A week ago today I “graduated” from an entrepreneurship course called FastTrac® New Venture™, which is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation (yes, the one that underwrites NPR & PBS). It was administered by the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center (MISBTDC) in Flint.

It seems like a great program, and true to its name, it does move very quickly.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until after I enrolled that I’d rather not work for myself. (Shameless plug: Professional Redheaded Geek Girl for hire!) I’m much happier going somewhere every day and dressing like a grownup, working around people in an office environment. At least I know that about myself–I know that I’m more creative, focused and motivated when I’m around others.

Even though I didn’t have a particular business idea to be perusing in this class, I did get a lot out of it. But I also saw some areas that definitely need improvement, mainly with the lack of emphasis on the importance of marketing, PR, and leveraging new media to build their new business’ brands–the very stuff I immerse myself in constantly. (“Personal branding” wasn’t even mentioned in this course.)

There was a day dedicated to marketing (these were 5 hour sessions), and they did briefly upon the differences between marketing, advertising, and PR, as well as talk about what a brand is and is not, but the tactics and strategies mentioned were outdated, interruption-marketing style that would make Seth Godin cry like a little girl. As far as using the web, there was talk about “having a website,” banner ads, and pay-per-click (PPC), but nothing about actually finding where your prospective customers are, listening, or (God forbid) engaging with your prospective customers/community/whateveryouwannacallthem.

To be fair, there is a lot to cover in this 6-week course, so I turned to the book to see what, if anything, was said about leveraging digital.

Sadly, if all you did regarding your online efforts was what they tell you between pages 222-224 (the extent of it), you’ll have a nice, shiny, outdated Web 1.0 “brochure-ware” site.

And that’s just not going to cut it.

I thought maybe the class would recognize that the suggestions were outdated. After all, the book is copyright 2005, and a lot has changed on the web and the world of marketing since then. But in the last class, those who wanted to give a presentation about their businesses-to-be could do so, and explain how they were going to market their business. Almost every person said “oh, and I’m going to have a website” as if it were some kind of afterthought.

I can’t believe I even have to point this out, but:

Having a website should not be an afterthought–without one your business might as well not exist.

A couple of my classmates seemed to emphasize that they were going to sell their products on their websites. Not once did they really say how they were going to do that or where they were going find people to buy their stuff.

And therein lies the rub.

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