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JCCC Faculty Receives Grant for Family Business Class
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Johnson County Community College
Press Release

College Information and Publications
913-469-8500
Julie Haas, Director, ext. 3120
Peggy Graham, Writer, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, Sports Information Director, ext. 3122

4/23/07
Story by Peggy Graham

JCCC Faculty Receives Grant for Family Business Class

Barbara Millard OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Sixty percent of family businesses don’t make it to the next generation, according to Barbara Millard, Johnson County Community College assistant professor, entrepreneurship. That’s why Millard wants to use a $5,000 grant she was awarded by The Coleman Foundation to develop a Family Business class.

Using an innovative formula, Millard will integrate a five-week non-credit class for family business owners with a 16-week class for credit students. Topics specific to family business owners include succession planning, estate planning, governance procedures, policies about who can work in a family business, compensation, non-family management and strategic planning. Millard also plans to work with the Small Business Development Center at JCCC to continue follow-up sessions for family business owners after the class is completed. Plans for ongoing SBDC support for the family business owners include formal sessions, like expert speakers, and informal networking sessions on how to make a business last from generation to generation and how to help the last generation let go of the business and retire.

Millard was awarded the $5,000 grant after the 2007 Coleman Elevator Grant session, so named because presentations can not exceed three minutes. In her “elevator” pitch, Millard said funds would be used to organize focus group with family business owners, secure speakers for the pilot series, promote the program in the community and develop a model that can be used in other community colleges throughout the country.

She cited the fact that although the Kansas City metro area was home to approximately 52,000 businesses, there is currently no programming in Kansas City focused on family business.

The Coleman grants are made to project directors at community colleges and small (less than 3,000 enrollment) four-year schools to fund entrepreneurship projects. Millard received the grant at the end of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Conference and the beginning of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference.

Prior to joining the faculty at JCCC in 2005, Millard worked at the University of Missouri Extension SBDC as a business specialist for 13 years and as a textiles and apparel management specialist for the preceding 10 years. Millard received the SBA Women in Business Advocate of the Year Award in 1997, SBA Home-based Business Advocate of the Year Award in 2001 and National Association of Small Business Development Centers Missouri State Star award in 2005. Millard earned a bachelor’s degree from Framingham State College, Mass., master of science degree from the University of Tennessee and master’s of business administration degree from Baker University.

For more information about the Family Business class, contact Millard at 913-469-8500, ext. 4792, or e-mail bmillard1@jccc.edu .