Fast Trac

Premier FastTrac® Entrepreneurial Training Courses in Michigan

One of the fastest growing areas of business enterprise is the start-up and development of new businesses. However, many new businesses fail within a few years of their start. Most of the time the reason is not a bad idea but a lack of knowledge of how to run a business. Studies have shown, however, that when support systems are in place to train potential entrepreneurs and to provide business support, the failure rate of these new businesses is significantly reduced.

The Premier FastTrac® program began over ten years ago with these facts in mind. Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) has formally partnered with the Entrepreneurial Education Foundation (EEF) of Denver, CO, to sponsor Premier FastTrac® entrepreneurial training courses in Michigan. Offered nationally for over ten years, the Premier FastTrac® program is one of the most highly acclaimed entrepreneurial courses in the country.

What is Premier FastTrac®?

Premier FastTrac® is a series of intensive entrepreneurial education courses focusing on teaching the potential or new entrepreneur or established firms the business side of business.

Premier FastTrac I is a nine week program designed to help those who are thinking of starting a business. It is an intensive course focusing on what it takes to run a business. At the end of the program the successful graduate will have developed a detailed business concept that can be used to develop a full business plan.

Premier FastTrac II is an 11 week course for the ongoing business that focuses on the essentials of a successfully run business, especially the marketing, accounting and legal aspects. At the end of the course the successful graduate will have developed or revised their complete business plan.

The courses are lead by certified instructors, often business owners who have gone through Premier FastTrac® instructor training. An important part of the program is the participation of invited business counselors who are on site to provide direct meaningful assistance to the program participants. Each class also features a guest speaker who is an expert on the topic for that evening's class session.

Premier FastTrac® training programs have been demonstrated to by very successful program, and are now available to all Michigan counties and communities that desire it. MSUE evaluations performed immediately after Premier FastTrac II courses in Arenac and Alcona Counties showed all graduates rating the program highly. The one graduate who did not give the course its highest rating explained that he would have done so if only he had been aware of the amount of work entailed. A follow up evaluation eight months later showed that all the graduates were still highly enthused by the program and what they had learned. More importantly, none of the graduates had gone out of business because of business failure.

Premier FastTrac® as a Community Effort

One of the most positive aspects about Premier FastTrac® is that it is a community effort and can become an important tool in overall community development efforts for your area. Successful programs involve not only the sponsoring organization and the program participants but a full range of community organizations, businesses and leaders working as a coalition.

A typical local Premier FastTrac® coalition will consist of banks, chambers of commerce, law firms, accounting firms, educational institutions, community and business assistance agencies and economic development organizations, local government leaders and local business leaders. Many of your coalition partners will also be funding partners providing money or in-kind services to the training effort.

Bringing Premier FastTrac® to Your Community

Bringing Premier FastTrac® to your community is not difficult. A local administrator is identified usually the county CED or Economic Development Agent. The local administrator is trained by either state or national FastTrac? staff. The local administrator works with the state coordinator to build a partnership and funding coalition, identify and train instructors and market the program to recruit candidates for the program. These efforts are assisted by a comprehensive set of marketing and administrative tools that have been developed by state and national FastTrac® staff.

Additional information can be obtained from the official Premier FastTrac® website, or by contacting either Ray Vlasin (517- 355-0215) or the MSU Extension office in your county.

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