when winding down after a long work session you can’t hone your skills in some of the more vital business material that can help you better manage your startup.

Although the recommendations here do not cover all possible subjects included in most MBA programs, they do complement many of the topics learned in Business Schools around the world. Here is a brief description of some film-supported teachings that every budding entrepreneur should learn.

Subject: Entrepreneurship

Startup.com: (2001; Directed by Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim; Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, Tom Herman, Kenneth Austin, et al) Topics covered: Finance for entrepreneurs, capital raising, growth management, entrepreneurship skills, team building, management skills…

Catch Me If You Can
(2002; Directed by Steven Spielberg; Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks) Topics covered: Entrepreneurship skills, creativity and innovation, perseverance, business vision, personal sales techniques, entrepreneurial funding sources…

Lord Of War
(2005; Directed by Andrew Niccol; Nicolas Cage, Bridget Moynahan, Jared Leto, et al) Topics covered: Entrepreneurship skills, emerging markets, creative problem solving, crisis management, negotiation techniques, building customer loyalty, competitive strategies, geopolitics…

Subject: Finance

Wall Street
(1987; Directed by Oliver Stone; Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, et al). Topics covered: Corporate finance, portfolio management, capital markets, investment law principles, mergers and acquisitions, company valuations, business ethics…

Rogue Trader
(1999; Directed by James Dearden; Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel, Yves Beneyton) Topics covered: Derivatives, corporate valuation, financial reporting, capital markets, emerging markets, business ethics…

Subject: Human Resources Management

The Office – v.UK
(2001; Directed by Rick Gervais and Stephen Merchant; Rick Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook, et al). Topics covered: Personnel management, recruitment, crisis management, empowerment and delegation, employee appraisals, corporate culture, multi-team integration, sexual harassment, non-discrimination policies, conflict resolution, negotiations skills…

Twelve Angry Men
(1957; Directed by Sidney Lumet; Henry Fonda, Edward Binns, Lee J. Cobb, et al) Topics covered: Negotiations techniques, persuasion methods, conflict resolution, consensus building…

Office Space
(1999; Directed by Mike Judge; Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman, Gary Cole, et al) Topics covered: Corporate culture, mentoring, career development, leadership, work-life balance, personnel retention, team-building techniques, management of information technology…

Subject: Corporate Strategy

The Godfather Trilogy
(1972, 1974 & 1990; Directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Rober deNiro, et al). Topics covered: Competitive strategies, key personnel retention, corporate take-overs (friendly and hostile), alliances, mergers and acquisitions, corporate succession, long-term corporate diversification…

The Usual Suspects
(1995; Directed by Bryan Singer; Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, et al) Topics covered: Leadership consolidation, power and influence, long-term business strategy, collaboration, risk-and-reward compensation, entrepreneurial skills, innovation and creativity, consolidation of branding, marketing, operations and logistic planning and execution…

Subject: Accounting and Financial Reporting

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
(2005; Directed by Alex Elkind; Peter Coyote as Narrator) Topics covered: Accounting reporting (basic, advanced and innovative), consolidation of reports, off-shore diversification, off-balance sheet accounting, agency problem, business ethics…

Subject: Marketing and Sales

How To Get Ahead In Advertising
(1989; Directed by Bruce Robinson; Richard Wilson, Rachel Ward, et al) Topics covered: Marketing strategy, advertising know-how, market segmentation, branding…

The Devil Wears Prada
(2006; Directed by David Frankel; Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, et al) Topics covered: Branding, sales techniques, importance of print media, career development…

Thank You For Smoking
(2005; Directed by Jason Reitman; Aaron Eckhart, J.K. Simmons, Robert Duvall, et al) Topics covered: Public relations, marketing and advertising campaigns, crisis management, corporate communications, effective negotiations skills…

Glengarry Glen Ross
(1992; Directed by James Foley; Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, et al) Topics covered: Sales techniques, customer relationship management, negotiations and deal closings…

Subject: Law

The Merchant of Venice
(2004; Directed by Michael Radford; Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, et al) Topics covered: Contract negotiations, mercantile law, risk assessment, business law principles…

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(1964; Directed by Stanley Kibrick; Peter Sellers, Geroge C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, et al) Topics covered: International relations, geopolitics, influence and leadership…

Subject: Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics

Erin Brockovich
(2000; Directed by Steven Soderbergh; Julia Roberts, David Brisbin, et al) Topics covered: Social responsibility, sustainable business models…

Rainmaker
(1997; Directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, et al) Topics covered: Social responsibility, business ethics, business law…

Think there’s something vital missing? Let us know.