Due to the high volume of applications for this minor we are unable to process your application immediately. However, we will place you on the waiting list. To join the waiting list, please follow the steps outlined in the learning agreement.

Attending the Building your own Business minor will help you explore your entrepreneurial ambitions and even kick-start your own company, which is especially interesting when you choose to do an entrepreneurship graduation project after this minor.  

Do you want to apply for this minor?
Check out the step by step on our website. 

Explore your entrepreneurial ambitions and work on your own business idea with the help of experienced entrepreneurs and team coaches.

What’s in it for me?
Attending this minor will help you explore your entrepreneurial ambitions and even kick-start your own company, which is especially interesting when you choose to do an entrepreneurship graduation project after this minor.  

From start to finish, you will lay out your individual development as an entrepreneur (your Drive). This will be supported with one-on-one guidance from your coach.

• You are able to translate the overall business challenge into a business case.
• You understand processes of ideation, generating a variety of alternative solutions to specific problems, or responses to opportunities.
• You are able to select a business case from the options generated. Based on viability (financial plan), desirability (marketing, sales) and feasibility (organisation, value network).
• You are aware of your personal development in relation to entrepreneurship.

• The Building your own Business minor is intended for students who are in the fourth year of their programme. You choose this minor if you are a motivated, proactive young professional, with an entrepreneurial mindset.
• The minor is entirely in English. Bear in mind that you will be working long hours. Most weeks you will have lectures in the morning and time to work on your projects in the afternoon.
• Propaedeutic certificate obtained.

You will be assessed on successfully completing the following: 

• Boost Camp – challenge and Team up for Business challenge (5 credits)
• My Dream – individual project (20 credits)
• My Drive – individual project (5 credits)

Competencies

Inspiration phase: 

• Identify and apply qualitative trend research
• Identify and apply qualitative and quantitative research on market segmentation (TAM, SAM, SOM), identify competition and sector/value network. Qualitative and quantitative customer and preference research; human-centred design research, personas, customer journey

Ideation phase: 

• Idea finding and idea production
• Creative skills
• Creativity in organisations
• Prototyping and prototype testing scenario thinking

Implementation phase:  

• Develop, create and test online marketing, concept statements, value network analysis, financial management, pricing strategy, revenue modelling

Drive: 

• Develop entrepreneurial competencies, creative and entrepreneurial skills in order to generate and produce new initiatives for businesses, among other things, reflection, planning, goal setting, leadership, risk-taking, networking, and teamworking skills

Topics
In the Building your own Business minor, you will learn how to carry out market and customer research, how to develop a business plan, and in what creative and resilient way to market your product.  

Your Dream (read: My Dream) is central to the programme. You will work on your own business idea by attending classes, workshops and Q&As with experienced entrepreneurs, and weekly team meetings. You will also have regular one-on-one meetings about your personal development with your Drive coach. 

The first few weeks 

• The minor starts with a boost camp. In two weeks’ time, your team will tackle a challenge related to setting up and/or running a business.
• After that, you will dive into a business challenge in which your team works on a real challenge for an entrepreneur or company (3 weeks).
• You will have classes on practical entrepreneurship, covering topics like administration, import and export, and networking.

My dream
After the first few weeks, it is time to start your individual project. In recent years, students have come up with all kinds of business ideas, such as a vegan lunch spot, a jewellery brand and a new video game. In twelve weeks’ time, you will go through the design circle: inspiration, ideation and implementation.  

In the inspiration phase, you do desk and field research. You explore how to grasp the voice of a customer, what trends there are in the market and you initiate and perform research to explore business case options.

In the ideation phase, you try to look at alternatives and come up with other creative ideas. You dig through all the research data to come up with several good ideas.

In the implementation phase, you work on your marketing and financial plans. The final product is your plan, which you present to your lecturers at the end of the minor. 

Halfway, ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’ takes place with guest speakers and Q&As. Just search on Google for Loeihard, Sassybot or Twirlbound to get an idea of company visits. You will also attend several external workshops of your choice, for example sales, marketing or sustainability.

What’s in it for me?
Attending this minor will help you explore your entrepreneurial ambitions and even kick-start your own company, which is especially interesting when you choose to do an entrepreneurship graduation project after this minor. From start to finish, you will lay out your individual development as an entrepreneur (your Drive). This will be supported with one-on-one guidance from your coach.

Structure of the minor
This minor has three major elements:

• Boostcamp and Team-up-for-Business; to get started and get into the world of entrepreneurship
• MyDream; to really explore the business side of entrepreneurship
• MyDrive; to explore the personal side of entrepreneurship

The business side of the minor follows Tim Brown’s design cycle model: Inspiration, Ideation and implementation. The personal development side of the minor takes place over the course as a whole.

Teaching methods
Interactive tutorials, coach meetings, business simulation, milestone meetings and guest lectures

International context
Business cases focusing on an international business challenge