[nabentre] New membor

[Brandon Keith Biggs]

Hello,
Many people have probably seen me on other lists, but for those who 
don't know me, I'm going to introduce myself:
I am an opera singer in training and I am living in Hayward CA. I grew 
up on a small farm and would always create little businesses to get 
money as my parents didn't believe in giving us money. Now I'm in public 
college, I've been getting more and more fed up with the whole idea of a 
public education. I have so many friends who have been forced to take 
out extra loans because either the class they needed wasn't offered, or 
it was full and the CSU would not allow them to submit a report on 
either why they don't need that class or what class they will take 
instead. I also can't stand that in the music department any way, they 
pay the teachers maybe $30 an hour and those same teachers go home and 
charge $70 an hour for the same work and at the school they are expected 
to do a ton of other jobs on top of the hours they are payed for. I 
started a music club last year and wanted to create a place where 
student tutors and maybe faculty could connect with students who want 
lessons and somewhat privately teach while remaining on campus. I was 
flatly refused while I was operating as a club entity and also, doing 
anything through a club on campus requires so much paperwork that I 
would need 5 other people just to plan one small event. I tried for a 
while to get 5 people into the music club, but the other students were 
only interested in working for money, not in a club setting!
Now I'm exploring the corporate models, leaving the whole non prophet 
CSU club entity behind. I'm reading lots of books on finance and 
building businesses, but would really love any recommendations people 
may have. I've only had one class in business and it was a class that 
introduced me to a business plan and was meant for presenting your plan 
to angels and other investors...
In order to gain support on campus from the big associated students 
corporation and the student job development center I have joined a group 
of students who would like to start an entrepreneur center on campus. We 
are in the midst of planning a start-up weekend and currently we are 
looking for presenters who can put on events dealing with:
sails, basic finance (stocks, taxes, Real Estate, business management, 
insurance...), creating your presentations for investors, finding 
investors, how to work as a business teem, how to deal with finances in 
a start-up and other start-up related topics.
None of us are business majors but all of us have ideas and the drive to 
start a business.
I will be going over seas to Italy and Germany in the fall to learn the 
languages as part of my Opera training and while I am there I plan on 
taking some more business classes, but we would like to jump in the deep 
end asap in order to generate interest and show the power of businesses 
on campus.
My parents are also in the midst of starting their own business in the 
teaching field, so we are looking for financial advisers, CPAs and other 
people to coach my family in finance. My brother is a game design major, 
so both my brother and I are going to be creating our own businesses 
when we get out of college.
My problem is that the music program at the CSU school system fosters 
the idea that you will get out of college and come right back to become 
a teacher, so they have no classes in personal finance, or basic 
business. I NEVER EVER want to become a public school teacher. So I'm 
left with becoming a contractor or a business owner.
At my last school I did take classes in the music business, so I learned 
about all the laws of the music business, the marketing strategies a 
band can use, how to read and write contracts to perform in bars, how to 
publish and copyright, how to use other people's work legally in your 
music, the different business entities and how they can be used in music 
and all kinds of basics in the music world, but nothing on how to manage 
your money, how to invest your money for retirement, how to employ 
people to work for you or any of the needed skills to survive in this 
day and age.
I am really interested in business, unlike most musicians I know, so I 
would also like to create some kind of class musicians can take that 
will go into retirement, money management and personal finance using 
music talk. But in order to do that I need to become educated myself.
So if anyone has any places I should look, please let me know!
Thank you,

-- 
Brandon Keith Biggs