Starting a Business? Start With Education : Entrepreneurship: Expert guidance is offered through low-cost assistance programs at many colleges.

The best place to start learning how to be an entrepreneur is found in that thick yellow book near the telephone. Go directly to the listing for colleges and universities and look up the nearest one’s school of business administration.

No, you don’t need an MBA degree to open your own business. But you’d be a fool to ignore the knowledge and guidance offered by nearly every school’s small business assistance program.

And you shouldn’t need to take on a second job to pay for a program. They are usually offered at reasonable rates, with evening sessions once or twice weekly over several months.

A good example is USC’s Business Expansion Network, which runs several programs in the Los Angeles area that offer training for small business owners as well as would-be entrepreneurs.

USC’s Business Expansion Network provides training and workshops on the specifics of managing a small business, focusing on such areas as marketing, finance, operations management, company organization and finding capital.

One program, FastTrac I, focuses on developing a feasibility plan for a new venture, while FastTrac II helps existing business owners grow their companies. Other programs provide technical assistance, referral services, training seminars and even assistance for owners whose businesses are disrupted by disasters, such as last year’s earthquake.

For new entrepreneurs, the nine-week, $125 FastTrac I program starts with developing a feasibility study. “We don’t talk about theory here--it’s all very practical and applicable,” said Debra Esparza, executive director of the program.

“Is there a market for their concept? What are the key barriers they need to overcome to enter? What are start-up costs? Is it feasible to get that money?”

Even more important than analyzing a business concept is determining whether or not someone is suited to entrepreneurship.

“Do they truly have the personal characteristics to manage the company? “Often, (people) coming from a corporate structure find themselves in an ambiguity with no structure,” Esparza said. “They have to see if that’s what they really want.”

She said that often, people will go through the program and decide not to spend their nest egg. “About 40% come out and say, ‘I’m not going to spend my money.’ The other 60% who want to go forward are armed with a much better reality--they are not quite as starry-eyed.”

Pattie Jones, who completed the FastTrac II program in 1993, is a good example.

“I got into debt because I was young and stupid, so I had to take my hobby and make it into a second source of income,” she said. Instead of giving away her cakes, pies, cookies and brownies as gifts, she started selling them.

“Once I paid the debt, I was working in corporate America, and I was applying for jobs in my company. But I got turned down, so I got real upset and decided to promote myself and create my own company.”

Jones stayed in her job and ran her PAT E CAKES business part-time while taking the course.

“The project that was due at the end of the course was to put together a business plan--to set a goal and a strategy. I did a three- to four-year project that included my marketing and expansion plan. It’s changed since then, and it hasn’t even been two years.”

Jones’ lawyer was among the professionals--which included accountants, bookkeepers and computer specialists--who talked to the class. “I liked him because no matter how stupid my questions sounded, he was really patient. He would call me back,” she said.

Lenders, both from banks and private companies, advised the class about how to get capital. “They educated us as to finding the right lenders for our types and sizes of business,” Jones said. “They emphasized getting a full understanding of your industry. If you don’t know what to ask for when you go out and talk to people, you don’t know if you’re getting the right thing.”

The importance of mentorship was a key element of the course. “The class helped me network with other people. Even though they were in different businesses, I learned a lot from them,” Jones said.

One mentor put her in touch with an executive at the Walt Disney Co. who advises her on a voluntary basis. “She has given me so much insight into the cycle of money and how to keep a budget,” Jones said. “There has to be a reason for an increase in one’s budget.”

Early this year Jones left her full-time job to devote all her efforts to her business. She no longer does her own baking, and instead has a commercial baker prepare her gourmet chocolate chunk and oatmeal chocolate chip dip cookies while she focuses on selling them.

Jones recently took the course-taught concept of holding onto one’s capital a step further by bartering for space in a trade show. “It’s in the mind-set of getting hold of a resource and still holding onto one’s money as long as possible,” she said.

“Every time I go back to my business plan, I could add something to it. I’m still researching. It’s a process that just goes on.”