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A little dose of education about entrepreneurship in the classroom goes a long way in influencing people to pursue entrepreneurship as a career path, a new study from Babson College finds.

A survey of 3,755 former alumni analyzed by some of the Wellesley, Mass.-based college's professors found that taking two or more entrepreneurship classes strongly affected students' decisions to become entrepreneurs later on.

Writing a student business plan also had some influence, though not as strong.

"We think that entrepreneurship should be taught, not only for the production and training of entrepreneurs, but also to help students decide if they have the right stuff to be entrepreneurs before they embark on careers for which they may be ill-suited," the professors wrote.

Twitter's biggest influencers on small business

Twitter has become a big force for small business people to swap lots of information with few words.

Now Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. has compiled a list of the 68 most influential small-business tweeters, the Wall Street Journal flags in this article.

D&B set out to create a Top 50 but several ties made the list grow. The proprietary formula that D&B's head of social media, Dustin Luther, used to come up with the ranking gave more weight to those with small-business followers as opposed to total followers.

You can view the whole list here.

EDITOR'S PICKS FROM REPORT ON SMALL BUSINESS

In the business of Canadiana

From maple syrup to poutine, there are certain things in this world that scream Canadian. On our nation's 144th birthday, we welcome you to meet eight quintessentially Canadian small businesses.

  • Foodies bring prized Canadian desserts to the U.S.
  • Former lawyer brews beer to the extreme
  • At White Meadows Farms, thousands of litres of maple syrup are made
  • Canadian turns love of poutine into dynasty
  • How Costa Rican cocoa ended up in Canadian hot chocolate
  • Canoe president 'like Mr. Ambassador for Canada'
  • The making of Canadian-made hockey equipment
  • In November, we profiled a Montreal smoked meat shop in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Canadian-ness of the product sets Mile End Delicatessen apart from the other Jewish delis in the neighbourhood

From the ROSB archives

The endless summer?

With the long weekend upon us, what better time to relax and recharge? For an entrepreneur, however, taking a real break can be next to impossible. In this column, Mark Evans provides four strategies for business owners looking to take advantage of the summer while taking care of business. Mia Pearson offers an interesting counterpoint, suggesting June to September is a prime time to step it up your efforts and build your brand, especially if you're in the business of 'summer.'

Got a tip on news, events or other timely information related to the small-business community? E-mail us at yourbusiness@globeandmail.com

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 27/03/24 6:40pm EDT.

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