Learn how to swim with the big fish and attract top MBA talent to your small business.
Larry Weintraub knows all too well how tough it is for a small business to compete with the major players while recruiting at business schools.
Not long ago, he was encouraging a UCLA MBA student to take an internship with his social media marketing company, Fanscape, which is based in Los Angeles. Weintraub was even eyeing the student for a full-time position once he graduated. When it came down to it, though, companies like Disney and Universal were offering the student high-paid internship opportunities, and considering the staggering amount of debt most MBAs accrue, the student just couldn't pass up the cash.
"Part of his choice was not only the name, but also the money," Weintraub says. "I don't have that caliber of a name, and I certainly can't pay anything close to a big company like that."
While money and status may be important, especially at top business schools like UCLA, they're not the only bargaining chips small business owners have when they're recruiting top talent.
Rebecca Hollander is senior associate director of MBA career management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She says, in recent years, interest in entrepreneurship among Wharton students has grown dramatically.
"I think there's a certain reality of student life, but what I see from this incoming generation of students is they're aggressive in their goals," she says. "If they're dedicated to entrepreneurship, that's something they're going to pursue no matter what."
We've rounded up 10 tips for small business owners who want to break into the big leagues.
1. Familiarize Yourself With the Student Profile.
Don't waste time recruiting students who aren't a good fit for your business. Every school has its trends and strengths, so get to know which schools are producing the future powerhouses of your field by doing online research and talking to the career services office. When you can offer students something they actually want to do, you get an automatic leg up on the competition.
According to Nicole Hall, the Malibu-based president of MBA Career Services Council, 'It has everything to do with how the needs and interests of the business fit with the profile of the students at that school.'
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2. Become a Guest Speaker.
You may not be able to get on the recruiting schedule at the top business schools in the country, but you can still increase your visibility to students by getting into the classrooms. Seek out the business schools with strong entrepreneurship programs, courses and clubs and ask to speak in a class, become a mentor for the club or participate in panel discussions.
Hall says, "We've found that it's been instrumental to have alumni and professionals from the industry come in and volunteer to be a classroom speaker," adding that just because students are studying entrepreneurship doesn't mean they plan to start a business right after graduation.
"For a small business owner, it's very viable for them to find someone who can join their firm and stay there for several years before they move on to another stage in their careers," Hall says.
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3. Judge or Sponsor a Business Plan Competition.
Watching students compete and defend their business plans is one of the best ways to see them in action. You might not be able to recruit the winners - they'll be the ones walking away with startup capital to launch their own businesses - but you'll have direct access to the runners up and other qualified candidates.
According to Hall, "Those are events that usually 300 or 400 people would come out to, depending on the school. It'd be a good blended audience of students, alumni and job seekers."
At the very least, it's a networking opportunity that might prove crucial in getting student referrals.
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4. Take Part in an MBA Consulting Program.
Schools around the country welcome business owners, both large and small, to take advantage of MBA consulting. You can take your business problem to a class, and for the duration of the course, a group of students work on solving whatever the issue is. Typically, it's free to the businesses and offers business owners invaluable access to students.
Hall is also executive director of the alumni and career Services office at Pepperdine University, where she says, "We've done it very successfully with a number of small business owners, and for them, to have this extended team of 30 MBAs looking at a problem they're facing is instrumental."
Weintraub has taken Fanscape issues to Pepperdine's education to business program, and he now has three Pepperdine MBA graduates working on his team full-time.
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5. Get Targeted Referrals.
No matter how much time you spend at a school, there's something to be said for getting personal referrals. Hall says there are two ways to approach recommendations. Start with the career services office, and if they can't give you a solid student referral, they'll at least be able to point you in the direction of a professor.
