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Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor

College of Management
Undergraduate minor

About this program

The Minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation helps students build their dreams by providing students the knowledge, skills, experience, and career opportunities to create or energize a business. Whether the dream is to start a new business, launch a career as an innovative manager within an existing organization, support a family business, become a franchisee, or build inner leadership skills, this discipline will help students achieve their economic and personal goals.

Regardless of a student's major discipline of study, these courses will help them expand their career options and competitiveness. The experiential education classes help students think like an entrepreneur, build confidence, engage in real world cases, and create their own destiny.

Taught by experts in the industry and scholars with entrepreneurial experience, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation courses are uniquely tied to the extensive entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Twin Cities and the nation. Students are exposed to a broad range of community experts that further supplement their education, career options, and resources.

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Enrolling in this program

Current students: Declare this program

Once you’re admitted as an undergraduate student and have met any further admission requirements your chosen program may have, you may declare a major or declare an optional minor.

Future students: Apply now

Apply to Metropolitan State: Start the journey toward your Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor now. Learn about the steps to enroll or, if you have questions about what Metropolitan State can offer you, request information, visit campus or chat with an admissions counselor.

Get started on your Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor

Program eligibility requirements

This minor is open to students with any major at Metropolitan State.  Students must must earn a grade of S or C- or above in courses to be used to meet pre-requisites. 

Program requirements

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor Residency Requirements:  At least 12 credits from among the Minor Required Courses, Minor Electives and Capstone must be completed at Metropolitan State.  See also the COM policies page for requirements that are common to all programs. 

Course requirements

Prerequisites

College of Management majors

Individual ENTR course prerequisites include one or more of the following:

FIN 390 Principles of Finance

4 credits

This course introduces the application to financial decision-making of mathematics, statistics, economic theory, and accounting procedures. The two central ideas are time value of money and the relationship between expected return and risk, and how these ideas are used to value bonds, stocks, and other financial securities, and to make capital investment decisions.

Full course description for Principles of Finance

MKTG 300 Marketing Principles

4 credits

This course surveys factors that marketing managers take into account when creating a marketing plan, including consumer behavior principles, market segmentation, product life cycle, packaging, branding, pricing, advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, product distribution methods and key laws affecting marketing practices. The course takes a practical approach to explaining how to identify marketing objectives and determine strategies for reaching them. It is useful to general business students, students who plan marketing management or marketing communications careers and those who wish to be better informed consumers. This course is also offered online. Prerequisite: Goal 1 writing requirement plus 30 credits must be satisfied.

Full course description for Marketing Principles

Non-College of Management majors

Students not pursuing a business major take prerequisites first, after which they can take the remaining Entrepreneurship courses.

ENTR 300 Interdisciplinary Business Skills and Knowledge for Non-Business Majors

4 credits

Interdisciplinary Business Knowledge and Skills for Non-Business Majors is designed to provide broad coverage of major business concepts in finance, marketing, accounting, and management and deep coverage of specific skills and knowledge needed as a foundation for applying that knowledge to opportunities in existing or new businesses. Students will learn how to research data within the Metropolitan State library databases to augment their knowledge and skills to evaluate opportunities and existing organizations. The students will be asked to enhance their analytical thinking by asking pertinent questions, determining relevant information, and systematically developing and applying the business processes to make decisions.

Full course description for Interdisciplinary Business Skills and Knowledge for Non-Business Majors

Requirements (16 credits)

Required (8 credits)

ENTR 400 Innovative Mindset in a Diverse Economy

4 credits

Entrepreneurship Mindset in a Diverse World provides students with an overall understanding of entrepreneurship while developing the mindset for thinking creatively, solving problems, and discovering opportunities. Students build competencies to recognize and apply innovative strategies and processes in start-up ventures and existing organizations, as well as barriers to creativity and challenges specific to groups of individuals based on gender, ethnicity, or social background. Strong emphasis is placed on understanding diverse organizational cultures and thinking outside the structured environment while dealing with real world applications. The course exposes students to concepts and principles engaged in mind mapping, adaptability, and personal assessment and self-reflection. This class can benefit students greatly in how to think and act from an entrepreneurial viewpoint which is useful for any career choice.

Full course description for Innovative Mindset in a Diverse Economy

Elective credits (8 credits)

ENTR 491 Technology Management for Entrepreneurs

2 credits

Entrepreneurs confront many challenges. Often they want merely to focus on their core business. Managing technology cost effectively to support an enterprise at start up and as it grows requires expertise that could detract from other entrepreneurial pursuits. This course is designed to help jump start the process of selecting and maintaining technology during the stages of starting and running a business.

Full course description for Technology Management for Entrepreneurs

ENTR 493 Finance for Entrepreneurs

2 credits

This course blends financial theory and current industry trends and practices to instruct students on various aspects of financing an entrepreneurial venture. Major topics include attracting seed and growth capital from sources such as venture capital, investment banking, government, and commercial banks. Among the issues discussed are valuing a company, going public, selling out, acquisitions, bankruptcy. Course format includes: case analysis, writing a financial plan, and readings.

Full course description for Finance for Entrepreneurs

ENTR 495 Developing New Products and Services

2 credits

This course focuses on new product/service development from an entrepreneurial perspective. Through case studies, interactive exercises, team and individual projects, students will learn and apply ideation and harvesting concepts, gating methodologies, opportunity analysis, pro forma and forecasting. Students will enhance their research skills and critical thinking through evaluation of new product or service ideas.

Full course description for Developing New Products and Services

ENTR 496 Writing a Marketing Plan

2 credits

This course focuses on the process of marketing plan preparation by having the students create an actual marketing plan for an individual product or service offering, a product line, or a business unit of a company. Topics include environmental scanning, SWOT analysis, market positioning of the offering, pricing, break-even analysis, sales forecasting, product placement, and promoting the offering.

Full course description for Writing a Marketing Plan

ENTR 497 Writing a Business Plan

2 credits

Writing a Business Plan provides students with practical knowledge and skills needed to write a business plan for a new business idea. Students will be able to deepen their understanding of the steps to creating a business and determine the resources needed to minimize risk and enhance the probability of creating a successful and sustainable business. Students have the opportunity to develop analytical/critical thinking and research skills through the completion of a business plan for their own business idea.

Full course description for Writing a Business Plan