Oregon State University's Entrepreneurship Club will be having its first meeting of the year today. The club is for people who are interested in starting a business.

Tom Loika, president of the club, is excited for the upcoming year. Loika says the Entrepreneurship Club started privately last winter with a few friends who were interested in starting businesses, but they didn't have actual members until Spring 2003.

Loika has had a long time interest in starting his own business. He started the club when he noticed that OSU did not have any programs or support for students interested in being entrepreneurs.

Many of the meetings will focus around informative guest speakers.

"We want people that have done it or are in the process," Loika says. "Members are going to see what it's really like to be an entrepreneur."

The club will also provide appropriate means for entrepreneurial students to develop both their network and their networking skills.

"The business world is interconnected," Loika said. "And the earlier (students) start, the better they are in life."

Any Oregon State student is welcome to the meetings. Business majors may be particularly interested, but anyone who is interested in opening their own business will benefit from the club.

"I don't care if you are an engineer, in business ... coming up with a cure for cancer or an interior decorator," Loika said. "The Entrepreneurship Club is for someone who is motivated and has the drive. If you're not motivated to be there, you shouldn't be there."

Loika is currently working with Weatherford Residence Hall and the Austin Entrepreneurship Program. The theme for the soon to be renovated hall will be business/engineering/entrepreneurship.

The Entrepreneurship Club will play a key role in shaping the development of OSU's entrepreneurship efforts.

"We're going to have student groups in Weatherford," Loika says. "We're going to be involved in Weatherford. How it progresses; our input is going to be part of the process."

The College of Business and Oregon State University has recently hired Justin Craig to help establish one of the nation's first entrepreneurial residence halls and the creation of the entrepreneurship minor.
Oregon State is definitely helping students interested in entrepreneurship.

"The university and the College of Business has been nothing but supportive with the club and everything as a whole," Loika said.

The Entrepreneurship Club has its first meeting this Tuesday, October 7 at 6:30 p.m. in MU 211.
The featured speaker will be Bryan Sims.

"Sims is a real 20-year old college student," Loika says.

Sims is an entrepreneur who has won $8,500 at business plan competitions and has also secured $112,500 has investment capital.

He will be speaking about his business; how much work he has put into it and what it takes to be where he is right now.

"These are the type of people I want to bring into speak," Loika says. "What's he doing differently? What does it take to do that?"

To find answers to these questions and more, Loika recommends that you attend the club meetings.