Caden Beckwith ’23 — I would like to start by thanking the Center for Innovation, Business, and Entrepreneurship (CIBE) and all donors helping to sponsor the Wabash College Summer at Work Program for helping fund my internship this summer. I spent my summer as a business modeling intern at the South Bend-based consulting firm enFocus. I also must thank Roland Morin, Dr. Roy Kaplan, and Anthony Mendez ’20 from the Wabash Career Services Department for helping me to secure this awesome summer experience.
I am spending my summer doing consulting work for a primary and secondary project. My primary project is creating a business plan for an entrepreneurship center in northern Indiana. My tasks included financial projections like estimating startup costs, operating costs, expenses, and revenue sources. I also connected with potential investors and did further research on-demand validation, target market demographic, possible competition, and market size. We also interviewed our target demographic to further assess demand. In the end, we constructed a business model that clearly describes our ideas for an entrepreneurial center in northern Indiana.
I learned many things in my internship with enFocus this summer. Second, I learned how to assess demand for a business idea through interviews and research. I also learned how to pitch an idea to potential funding and how to respond to their criticism. Third, I got experience using programs like Microsoft Excel, Monday, Vision link, and Google Slides. Fourth, I learned basic accounting skills and how to create a strong business model. Fifth, I learned how to work in a professional environment. Sixth, I networked with many important people in South Bend.
I would like to thank the Career Services Office for all their help in securing this internship. I also need to thank enFocus for extending the opportunity to me and making this summer a great one.
