UPEI professor helping young entrepreneurs launch their business ideas

UPEI professor Matthew Pauley has plans to help young entrepreneurs on the Island bring their business ideas to life.

"My interest here is in micro and small business on the Island," Pauley said.

He is new to the Island and started teaching a course on entrepreneurship at UPEI's Faculty of Business in August.

Growing ideas

He's also heading up the Hostetter Centre for Enterprise on campus in an effort to encourage young people to put forward their local, small business ideas.

The centre was first established in 2009 but has been largely dormant over the last several years.

Pauley is looking to help new and aspiring entrepreneurs with coaching through the centre in two major ways.

"You come with your business ideas and I work with you one-on-one to develop a business plan around that idea," he said. "The second part is … where you start your business and then we work one-on-one with you on your business."

'A way of thinking'

Pauley has high hopes to see the centre grow and assist Island entrepreneurs thrive.

Many of the business ideas that are brought forward have a tourism and agricultural focus, Pauley said, but he wants to encourage all students on campus with their business ideas, no matter what their area of study.

"Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking," he said.

He's already begun helping 28 students and three faculty members with their business ideas — and they're not just from the business faculty.

"They're engineering students, they're from the arts — I also have one political science student who's looking to start a business," he said. "I force them to really think outside of the box and look at the whole picture."

Pauley also has his sights on developing a venture capital fund, which he hopes will be led by UPEI students.

But the project is still in its initial stages.

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