Mission (The Why)
The Entourage is all about teaching entrepreneurship to young aspiring entrepreneurs,
providing tools and advice that work in the real world. They are big on values,
with 10 short and sweet mantras such as “Take Initiative. Don’t Wait” and “Do More With Less, Become a Master of
Leverage”. They all fall under the umbrella of “Inspire
freedom, enable greatness, change the world.”
Philosophy (The How)
Entourage founder Jack Delosa strongly believes that entrepreneurship should be taught by successful
entrepreneurs, people with a 'been there done that' experience. Jack doesn’t think that universities are able to keep up with the pace of change in the world of entrepreneurship. Everything that The Entourage does has
the aim of educating and creating a community of capable and passionate entrepreneurs.
Legal Structure (The What)
The Entourage Education Group is a Proprietary Limited Australian Private Company. In English, that means it’s a business owned by a small number of ‘shareholders’, and doesn’t sell its
shares to the public. And it’s Australian. Cool.
Stuff it does (The More Interesting
What)
The Unconvention is Entourage’s cornerstone event, a one-day carnival of big-name speakers and
outcome-orientated workshops that celebrates entrepreneurs who do business
unconventionally. It’s likely that the words ‘disrupt’ and ‘innovate’ will be
mentioned more than once, but the Unconvention is a lot more than buzzwords and
hype. More on that in a minute.
The Entourage offers a range of
education products, from the Diploma of Business (specialising in entrepreneurship) to the Launch program, Build Program and Scale Program.
Each of these is tailored to a different stage in the entrepreneurship journey,
but they’re all driven by the core ideas of learning from people with plenty of
experience in the arena, and getting out into the real world to make your
business happen. Becoming a member of The Entourage is free, although enrolling
in one of its programs or attending the Unconvention requires payment.
What it does well
Throwing aspiring entrepreneurs and
hugely successful founders into the same room spreads knowledge sharing, but
more importantly it spreads passion, and lays the foundations for meaningful networks.
I’m studying entrepreneurship at uni this year (sorry Jack), and I’ve already
discovered that starting a business is really, really hard. Stuff goes wrong
every 5 minutes, the pressure is relentless, and motivating yourself can
quickly become an uphill battle.
Sharing your passion means that it’s
still alive even when you’re having a rough day- it multiplies and expands and
energises everyone it touches. Having a network of people who have experienced
similar struggles can be the difference between sticking with your start up
against all odds and throwing in the towel like a boring, rational human being.
From the Unconvention to the
full-length education programs, The Entourage is constantly getting
entrepreneurs together to learn from each other and create a supportive
community, and I think that’s its core strength.
Room for Improvement
In
my opinion, weaknesses are almost impossible to find when it comes to The
Entourage, but I do think that by marketing to ‘entrepreneurs under 40’ they
alienate older aspiring entrepreneurs that may share the mindset and appetite
for learning of their younger counterparts. I understand the youthful and
dynamic brand is very important to The Entourage, but I think people over 40
are equally capable of risk taking and innovation.
Opportunities (Exciting stuff on the horizon)
It’s
not hard to see that this enterprise works hard to integrate its 10 core values
into every move it makes. “Live on the extra mile, good enough isn’t good
enough?” reads one of my favourites, and this mantra drives The Entourage’s
push to become a nationally-accredited Higher Education Provider in 2018, meaning it’s taking a
giant step toward becoming an actual university. This might seem a touch
hypocritical given Jack’s comments about the pitfalls of universities, but I
think it’s a bold move that has the potential to boost The Entourage’s
credibility, effectiveness and reach.
Unfair Advantage (Why it deserves an entire blog post)
Although
The Entourage’s more obvious Unique Value Proposition is in the education
department, I think its unfair advantage is the community factor.
Everything
about The Entourage feels personal, differentiating it from the production-line student experience stereotype that most education institutions face.
The Entourage is all about having fun.
It reminds you to enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship, a journey renowned as
one of the most demanding and unforgiving career paths.
Plastered across its
website are photos of people brimming with passion and excitement, along with video interviews with satisfied Entourage graduates.
My
favourite part of The Entourage’s digital profile is AskJackD,
a video blog where Jack answers questions sent in by budding entrepreneurs. I
think this episode encapsulates the purpose of AskJackD, and touches on The
Entourage’s unique aura.
A
thoughtful and inspiring blog.
 |
| Onesie day at the Entourage Office |
 |
| The Australian Startup Awards |
The
Entourage’s playful community spirit intertwines with its educational
philosophy of person-to-person learning. Sharing of expertise and passion
generates both at a phenomenal rate, and that’s why I can’t wait to see where
The Entourage goes from here.
No comments:
Post a Comment