UF workshops to help local entrepreneurs

Gainesville residents who want to start a business can get a crash course in entrepreneurship at a workshop starting Saturday.

UF’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center will hold the first session of Gator Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs, a weekly six-session program that aims to help local residents who need assistance in jump-starting a business. It will be held at Gainesville Regional Utilities’ Administration Building’s Multipurpose Room from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

All six days cost a total of $600, said Michael Morris, a UF professor at the center. Those who cannot afford the workshop can apply for scholarships on the center’s website.

Morris said he expects between 40 and 50 people to register online for the sessions. UF faculty from Warrington College of Business will teach the workshops.

At least one guest speaker each session will discuss an experience relating to that weeks’ topics, he said. These include “Bootcamp Basics: The Entrepreneurial Dream” and “Operations and Other Fundamentals that Matter.”

Morris said he hopes the event becomes a tradition that helps Gainesville entrepreneurs.

“I think it’s increasingly the goal of a modern university to be engaged with its community,” he said. “One has to look at universities not as just learning center, but as agents of economic and social change.”

Alex Ramos, a UF economics and business administration senior, said he thinks having Warrington professors teach the sessions will help those who attend.

“(They) teach the courses in a way that makes it relevant to the business world today,” the 22-year-old said. “They stay up-to-date with everything that’s going on.”