Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

FTCC Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, providing the foundation you need when you’re serious about starting or growing your business.

The FTCC Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship offers a variety of in-depth courses, such as the proven Ice House Entrepreneurial Mindset® and REAL Entrepreneurship® programs, with new programs to be announced for the Fall of 2020.

“You can’t teach a kid to ride a bike in a seminar.”

David Sandler

Founder, Creator & former CEO of The Sandler Selling System

The courses offered by the CIE are hands-on workshops where you learn by doing, and then applying those skills to your business.  These are serious programs for serious entrepreneurs… but they are also a lot of fun! Both the Ice House Entrepreneurial Mindset® and REAL Entrepreneurship® are approved by the NC Community College system as options for selected business courses.

Most importantly, these programs have helped thousands of entrepreneurs in all types of industries start or grow their businesses.

The FTCC Center for Innovation & Small Business is offering two new programs for entrepreneurs. The REAL Entrepreneurship & Ice House Entrepreneurial Mindset courses. Both of these programs have helped launch thousands of strong businesses, and both earn credits towards your degree, if that interests you.

REAL Entrepreneurship PLUS®: The ‘nuts and bolts’ of starting and running a business.

In 8 weeks, you could be in business and ready to pitch for funding.

REAL Entrepreneurship PLUS® is the fast track to turn your business idea into a reality.

By the end of this course, you can be in business, making sales and seeking funding.

Classes begin Tuesday, September 20th at 6:00pm at the FTCC General Classroom Building Room 108/114. Thursday sessions are online from 6:00pm – 9:00pm.

From its North Carolina roots, the REAL Entrepreneurship program is now helping entrepreneurs and businesses around the globe. (The headquarters are still in Cherokee, NC.)

REAL began in 1985 and has helped thousands of North Carolinians start or improve all types businesses… ag and food businesses; arts and crafts; retail sales; consumer services; business-to-business companies… what you do and learn in the REAL program applies to every business. 

Tuition and all materials are only $125! This also includes the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile ®, to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses so you can build a winning business. You’ll receive feedback on 14 discrete scales, seven characteristics that distinguish entrepreneurs, and seven skills that are critical to entrepreneurial success. Create an action plan to leverage your entrepreneurial strengths and target areas of development with the 67-page development guide.

This is a hands-on workshop where you learn by doing. Applicants will be polled or interviewed so the course materials can address their most pressing concerns. The course is taught by Certified REAL Entrepreneurship instructors from the FTCC Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Certified EMP Facilitators, and other Subject Matter Experts.

You will also receive 2.7 CEU’s and a certificate upon completion of the program.

Register now to reserve your place. For more information, contact the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at 910-678-8496 or innovationcenter@faytechcc.edu. 

Get an Entrepreneurial Mindset with the Ice House Methodology

• Have you ever had an idea for a business but never got it started?
• Do you need to put some new life into your established business?

No matter what sort of wizard you might be in your given profession, or how good you are with QuickBooks, it doesn’t matter if you don’t think like an entrepreneur. 

In the late 1950s, Glen Allan, Mississippi was a poor cotton community where opportunities seemed limited and resources were scarce. For most, the work was in the fields where the sun was hot, the days were long, and the wages low. Yet, there was one man who saw opportunity where others did not—an unlikely entrepreneur named Cleve Mormon—the man who owned the Ice House.

In every community, there are “Ice House Entrepreneurs”— ordinary people who have no particular advantage over others, yet somehow, they manage to succeed. What sets them apart? How are they able to recognize opportunities that others overlook? What is it that enables them to overcome obstacles and rise above their circumstances to reach for a better life? And more importantly, what can we all learn from them?

Inspired by the life story of Pulitzer nominee Clifton Taulbert and the influence of his Uncle Cleve, Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur is the companion text to the Ice House Entrepreneurship Programs—experiential, problem-based learning programs designed to inspire and engage participants with the determination and perseverance of an entrepreneurial mindset. Ice House participants learn from a diverse array of real world, “unlikely” entrepreneurs who have embraced an entrepreneurial mindset.

Ice House has now inspired and engaged students and educators as well as business, government, and nonprofit leaders around the world in the fundamental aspects of an entrepreneurial mindset and the limitless opportunities it can provide.

The classes are held at FTCC’s Main Campus. Successful completion of the Ice House program will earn an Ice House Certificate and, with credit for prior learning, may be substituted for BUS 139. This highly interactive program will be led by experienced entrepreneurs who are also Certified by the Entrepreneurial Learning Institute as Ice House Facilitators. Access to the online Ice House materials and tools is provided.

Even if you never start a business, these “8 Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur” will help you be successful no matter what career you’re in.

For more information, contact the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at 910-678-8496 or innovationcenter@faytechcc.edu.

The Ice House Entrepreneurial Mindset® and REAL Entrepreneurship® programs are led by Kent Hill and a team of Certified Instructors and Facilitators. Each member of the team is an active business owner and a subject matter expert.  For example, Sebastien Braxton, CEO of The New Life Challenge will guide students through their business model development; Nicole Cicchini, President of Fox Bookkeeping & Business Services, will assist students with their chart of accounts and basic bookkeeping skills; and Candy Sugarman will during counsel students on their marketing plans. Other subject matter experts will be guest speakers as needed.  Each member of the team brings unique skills and first-hand experience to help students achieve their goals.

For example, the foundation of Kent Hill’s career was built during his years in the marketing department of The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. He won numerous company and industry awards for the innovative and effective sales and marketing campaigns he led.

Kent then took over the reins of a key marketing department at the Kellogg Company headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan where he introduced several highly successful new programs including sponsorship of the US Olympic Team and a NASCAR race team.

After a few winters in Battle Creek, Kent returned to his Southern roots, earned his MBA at Emory University and bought a boutique consulting firm. For 15 years, he and his partners helped boost the bottom-line for clients ranging from Coke, Kellogg, CNN and Porsche, to much smaller (but equally invigorating) clients in a wide variety of industries. In his “spare time” he also launched (with partners) several small businesses and taught marketing and entrepreneurship as an Adjunct Professor in the Executive MBA and MBA programs at Stetson, Oglethorpe, Western Carolina and Mercer Universities.

After the consulting firm was sold, it was time to “give back”.  Kent was drawn to FTCC’s Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Small Business by the opportunity owners of new and established businesses, and especially to assist Active Duty Military, Milspouses and Veterans achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.

“I made a lot of mistakes in the six businesses I started, so my goal is to help fellow entrepreneurs and business owners avoid what I had to learn the hard way”, Kent said recently. “Starting or running a business isn’t easy, but business owners can take advantage of the flexible and affordable entrepreneurship support right here in Fayetteville.”

Kent and the team look forward to working with you.  Contact them now at InnovationCenter@faytechcc.edu.