Trerica Roberson
Blue & White Flash / Staff Writer
Jackson State University’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Professional Development affirmed its motto, “Where Every Path Leads to Opportunity,” on Oct. 2, at the College of Business First Tuesday Forum.
The lecture series gives business students the opportunity to interact with business entrepreneurs, top researchers, executives and managers from businesses and industries in the Jackson metropolitan area and around the nation.
Jeff Good, owner and operator of BRAVO! Italian Restaurant & Bar, Broad Street Baking Company, and Sal & Mookie’s New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint, all located in Jackson, Miss., was the guest speaker. All of his restaurants operate a full service catering business, Mangia Bene Catering, with partnerships in dozens of venues throughout the Metro Jackson area.
Good, a 1986 graduate of Milsaps College, earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Marketing Research degree and is active in the community through several civic and professional organizations.
Good said, “A business is an entity that has to be represented; if you want to have a business tomorrow then you have to represent it today.”
He also explained what it takes to write a good business plan.
He advised that when writing a business plan it’s best for your plan to be half written pros and the other half to be itemized financials.
Good described his first attempt at securing funds for his business.
“How does someone borrow half a million dollars? If you have half a million dollars in liquid assets to pledge against it, boys and girls, men and women, that is the key variable to a capitalistic society; access to capital,” he added.
Good gave the three key steps to starting a business without liquid assets to fund it:
• Network with people that have means you need.
• Asks questions and if you don’t understand, ask more questions until you do understand.
• Learn about taking on partners and limited partnership.
Students in attendance explained what they learned from Good.
Ode O. Jones, a senior entrepreneurship major said, “What I learned is, quite frankly, there are different ways to finance a business. One way is partners and the little critical details to partnership. You can still get into your market, advertise, set up venues and promote without acquiring the finances right from the beginning.”
Quincy Grant, a senior entrepreneurship major said, “I learned a lot of down home things, from the entrepreneur point of view it felt as if we were speaking one on one. It wasn’t what he was saying but what he was showing; you have to be a people person and you have to be able to connect with people of all genres male and female young and older.”
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