College takes over publication

By BEN PIPER

University of Southern Mississippi students got the chance to learn some lessons from multi-millionaire entrepreneurs Tuesday during the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour.

The event was held at the Thad Cochran Center on campus, with students filling a ballroom to find out more about how to start a small business and the challenges they might meet.

The university group Students in Free Enterprise, or SIFE, helped host the event, which was open to anyone in the community.

SIFE President James Wilcox said he hoped the tour brought in students from other colleges in the area.

Wilcox, a senior international business major, said the goal of the tour is education.

"The goal is really to educate in the realms of financial literacy and entrepreneurship and to make people ready for the future," Wilcox said.

Michael Simmons and Sheena Lindahl are the co-founders of the tour, which is in its second year.

Both were recently named by Business Week as top entrepreneurs under the age of 25. They also serve as keynote speakers and organizers for the event.

The tour consists of other entrepreneurs who achieved success at an early age and wanted to pass on knowledge of the challenges faced starting a small business.

Wilcox said after college he plans to stay in the Hattiesburg area to improve development in the downtown and surrounding areas.

"My desire is to do economic development in the future in the downtown area of Hattiesburg, and not just the business district, but empowering the people to let them know there's things they can do to make their lives better," Wilcox said. "Entrepreneurship can help them do that."

Zach Mansell, a freshman entrepreneurship major at Southern Miss, said he attended the tour stop because he plans on starting a business that will one day support his family.

He said while he didn't know the statistics, people with different backgrounds are successful in starting new business.

"I think a background in business definitely helps, but most people out there don't have an entrepreneurship degree or even taken a business class," Mansell said.

Mansell said he thought there are two main ingredients to having success in this field.

"If you get easily discouraged, you may not want to try doing this," he said. "You have to have drive and someone who is very creative with their ideas."

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This article was originally published in the Hattiesburg American on March 15, 2008.