Welcome to the quarterly MOBI newsletter for Spring 2022.  Each quarter we reach out to our alumni and readers to share important highlights from Santa Clara University’s MOBI program.  We hope you will enjoy these updates and continue your relationship with MOBI on your path toward entrepreneurship!

We continue to stand with those who pursue peace and a more just, humane, and sustainable world.  Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine during this time of war, and to all as impacts of the pandemic continue to present challenges around the world.

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Thank you from MOBI!

This summer MOBI introduces our FIRST Badge Short Course!  The MOBI Sales & Marketing Badge Short Course is now open and ready for registrations!  Visit our Course Login page to enroll!  Designed to allow students to focus on one particular area of interest at a time, MOBI Badge Short Courses include seven sessions, less than half the number of our full courses, to help you achieve your learning goals in steps that work for you.  There is no final exam in MOBI Badge Short Courses.  Each session has a quiz and students who pass all seven quizzes with 80% or higher earn a digital badge for that topic. 

The MOBI Sales & Marketing Badge Short Course includes these seven sessions: Marketing, Communication Tools, Ecommerce, Digital Marketing & the Marketing Funnel, Selling Skills, How to Talk About Business: Business Storytelling, and Marking Ethical Decisions.

Just like all our courses, MOBI Badge Short Courses are entirely self-paced, accessible on any device with internet access, and best of all, free!

Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business alumni Malika Singh BS ’21 and Chantel Allegakoen BS ’21 recently launched their new app, “Locals Insight,” an idea inspired when the two coincidentally studied abroad at the same time in London.  The co-founders talked with MOBI about their entrepreneurial journey and shared nine tips for entrepreneur success in this April 11 guest blog post.

Choosing a business location is a key decision for entrepreneurs.  Depending on the type of business you are starting, you may choose to work from home, from an office, or maybe something in the middle, like a coworking space.  Coworking spaces provide office space, meeting space, and shared resources to workers for a monthly fee.

Coworking spaces can be a great solution if you prefer the energy and motivation of an office environment but aren’t quite ready to lease a full office on your own.  In this blog post, MOBI’s Trish Kalbas-Schmidt lends her expertise to discuss the pros and cons of coworking spaces for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and remote employees alike.

We are so proud of the accomplishments of our MOBI students around the world.  Each quarter we will share the story of one MOBI entrepreneur.  This quarter we feature Linda D'Argenio of The Learning Co-op in New York.

In the summer of 2021, Linda D’Argenio was looking to establish her own independent online tutoring and translation agency.  She had over 20 years of professional experience as a world language teacher at K-12 schools as well as colleges, and she wanted to transform her expertise into a new career.  Read this quarter’s MOBI Success Story to learn how MOBI helped this educator in New York shift her career to offer language expertise in a new business.

MOBI partners are an important part of the MOBI program!  By forming partnerships with diverse communities of students around the world, MOBI can inspire entrepreneurship in ways that best meet the specific opportunities of each group, and always for free.  This quarter we feature MBDA/Asian Inc.

The San José MBDA Business Center, operated by ASIAN, Inc. at the behest of the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency, provides technical support, such as access to capital, contract opportunities, and certifications to increase the participation of minority-owned businesses in the nation’s economy.

Why you chose MOBI?  We partner with MOBI on various programs – the most recent program is the Dream Fund, a program of the California Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development, which provides a one-time grant funding to new business owners who have completed an intensive training and consulting regimen.  MOBI enhances our existing training programs with its full-fledged self-paced digital curriculum without prerequisites or time limitations.

How is MOBI making a difference for your students?  For the Dream Fund program, the students take advantage of MOBI’s well-rounded curriculum in English and Chinese, as well as the user-friendly platform to access resources and communicate with the instructors.

Anything else?  We are extremely excited to launch the Chinese-language curriculum with MOBI this summer, where entrepreneurs with limited English proficiency can finally take advantage of virtual space to acquire knowledge to build and grow their business systematically.

Do you know an organization or school that might be interested in partnering with MOBI?

Here are some highlights from the past few months.

MOBI highlights one theme every week on our social media platforms.  We post blogs, videos, lists, and articles on a variety of topics relevant for aspiring entrepreneurs.  Based upon reader activity, here are some top stories from the past quarter. 

We wish you good health and all the best in business success!

The MOBI Team