TULSA – Oklahoma State University is gearing up to put budding entrepreneurs through a mental workout. Organizers of the first OSU Cowboys Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs said it will build an entrepreneurial culture and increase success rates. The OSU boot camp is designed for Oklahomans interested in launching their own ventures and those in the early stages of start-ups.

“This gives them a good foundation for being successful in venture creation and growth,” said Nola Miyasaki, the director of the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business at OSU.

Beginning Oct. 10, the $650 boot camp will be held every Saturday morning for six weeks.

“A lot of entrepreneurs don’t have time to go back to school and get a formal education,” Miyasaki said. “They are experts in a certain area and that’s how they start the business. We think this is a program that will help them be more successful.”

The boot camp will be an intense program that provides hands-on experience, packing a lot of learning into a short period of time, Miyasaki said.

Miyasaki said the boot camp concentrates on the key tools, perspectives and approaches that go into creating a viable business.

Topics that are taught during the program range from creating a solid business concept to guerrilla marketing.

“The early stage can make or break a business,” she said. “Make too many mistakes and you end up wasting time and money. We help them circle the area and start out aggressively in the right direction.”

While this is the first boot camp sponsored by OSU, the concept is not new for Miyasaki.

A similar program at Syracuse University has been run for the past six years by Miyasaki and professor Michael Morris, the N. Malone Mitchell Chair in Entrepreneurship and founder of the new Entrepreneurship Department at OSU.

The courses are taught by entrepreneur faculty members who also bring in guest entrepreneurs to provide insight on topical areas, Morris said.

“The boot camps have been hugely successful,” Morris said. “It’s so successful the people who come always ask for Bootcamp Two or the next level, which we have done in the past.”

Each class consists of 50 to 60 students.

Syracuse Bootcamp graduate Dave Daly, founder of Daly Communications, said the experience helped him make vital business decisions.

Since completing the boot camp, Daly said he added employees and increased revenue within a year’s time.

“My business turned the corner and took off because of the entrepreneurial boot camp,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for the boot camp, I’d be working more hours and making much less money.”

Morris and Miyasaki were recruited by OSU after the Spears School received the nearly $29 million gift from Malone and Amy Mitchell last year.

Morris said he believes Oklahoma is an entrepreneurial state.

“We will try and commit to the entrepreneurial renaissance in the state of Oklahoma,” he said. “To me they are the lifeblood of the economy.”