Take your business to the next level

The Center for Business Innovation offers a variety of valuable resources for small business owners who want to grow including seed money, workshops, practical instruction, college-credit degrees, and certificates.

Available programs

Business Plan Competition - $62,500 awarded to top 6 winners

Turn your idea into a winning plan and earn seed money.

The Annual Business Plan Competition is open to students and alumni of CCBC who are interested in turning their idea for a new product or service into a business.

Have an idea for a new product, service or business? Submit your business plan to CCBC’s Center for Business Innovation Annual Business Plan Competition (BPC) and you could win up to $20,000 in seed money. A total of $62,500 in seed money will be award to the top 6 winners. The purpose of the competition is to encourage new businesses. The competition is designed to promote start-up ideas and economic development among CCBC students and alumni with the support of faculty and local entrepreneurs. The winners are also eligible to participate in the Center for Business Innovation (CBI) incubation network that provides support in the areas of marketing and sales, website development, technology, accounting, human resources, management as well as access to investors and creditors, which can be invaluable for any start-up.

Learn more about the Business Plan Competition » 

Small Business Ownership program – “Mini-MBA”

A 12-session series covers a broad range of subjects critical to the success and sustainability of a new or existing business venture. Experienced business professionals will guide students as they explore topics such as: Business Management Basics, Effective Sales & Marketing Strategies, Fundamentals of Business Law, Accounting and Bookkeeping Principles, and much more. Completion of this certificate program makes you eligible to participate in our annual business plan competition.

Think and Grow Seminar Series – 90-minute topical workshops

The Center for Business Innovation will feature a series of 90-minute topical workshops with an opportunity for participants to network and learn from experts in the entrepreneurial world. Past topics include Digital & Social Media Marketing, Intellectual Property in Entrepreneurship and Communicate with Charisma, Clarity and Compassion.

Entrepreneurship Classes

Earn credits and learn how to launch a business.
In addition to offering ACBSP accredited business and management courses, CCBC also offers a unique course, MNGT 216, that allows students to serve as consultants to a start-up so they can apply the principles and concepts in the classroom to a real business.

Students earn 3 credits in this unique elective. There are no exams and there are no textbooks. Instead, students evaluate each other's performance as they work in teams to help a business get started. Leading the students is Associate Professor Dennis Sullivan, who has launched more than 100 products and businesses in his career.
Why Entrepreneurship?

In nearly all of our business studies classes at CCBC, more than half of our students say they would like to start a business someday. National research supports this trend. Among Gen Y students, those between 18 and 29, the third-most common college major is “entrepreneurial studies,” according to PayScale.com.

A Kauffman Foundation report adds that there are now 2,335 full-time undergraduate and graduate programs in the U.S. to meet the growing demand for students interested in studying entrepreneurship. It’s not crazy to think that businesses can be started while taking college classes or soon afterwards.

Google, Time, Reddit, Insomnia Cookies, Fed Ex, Microsoft, Dell and Facebook were all started by their founders while still in college. All started as small businesses. In fact, 89.3% of all U.S. businesses employ less than 20 people, according to the United States Census Bureau. In Maryland, 85.2% of businesses have less than 20 employees.

Learning how to launch a product or idea is a skill that is in high demand today. One out of three employers are looking for employees who have a background in entrepreneurship, according to a survey by Experience Inc.