Nicholls offers entrepreneurs an outlet to expand their business

Aspiring entrepreneurs are invited to work out the kinks in their business in a professional environment free of charge at Nicholls State’s business incubator.

The Entre Lab, housed at the university’s College of Business, is open to all students. On the surface, it is free office space and a professional environment to work from, but through computer software, faculty assistance and other resources, it simultaneously assesses a venture’s feasibility.

Dr. Ken Chadwick, a professor of management and head of the Department of Management and Marketing at Nicholls, oversees the Entre Lab. He said its usage varies in number and scope.

“At one time, we had up to four or five different entrepreneurial ventures going on in there,” he said. “It has slowed down some.”

Kelsi Guidry, a 2008 Nicholls graduate in health and wellness, was one of the first students to utilize the Entre Lab. He has since relocated to Monroe and expanded his consulting and web design business.

What started as TeenWants has expanded to encompass MyWants, Media Wants, Social Wants and three other specialized divisions. Guidry said the primary task is to help people attain their goals.

Guidry has one part-time employee, and they help people who don’t have the time or knowledge to achieve their goals. The scope of assistance ranges from buying a car to building social media profiles.

“Being connected to the Entre Lab got me connected to faculty and staff,” the 26-year-old Cut Off native said. “It wasn’t just office space.”

The lab was finalized in 2007, funded by a grant written by the business college. The university made a contribution in refurbishing the lab.

The incubator consists of six workstations, which are allocated to interested students. Once the aspiring entrepreneurs attain the workspace, they have a physical office, computers, fax and copy machines, venture-guiding software, a boardroom and various members of the business college faculty at their disposal.

“It’s a fairly informal process, where the students may go ask one of their finance professors from some specific advice or they may come see me to review a draft of a business plan of some sort,” Chadwick said.

Participating students say the physical address lends a professional atmosphere, which is one of the most easily realized perks.

“It gave me a little bit more of a professional setting,” Guidry said. “The reason I approached Dr. Chadwick in trying to get into the Entre Lab was because I didn’t want to bring potential investors just to my apartment.”

Mark Foret, 44, graduated from Nicholls with a bachelor’s degree in business last May. Foret creates 3-D geometric model simulations for businesses.

“The big thing is just having the space to where you can bring customers in and you can sell your products to them,” Foret said. The available software forces aspiring business people to address important questions and vet the idea theologically, a necessary step that includes questions that are sometimes glossed over.

Some topics the software broaches: target market, pricing structure relative to competitors, location and strengths and weaknesses.

“Many times entrepreneurs will say, ‘Well, mom and dad each said they’d buy one, so it must be a good idea,’ so this business planning process requires them to be more objective,” Chadwick said.

Chadwick said he’d like to see an increase in the number of students who utilize the facility, and Guidry said he was surprised in all that was made available.

“It was a lot more than we thought we were going to get,” Guidry said. “Not only did we get space, but we had access to computers and a storage room and projectors and things like that, which was extremely helpful in starting out a business.”