Formed in 2003, The National Institute for Urban Entrepreneurship is a Washington, DC based 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation that develops and implements legal and entrepreneurship programs supporting the growth of viable, sustainable businesses by entrepreneurs.

NIUE is a national catalyst for a culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and private sector economic growth in urban communities. Its programs not only build on the successful model of urban entrepreneurship clinical programs, but also provide a voice and advocacy for urban entrepreneurs and small business in the media, public forums, the boardroom and the courtroom (when necessary).

NIUE highlights and promotes a broader understanding of how urban entrepreneurs do in fact create viable and sustainable businesses and the best practices for seeing these ventures through from idea to reality. We commend Dr. Randal Pinkett (http://apprentice.tv.yahoo.com/trump/04/candidates/randal.html) for his powerful business illustration of urban entrepreneurship and look forward to seeing how he innovates and develops private sector economic growth in urban communities (including his own home base of New Jersey). We also commend Rebecca Jarvis, a University of Chicago alumnus with her eloquent quest to contribute her talents and expertise to entrepreneurship.

The crux of NIUE’s program lies in its experience promoting urban entrepreneurship through legal and business university based clinical programs.

● In what is widely hailed as a model for such programs at the IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship located at The University of Chicago Law School, law students provide legal advice on transactional and regulatory matters ranging from developing lease agreements to securing copyright protection, and University of Chicago business students provide help with development of business, marketing, and financial plans; and
● Also, in its recent experience with HBCU curriculum, such as at Howard University School of Business and the HBCU Summer Institute, both providing HBCU students and faculty academic models to further entrepreneurship and small business.

It’s the quintessential win-win situation:

● Students benefit by practicing the skills they learn in the classroom; and
● Entrepreneurs benefit by receiving tangible needed technical help in the critical start-up and growth phase of their businesses.

These programs provide the entrepreneurs of modest means with access to a network of resources that can help with other aspects of running a business such as generating necessary capital, organizing the business and becoming profitable. This holistic approach helps nurture individuals who have the desire to start and run their own businesses but lack the resources make their dream a reality. These programs have helped increase the number of successful businesses in targeted urban areas and improved the quality of life for these entrepreneurs, their families and their communities.

To learn more, email niue@comcast.net!