Welcome to the quarterly MOBI newsletter for Winter 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!

Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine, and we send our thoughts of strength and courage. We stand with all who pursue peace and safety and those who are working to create a more just, equitable, and humane world.

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Thank you from MOBI!

We would like to take a special moment in this newsletter to remember our founder, Mr Phil Holland, who passed away peacefully in his Los Angeles home on December 26. He was 95. Phil often quoted Albert Schweitzer who said, “The only ones among you who will ever be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve others.”

It was this long held dedication to helping others, and his own successful pursuit of entrepreneurship, that inspired Phil and his wife Peggy to create an entrepreneurship curriculum in response to the devastating Los Angeles riots of 1992. They believed that the growth of small businesses would create jobs and support the return of a vibrant, healthy community. This seed of an idea grew into the My Own Business Institute, the world’s leading provider of free online entrepreneurship education.

MOBI students and alumni represent over 140 countries around the world and thousands have earned certificates from MOBI’s online courses. Phil was very proud of the impact MOBI continued to make both locally and in all corners of the globe, and he was very proud of every MOBI student and visitor to our website who took the first steps in pursuing their dreams through learning. With immense gratitude, we remember Phil and his beloved wife Peggy, who preceded him in death in 2017, and we are honored to continue his mission.

We invite you to visit our Remembering MOBI Founder Phil Holland page to enjoy a brief video showcasing treasured memorabilia from MOBI’s history along with a message of remembrance. You can also visit Our Story to learn more about Phil and Peggy Holland.

We also express our deep gratitude to all our MOBI students and readers. Thank you and be well, 

Drew Starbird, Ph.D.

If it’s been a while since you took your MOBI course, maybe it’s time for a refresh! MOBI continually updates our curriculum to keep pace with evolving industry, technology, and business trends, so we can bring valuable and actionable information to aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere.

It’s easy to re-enroll for your refresh! Just use your same username and password to access your MOBI account, and pick the current course you’d like to take. It’s that easy!  

Another great resource is the MOBI Blog for Entrepreneurs, featuring posts on a variety of business topics. View posts by date or by topic on our website.

Check out the new Entrepreneur FAQ on our website for answers to commonly asked questions such as: Is it hard to start your own business? What is needed to start a business? How can I start my own business with no money? How do I become an entrepreneur? How do I decide on the best business for me to start? Find answers to these questions and more at the link below.

Entrepreneur FAQ

MOBI Executive Director Drew Starbird, Ph.D., led a study to examine the curriculum preferences of MOBI’s website visitors using Google Analytics to investigate the influence of language and location. The research and findings were published in January by Education Sciences, a peer-reviewed open access journal published monthly by MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute). This is the first in a series of studies aimed at understanding curriculum preferences to improve online entrepreneurship education for students around the world.

Visit the MOBI blog about this study to learn more, or view the full paper, “The Impact of Language and Location on the Curriculum Preferences of Online Entrepreneurship Students: An Application of Google Analytics” here.

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 Tacoma Community College in the state of Washington.

Joyce Oswald, M.Ed., Professor, Business/Entrepreneurship for Tacoma Community College (TCC), kindly shared her thoughts for this newsletter. Tacoma Community College offers a variety of business certificates and two- and four-year degrees to students in the greater Tacoma area. Our program provides opportunities for students to complete courses in customer service, marketing, management, entrepreneurship, and global logistics. Our entrepreneurship program has utilized MOBI courses for several years, especially in our Small Business Operations course.

Why you chose MOBI? MOBI provides excellent modules that closely align with our operations course. Students gain a greater depth of understanding in important concepts of operating a small business, from accounting to ecommerce.

How is MOBI making a difference for your students? Here is some recent feedback from our students about the MOBI course: 

"Material that covers the basics of running a business and the challenges ahead." "I like the MOBI assignments, they really put things into perspective and the information is related to the discussion board assignments." "I like that this class is online and flexible." "I like how informational this class is!" "I like the way things are broken down into specific sections and that the discussions are meant to provide a way to start structuring an operations plan for any kind of business." "I like how well the course progresses and allows me to think further about the inner workings of how best to plan my business." "I like that I am learning so many new things and how the assignments are designed for us to create a business plan, skills, and knowledge that we can actually use in our future." "I really enjoy our weekly group discussions, and weekly MOBI assignments." "I like that the information provided is relevant and useful. The MOBI course provides enough information without overloading."

Anything else? Online courses can sometimes fall flat, not relevant enough content and difficult for students to engage. I've found that the addition of the MOBI modules in our Small Business Operations course has been a true asset to both me and my students.

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