Wharton center holds class for entrepreneurs

While many University departments continue to ask what they can do for the community, the Wharton Small Business Development Center has already found an answer. According to Center Director David Thornburgh, the center will once again offer a series of classes to local entrepreneurs dealing with "business, negotiating skills" and other issues. "The program is designed for owners and managers of small companies," Thornburgh said. "A firm that is four or five years old does not have much business training." He said the program, which offers a certificate to those who complete six classes over the course of two years, has been offered in its current form for three years. Roger Goff, a past participant in the program, said the program "is beneficial because you get to interface with other participants as well as the facilitator." Goff, who owns a local environmental consulting firm, said his company has been linked with an MBA student as part of one of the center's other programs. The center's programs help entrepreneurs with a variety of business techniques. "The courses I took helped me with selling, marketing, and understanding procedure," said Carl Bailey, who owns a Philadelphia business that produces custom-made neckties. Bailey, who has earned a certificate from the center, said that participating in the program taught him "how important it is to have a business plan -- it gave me a better outlook." He said that although he has taken courses throughout the Philadelphia area for many years, getting an actual certificate "gives me a certain amount of credibility and makes me feel comfortable on a certain level dealing with business people." For Bailey, the certificate he earned through the center is as valuable to the success of his business as any course could be. "You can be an entrepreneur and you can make money," Bailey said. "But in our society if you don't feel as if you've reached a certain level, it will end up hindering you." According to Thornburgh, the program was originally offered in cooperation with the College of General Studies, but was recently taken over by the center to "organize the program in a better way and to give it a better identity."

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