Chapter 11: Entrepreneurship
Grant funding is often a "one-shot"
affair. What do you do after the grant funding
ends? This chapter discusses three entrepreneurial
types of answers.
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Moursund, D.G. (2002). Obtaining resources for
technology in education: A how-to guide for writing
proposals, forming partnerships, and raising funds.
Copyright (c) David Moursund, 2002.
Section Headings for Chapter 11
Edutainment
Review Newsletter
Professional
Writer
After-School
Program
Web Page
Developer
Grant funding is often a "one-shot" affair. What do you
do after the grant funding ends? Of course, you can always
write more proposals. But, you might also want to give
serious thought to an alternative approach--become an
entrepreneur. This chapter discusses three approaches.
- Go out and start a personal business. Build on your
current areas of expertise and become an entrepreneur.
You may gain some income tax advantages in the process,
and you avoid becoming dependent on grant income.
- Use your school's facilities, students, and resources
to set up a business. Profits from the business can be
used to acquire additional facilities for the school and
to support other project ideas. This business can
continue year after year, providing a steady income
stream.
- Make use of your grant funds to develop products and
services that can become the basis for a continuing
business after the funding ends.
Starting a
Personal Business
It is very easy to start a business. Think of some
business you can start that will generate some income. Make
up a name for your business, and begin conducting business.
(Of course, the chances are that you will also want to hold
onto your current job. It can take a substantial amount of
time and investment to start a business that will provide
you with a good income.)
For example, suppose you a teacher who has the knowledge,
skills, and contacts to do staff development and consulting
in educational technology. You make up a name for your
consulting business, print up letterhead, and find a paying
client. You conduct one or more workshops which have income
and expenses. Be aware that expenses may include
subscriptions to staff development journals, attendance at
workshops on how to do staff development, and various other
professional activities related to being in that business.
The next time you file a federal income tax return, you use
Schedule C to report the income and expenses of your
business. You have established a legitimate enterprise!
There can be considerable income tax advantages to
establishing a business. If you set up a personal business
that generates income, you can use the business to acquire
computer hardware, software, books, periodicals, and other
materials. If you follow the tax laws appropriately, the
cost of your facilities and materials are a business expense
and will decrease your income tax. You can write off certain
expenses, such as travel and phone costs associated with the
business. In essence, reducing your federal, state, and
local income taxes is a resource. However, the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) is suspicious of businesses of this
sort that have little income and consistently lose money,
and may consider them to be illegal tax dodges.
If your business is relatively simple, the tax-filing
rules are also relatively simple. However, it is easy to get
into complex situations. For example, many people conduct
businesses using part of their home as an office. There are
relatively strict rules about writing off home expenses and
depreciating the part of a home used for business
purposes.
Of course, the tax-filing situation gets more complex if
you have business partners, employees, an inventory of
products, and so on. You may decide that you need a
professional accountant in these cases.
You may want to incorporate
your business. This is relatively easy to do. There are
a variety of corporate structures for small businesses.
Legal help may well be desirable and/or necessary.
A Business
Within an Existing Organization
You may want to set up a business endeavor within your
school, college, or other place of employment. For example,
you and your students may produce instructional materials
such as software and print materials. You may want to sell
these materials to students and teachers in your school and
at other schools.
You and your students might develop a product, such as an
inexpensive folder for turning in assignments that holds
both papers and a computer disk. Your students might
manufacture this product and sell it through the school
store. Perhaps your intention is that profits will be used
to buy computer hardware and software for use by your
students.
Clearly you need to check with your organization about
the details of this kind of business activity. Who actually
owns the products? Who gets the profits? Are you allowed to
use your organization's name in marketing your products?
What resources of your organization are you allowed to use?
Who faces the legal liabilities of the business? These
issues need to be carefully explored before you get
started.
Setting up a business within a school or having a school
contract to perform services is becoming increasingly
common. For example, a teacher and a group of students can
develop the skills to produce a CD-ROM or DVD, or set up a
World Wide Web page. They can contact local companies and
offer their services. They can be paid money or receive
other resources, such as computer hardware and software.
This is a "win-win" situation in which the students, the
school, and the business all benefit.
Another strategy is to use school resources and students
to go into the training and consulting business. Workshops
can be designed for teachers, parents, business people, and
other groups. These are conducted using the school's
facilities, with students playing a major role in the
overall operation.
Still another example involves the use of school
facilities and student labor to set up a desktop-publishing
or Web service bureau. This service bureau may have
students, teachers, school administrators, school support
staff, parents, and local businesses as clients. Students
running the business gain valuable experience. Indeed, the
business may be created and run as part of a course. If the
business is reasonably well run, it can generate income that
more than pays for the use of school facilities.
