MOBI Newsletter Spring 2023

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July 14, 2023

News from My Own Business Institute

MOBI Newsletter - Spring 2023

Welcome to the quarterly MOBI newsletter for Spring 2023. 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!

Feel free to opt-out of this newsletter by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom. Para leer este boletín en español, haga clic aquí.

Thank you from MOBI!

MOBI Student Success

In this season of graduations we wanted to highlight some of the recent MOBI entrepreneurs who have shared their stories with our readers. It is inspiring to learn about incredible people who have used MOBI’s free entrepreneurship education to chart a new career path. This spring our MOBI Success Stories page has been honored to add three stories across diverse industries.

Lynda Starr Music is the story of a gifted songstress and entertainer who pivoted to podcast sound design to pursue an emerging market opportunity and bring her talents to audiences in a new way.

Savvy Grinds LLC was founded by Samara Stewart and two partners to purchase a coffee shop franchise after she was inspired by the delicious coffee, strong company values, and friendly service of a shop she discovered during the pandemic.

Posh Gals Social Club is Desiree Panther’s new selfie museum to be opened later this year, transforming her social media hobby into a business venture and giving her community a fun new entertainment experience.

Visit MOBI’s Success Stories page to learn about all our featured MOBI entrepreneurs! To submit your own success story, complete this questionnaire online!

Submit Your Success Story

#MOBIGrad Selfie Opportunity

Speaking of MOBI success stories, when you finish your MOBI course, you receive a “Congratulations” email which provides information about how to download or access your Certificate of Completion and/or digital badge. In addition, we’ve now added a link to a survey that allows you to upload your #MOBIGrad Selfie for a chance to be featured on our Instagram channel.

In case you missed it, or completed your course before we added the survey, here it is for your quick reference!

Congratulations to all MOBI graduates and others celebrating graduations and achievements at this time!

MOBI Featured on The Small Business Edge Podcast

The Small Business Edge provides advice and insights to guide small business owners and startup businesses on a wide range of topics, and its podcasts provide listeners an opportunity to hear directly from experts to overcome common challenges and obstacles they face in business. In a recent episode of The Small Business Edge podcast, host Brian Moran spoke with MOBI’s Trish Kalbas-Schmidt in an episode, entitled, “Is MOBI the Secret Sauce to Starting a Business Today?”

Click here to listen.

Learn more about The Small Business Edge by visiting: https://smallbusinessedge.com/

Partner Spotlight

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 the Management Training and Advisory Centre (MTAC) in Uganda. We extend our gratitude to Gilbert Junior Buregyeya, Lead, Research & Consultancy at MTAC for providing this MOBI Partner Spotlight.

MTAC is a body corporate under the Ministry Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC). The Centre was inaugurated in 1964 as a project of the Government of Uganda (GOU) that was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the executing agency was the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The successful project was subsequently transformed into the MTAC, which was established by the Management Training and Advisory Centre Act, 1969. MTAC’s core mandate is to promote enterprise development and sound management practices through training, advisory, entrepreneurship development services and business. Over the years, the Centre has been instrumental in assisting industry and other economic sectors in improving management practices and, more critically, assisting Ugandans to become entrepreneurs and job creators.

MTAC's Mission is to improve management performance and promote enterprise development through training and consultancy. MOBI is currently being used under the MTAC Enterprise Development Department and in the Job Creation and Entrepreneurship Awareness Training program.

Why you chose MOBI? MTAC chose MOBI because it is a reliable online platform where our staff and students can access great content, read at their pace, and get certificates. We were happy with the mode of delivery and the content which complements the training that MTAC is already doing. MOBI provides self-paced courses which allows students and staff who have busy schedules to take courses, read, and do the tests at their own time. The support provided by the MOBI Team is equally awesome.

How is MOBI making a difference for your students? MOBI is yet another awesome added resource to MTAC! Previously, our community had been requesting online courses and long distance learning, which we are now able to provide with MOBI. MOBI initially served as a pilot test, which created excitement in our community. With the appreciation coming in, we are happy to report that our community is not only exposed to international standards but also has a chance to learn and acquire practical knowledge that will complement training MTAC has been providing. We are looking forward to more great courses, more learning, and great impact in areas of entrepreneurship and business development.

Anything else? MTAC looks forward to a long-term partnership with MOBI and Santa Clara University as a whole with more courses and other engagements that will help our communities to be better in areas of entrepreneurship, business development, and management and research.

Visit our Partnerships Page for more information, to submit a Partnership Request, to view some of our inspiring partners, or to view our Partner Comparison Chart.

Visit Partnership Page

Special Events:

Here are some events from the past few months.

St. Aloysius Graduation

On June 8, MOBI Partner St. Aloysius College (Autonomous) Institute of Management and IT (AIMIT) in Mangalore, India held its annual Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) of MBA graduation, presenting students with MOBI’s Starting a Business Certificates. MOBI and St. Aloysius began their partnership in 2015, it was MOBI’s first partnership. Since then, more than 1,500 St. Aloysius students have received a MOBI Certificate including over 200 this year. We are honored by this incredible partnership, and we congratulate the St. Aloysius students on their achievement!

MOBI Spring Advisory Board Meeting

MOBI’s Spring Advisory Board Meeting on May 15 was an extra special event this year as we were honored to host two of our incredible partners. Jim Spencer from the Bluefield Economic Development Authority (BEDA or MyBluefield) and Jesus and Stephanie Flores from the Latino Business Foundation Silicon Valley (LBFSV) attended the meeting and shared information about their programs and their participants as well as their perspectives about entrepreneurship and economic development within their communities. We are so grateful for our partners and opportunities to collaborate in new ways. Thank you very much to our special guests for joining us!

MOBI Student Intern Graduates!

MOBI is proud of the achievements of all our students, and the students from SCU who support our efforts as our MOBI interns have a special place in our hearts. Senior Leandra Couto will soon graduate with a degree in Communications from the College of Arts & Sciences. Leandra has contributed to many projects here at MOBI including partner course support, graphic design, and especially communications. Leandra is a true MOBI ambassador! Congratulations Leandra, we wish you the very best!

Leavey School of Business Turns 100!

The Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business turns 100 this year. While business education had been a part of SCU since 1854, and was formally founded as a business school in 1923 with the announcement of the College of Commerce and Finance. To learn more about LSB’s incredible history and the centennial celebration events, visit the press release here. MOBI’s Jill Martin and new SCU MOBI intern Yareli Cruz Arreola pictured with "100" balloons at the Leavey School of Business.

Year-End Prize Recipients

We were delighted by the extra effort of all MOBI’s students in finishing their 2022 courses by the reset on February 1, 2023 and give a special shout out to those students who finished by December 31, making them eligible to receive a special gift. Some of the 2022 Year-End Prize Recipients include: Elissa (NY), Michael (CA), Rhoda (SC), Susan (NM), Byron (IL), and our three featured MOBI Success Story students above: Samara, Lynda, and Desiree. Thank you to all MOBI students for supporting our annual program reset!