INDIANAPOLIS
Like many Americans, Aaron Lifford and Jessica Keckhaver dreamed of running their own business.
But they were still students, both sophomores at Indiana University at the time.
So last December they sought the advice of a mentor Donald F. Kuratko, executive director of IU’s Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and set out with $500 saved from part-time jobs, a little help from some friends and a lot of nervous energy.
“It was a learning experience, that’s for sure,” Lifford said. “We knew we wanted to start a business. So we sat down, put our heads together and figured out what we wanted to do.”
Less than a year later, the temporary staffing service the 20-year-olds co-founded Prodigy Staffing Solutions has more than 100 part-time employees, is compiling a growing list of clients and is now on track to earn $150,000 in projected revenues about triple what their business plan anticipated.
Though it’s difficult to track the exact number of student-run businesses, numbers of young entrepreneurs are on the rise, experts say, and interest among colleges and universities in teaching entrepreneurship also is increasing.
Worldwide, 3,000 colleges and universities teach entrepreneurship, Kuratko said, with at least 2,200 courses being offered at any given time. That compares with just a handful of schools that taught the subject two decades ago.