Piggybacking on a
Grant
Many grants are for research, materials development, or
implementation. The Resource Provider is usually interested
in seeing the grant's effect continue after funding ends.
Indeed, this is often one of the evaluation criteria in
grant competitions.
In recent years, federal agencies funding projects that
involve materials development have been particularly
interested in wide-scale dissemination of the materials.
Thus, they have come to expect that such proposals will
include a tentative agreement with a commercial company that
is in the business of publishing and selling curriculum
materials.
There are a number of companies that began by producing
and selling materials developed through federal or other
grants. You may want to begin developing entrepreneurial
ideas when you initially begin thinking about a grant
proposal. Can some component of the grant lead to the
development of materials and services that will serve as the
starting point for establishing a business?
As an example, the Math
Learning Center (MLC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
corporation with offices in Salem and Portland, Oregon. This
corporation resulted from a five-year National Science
Foundation systemic initiative grant for math education
carried out in Oregon between 1971 and 1976. A number of the
key leaders from that multimillion dollar project joined
together to form the MLC. It carries out inservice education
programs throughout the country, andit develops and sells
curriculum materials.
Some
Entrepreneurial Ideas
Edutainment
Review Newsletter
Mary notes that many of her students use edutainment
software extensively, both at school and at home. She notes
that the software varies considerably in its educational
value and is often more entertaining than educational.
She discusses this issue with her students. Together,
they decide to publish an edutainment newsletter for
students and parents. It will contain evaluations of
edutainment software, with articles discussing how to make
more appropriate educational use of the software.
Mary and her students establish an Edutainment Review
Newsletter business within their school. They sell
newsletter subscriptions to parents of students at their
school and other schools. Proceeds are used to pay for
printing and distributing the newsletter. Additional profits
are used to buy equipment for their classroom.
Mary has still larger goals. She and her students develop
a workshop that is designed for parents and their children.
She and her students write to software publishers, seeking
preview copies of edutainment software. Mary gradually
develops a number of components of her classroom curriculum
around the theme of running a newsletter, workshop, and
software preview center business.
Professional
Writer
Tom majored in journalism while in college, and he is a
skilled writer. As his knowledge of educational technology
grows, he notes that many of the articles he reads about the
subject are poorly written.
Tom begins to write educational technology articles and
submit them to paying publications. That is, he establishes
himself as a professional writer. He has expenses, and
eventually he expects to have income, both of which will be
reported on Schedule C of his federal income tax return.
As Tom's skills and contacts improve, he begins to secure
some writing contracts. For example, he contracts with his
local newspaper to report on a statewide
technology-in-education conference. Tom's travel expenses,
registration fee, and lodging are all legitimate business
expenses.
Tom expands his business still further by developing a
workshop on technical writing. His workshop is targeted
toward business employees who need to do technical writing
but have poor technical writing skills. Tom develops
workshop materials that eventually grow into a short book.
Tom desktop publishes and markets the book.
After-School
Program
Pat notes that in her elementary school, the computer
labs are not used after school, largely because the school
requires that the computer labs be supervised by an adult
when they are in use.
She decides to form a group of parent volunteers. She
obtains approval from the school administration and the
school's PTO. She and the parent volunteers supervise a
computer lab after school. Students must buy a lab pass in
order to use it. The cost is $1.00 per hour of lab use. All
proceeds from the sale of these passes go into a general
school fund used to acquire more computer facilities.
Some of the parent volunteers solicit contributions from
local businesses. These are used as scholarship funds to buy
passes for students who cannot afford to purchase them. Some
of the parent volunteers do the recruiting and training of
volunteers so that a smooth transition of volunteers occurs
from one year to the next.
Web Page
Developer
Kim teaches in a high school that is a leader in use of
computer technologies. She pioneered in getting the school
onto the Internet and then onto the World Wide Web.
Kim regularly offers a year long course on the
development of hypermedia documents and Web pages. In the
course, students work together in small teams, developing
materials for teachers in their school. It is generally
acknowledge that her students do "professional level"
work.
Some of Kim's students want to continue doing Web page
development in a second sear course. Kim contacts with
several local businesses to see if they would like to have
Web pages developed. She finds that there is considerable
interest, and that the businesses are willing to pay well
for the service. Kim makes arrangements through the school
for her students to undertake this work, and for part of the
money to be paid directly to the students. Both Kim and some
of her students get summer jobs through their business
contacts.
Activities
- Develop an entrepreneurial idea involving educational
technology that could be implemented within an existing
organization such as a school.
- Develop an entrepreneurial idea involving educational
technology that is most appropriately implemented as a
personal business.
- Examine a grant proposal that is about to be
submitted or that has been funded. Analyze it from an
entrepreneurial point of view. Can the proposed project
be used to establish a continuing business?
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