Spring Break
The Daily OrangeEntrepreneurs create economic opportunity in South Africa
By Dan Briggs
Posted: 2/19/07, 11:03 PM EST Section: Feature
Language and cultural barriers made communication difficult. Initially, Brown and his client would sometimes run out of things to discuss while waiting for the program's transport service to return.
"But actually, I think in hindsight that helped to a certain extent, because if your client wasn't busy, you could sit there and have a liver sandwich with him," Brown said. "This other little entrepreneur down the way made these things called 'fat cakes.' It was just like a big doughnut but she'd stuff liver inside it, and Rebecca, my partner there, no way would she ever try it. But I'd go and get them, and my client would want to buy it for me, and we'd sit there and eat and chat, while you're waiting for the car to come."
An openness to new things helped Brown solidify a trusting relationship with his clients, making the consulting aspect of the program easier.
The consulting the students provide ranges from assisting with bookkeeping, to identifying potential clientele to assisting with changes in business plans. Students begin their consulting duties almost immediately after their arrival. Barring extenuating circumstances, each student visits both their clients once every week, for about four hours each visit.
The students also take two three-credit classes. In Supporting Emerging Enterprise, students learn about the context in which the program's entrepreneurs operate, as well as basic consulting practices. Entrepreneurship Field Experience, the other class, consists mostly of the consulting work the students perform.
Michael H. Morris, the Witting Chair of Entrepreneurship at Whitman, oversees the program. He expects the students to make substantive differences to the businesses they serve during the six weeks they are there.
"Probably two-thirds of these students aren't business students," Morris said. "They're from all over campus and from some other campuses. The issue is not that; the issue is you have got to be highly motivated. You have to want to make a difference, and you've got to have a sort of emotional maturity to adapt to a different cultural and social milieu."
"But actually, I think in hindsight that helped to a certain extent, because if your client wasn't busy, you could sit there and have a liver sandwich with him," Brown said. "This other little entrepreneur down the way made these things called 'fat cakes.' It was just like a big doughnut but she'd stuff liver inside it, and Rebecca, my partner there, no way would she ever try it. But I'd go and get them, and my client would want to buy it for me, and we'd sit there and eat and chat, while you're waiting for the car to come."
An openness to new things helped Brown solidify a trusting relationship with his clients, making the consulting aspect of the program easier.
The consulting the students provide ranges from assisting with bookkeeping, to identifying potential clientele to assisting with changes in business plans. Students begin their consulting duties almost immediately after their arrival. Barring extenuating circumstances, each student visits both their clients once every week, for about four hours each visit.
The students also take two three-credit classes. In Supporting Emerging Enterprise, students learn about the context in which the program's entrepreneurs operate, as well as basic consulting practices. Entrepreneurship Field Experience, the other class, consists mostly of the consulting work the students perform.
Michael H. Morris, the Witting Chair of Entrepreneurship at Whitman, oversees the program. He expects the students to make substantive differences to the businesses they serve during the six weeks they are there.
"Probably two-thirds of these students aren't business students," Morris said. "They're from all over campus and from some other campuses. The issue is not that; the issue is you have got to be highly motivated. You have to want to make a difference, and you've got to have a sort of emotional maturity to adapt to a different cultural and social milieu."
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