few years ago, Shawnta Shook never thought she would own a successful photography studio in Hiawassee at age 20. But that’s what can happen when someone follows her interests, instincts and her parents’ wise advice.

“During my senior year of high school, I was going crazy not knowing what to do,” says Shook. So her parents advised her to make a career out of a hobby. Always the one to document her family’s activities, the amateur shutterbug went to North Georgia Tech to learn how to become a pro, receiving an associate’s degree in photography in fall 2000.

In 2002, Shook decided to open her own photography business, so she returned to North Georgia Tech to earn a certificate of entrepreneurship. The coursework helped her plan and launch her business, Precious Memories Photography, which specializes in portrait and wedding photography.

“In Hiawassee, there are no other photographers in town, so people are finding me,” Shook says. “Business is great!”

Shook is just one of the increasing number of people who are seizing the opportunities offered by Georgia’s Technical College System to become successful small-business owners. A recent study by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government that surveyed technical college graduates who had been out of school for 10 years found that 23 percent had started their own businesses and, at the time of the survey, 78 percent of those businesses had survived. The study’s authors made a conservative estimate that recent technical college graduates had started 10,000 new businesses and created 42,000 new jobs over a 10-year period.

Starting one’s own business has always been one major motivation for people seeking to acquire technical skills, but in the past few years Georgia’s technical colleges have been incorporating entrepreneurship into the course offerings available. This steady, grassroots entrepreneurship movement is fueling community economies statewide.

“We’ve seen an increase in entrepreneurship during the recent economic downturn,” says Dr. Ruth Nichols, president of North Georgia Technical College in Clarkesville. “If our students are considering entrepreneurship as an option, we help them evaluate their skills, update them as necessary, and make a living at them.

“It’s the answer to the nation’s challenges right now,” Nichols says. “Putting people to work — that’s what we’re about.”

Learning the fundamentals
For five years, North Georgia Technical College has been helping entrepreneurs through its innovative Small Business Resource Center. North Georgia Tech is one of many technical colleges that offers a technical certificate of credit in entrepreneurship, which teaches students step-by-step how to launch a business, including instruction in determining a market niche for a product or service, exploring financial options and understanding the legal aspects of business.

“We help students do all their research, write a business plan and prepare to open their doors,” says Fran Chastain, director of the Entrepreneurial Education program at North Georgia Tech. Chastain says because of the nature of study at technical colleges, graduates are more likely to open their own businesses.

“About 75 percent of my students are straight out of other degree or diploma programs. About 25 percent come to the entrepreneurial program because they already know what they want to do, but they need help to develop their plan.”

For those students who qualify, the Small Business Resource Center can also help pinpoint funding through the Mountain Partnership Loan Fund, a federal grant administered by Appalachian Community Enterprises, a non-profit, community-based organization in Cleveland, Ga., that awards small loans to entrepreneurs.

Many of the program’s graduates have already launched businesses, Chastain says, including a dollar store, restaurants, pet store, landscape businesses and computer businesses. The college is also developing a new certificate of credit program called Small Business Owner/Operator. “This second certificate will teach small-business owners more accounting and management skills,” says Chastain.

“It will help those who have already opened their own business to stay in business.”

From idea to execution
The success of North Georgia Tech’s program sparked the recent launch of an entrepreneurship program at Augusta Technical College.

“It’s a total approach to entrepreneurship,” says Ted Duzenski, Augusta Technical College VP of economic development. The program covers financing, marketing and legal issues. The college’s commitment to encouraging the entrepreneur spirit is also evident in its involvement with the Augusta-Richmond County Small Business Incubator (see Heating Things Up).

A large number of Augusta Tech students have started businesses, says Alice Frye, Augusta Tech VP of instructional and student services, so the entrepreneurship program is well placed. Among the fields of study most likely to spawn new businesses, she says, are heating and air conditioning, culinary arts, cosmetology and early childhood education. But it’s the community support that is a vital ingredient for getting new businesses off the ground.

“Collaboration of community stakeholders gathered to support micro entrepreneurs in their efforts to develop a sustainable business helps overall economic growth,” says Duzenski. “Technical colleges have targeted their markets well by locating many entrepreneurship programs in growing communities that can benefit from stable entrepreneurial activity,” says DeAnn H. Dent of Middle Georgia Technical College in Warner Robins. “Hopefully we’ll see an increase in the small-business success rate across Georgia.”

Middle Georgia Tech offers a diploma and an associate’s degree in entrepreneurship, as well as a small-business management certificate that includes many of the elements of the entrepreneurship program. According to Dent, the main focus of the school’s entrepreneurship program is directed toward developing the business plan and managing finances, giving entrepreneurs a solid foundation in the basics of launching a business.

“It’s not enough to hang out your shingle and wait for business,” Dent says.

Sandersville Technical College developed an entrepreneurship program after conducting a survey among businesses in its five-county service area and discovering a significant interest in entrepreneurship programs, according to Jack Sterrett, president of Sandersville Tech. The curriculum of the certificate program in entrepreneurship, which was launched a year ago, includes two marketing courses, one management course and an internship. “It’s aimed at small-business owners,” says Sterrett, noting that smaller ventures dominate his service area. “But it also appeals to those who have a dream.”

Staying in business
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 230,000 people in Georgia were self-employed in 2001. Two-thirds of new businesses survive at least two years, and nearly one-half survive at least four years. However, says Linda Griffies, West Georgia Technical College VP of economic development, “There are a lot of talented people who go out of business every day.” The difference, she says, is preparation.

West Georgia Tech’s entrepreneurship success program began last year and includes a four-week session covering issues such as business start-up basics, marketing on a shoestring, understanding financial statements and developing a business plan, says Carol Schroeder, continuing education coordinator.

Tougher than teaching the basics of business is instilling the ambition and passion needed to successfully run one’s own business. That poses a significant challenge, says George Gannage, marketing instructor at West Central Technical College, which has offered a certificate, diploma and degree in entrepreneurship for many years.

“The work ethic is the hardest thing to teach,” Gannage says. “People don’t understand the hours and the dedication you have to put in the business.”

“I’m impressed with anyone who can start a business with a small amount of money and a lot of hard work,” says Jimmy Manning, Valdosta Tech’s marketing program coordinator.

“The most important things we can teach our students is what’s involved in starting a business and what the responsibilities are, particularly if you hire employees.” Valdosta Tech, which has had a diploma entrepreneurship program for many years, immerses students in practical business courses such as advertising, location analysis, financing and managing a small business.

“The thing I enjoy the most is seeing the ideas the students come up with and then helping them go forward,” says Manning.