New Entrepreneurship Program Brings Opportunities for Students

The Sorrell College of Business welcomes a big change to the Entrepreneurship Program.  

The new entrepreneurship program is being offered to inform entrepreneurship students about establishing their own business to secure their own success.  

University Relations Photo

John Robert Lewis Hall houses the Sorrell College of Business

Dr. Charla Brown, assistant professor of marketing and entrepreneurship, initiated the new program. Dr. William Gordon Miller, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, has since taken over the project and continues to establish the necessary courses and resources for students. Miller was also a student at Troy University from 2009 to 2017.  

“It’s just a privilege to be able to teach and help build a program at the school that I went to, so I’m just truly excited for the opportunities and the possibilities here,” Miller said.  

The program offers three courses to help prepare students: Principles of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Economics and Entrepreneurial Capstone.  

“I think this is a really useful course to get you exposed to an entrepreneurial mindset, the entrepreneurial way of doing things and a lot of the tangential concepts that are related to it,” Miller said. “Essentially, I want to help students learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and to some extent, I think that is the inherent nature of entrepreneurship.  

“It's the ability to deal with uncertainty, embrace it, internalize it and act even in the face of it.” 

Miller explains how his diverse background is what fuels his vision for this program. He has experience in entrepreneurship, music education, economics, human resources and campus activism. 

“I understand what it’s like to be a college student and not knowing what you want to do and even get done with school and still not knowing what you want to do,” Miller said. “What I want to do is create a system where once students have graduated, they have something else that they’ve built up that they could potentially pursue and grow.” 

The new entrepreneurship courses will be a part of the business administration degree and also offered as a minor.  

Miller expressed how he’s looking forward to seeing how students will respond to the program and seeing them embark on a journey to self-employment.  

“I'm really excited to see what students come up with in terms of some of their ideas,” Miller said. “There's several different processes and techniques we use to help foster some of that creativity, and that's a lot of what we teach and help you work through in this course.“A lot of what’s going to come out of this is going to be dependent on the students that are a part of it. I could see a lot of development in Troy but also outside of Troy.”  

Throughout the courses, students will learn persuasion tactics, sales tactics, entrepreneurship influences, branding and overall business tactics.  

Miller will be teaching ENT 3325 (Principles of Entrepreneurship) and ECO 3360 (Entrepreneurial Economics) in the fall semester.  

“I'd love to talk with anyone interested, so please reach out to me,” Miller said. I'd be more than happy to talk to you about any ideas that you might have.” 

Anyone interested in these courses can reach out to Miller by his office phone number: 334-808-6760 or email wmiller65275@troy.edu.