Entrepreneurial Journey
Acton’s curriculum is designed to take students on the Entrepreneurial Journey, delivering the tools, skills, and judgment they would learn as a bootstrap entrepreneur. On this adventure, students evaluate an opportunity, launch a business, grow it, and finally harvest the profits.
At each stage of the journey, students stand in the shoes of an entrepreneur and make tough decisions. They will be squeezed by the demands of customers on one side (sales) and the need to make and deliver their product cheaply enough (operations) on the other.
By experiencing the trials at each stage of starting, building, and running an entrepreneurial venture, your students will be better prepared for their own entrepreneurial journey. They will learn to "begin with the end in mind" and survive until harvest.
Ready to launch? How will you gather the resources you need? How will you juggle priorities and the "horse race between Greed and Fear" as you strive to reach break-even before running out of cash?
If you survive, how quickly should you grow? Can you set milestones to judge your progress, guardrails to keep you on course and "bridge is out" signs to warn of dangers ahead? When will it be time to harvest your hard-earned gains? How do you negotiate the right price, with the right buyer, so the profits will be worth all of your efforts?