Rutgers Business Association Mentor Program helps individuals and groups learn about and develop cooperatives and business associations to meet their earning and operation requirements.   A team of business management consultants is equipped to provide consultations on business development, founding activities, membership engagement and early operations issues.  Business operators working in all types of industry sectors, entrepreneurs, public agency managers, and community action groups are welcome to contact BAM Program mentors to assess their association or cooperative market concepts.  Its staff works to find out how to form and strengthen a cooperative, collaborative venture or business association.

Start Up Services offered focus on

Feasibility Studies

Mentors help prospective cooperative and business association founders test assumptions before significant amounts of time and money are invested. 

Early stage, start up clients can:

• work with mentors to examine
  • Characteristics of membership and membership categories
  • Assumptions members have about earnings, available resources, market demand, pricing
  • Assumptions about the markets that exist for products or services
• work with mentors to carry out SWOT Analyses and look at
  • Strengths that support success
  • Weaknesses that could lead to failure
  • Opportunities that could contribute to successful development
  • Threats that could affect performance and growth
• work with mentors to analyze costs for benefits vs. investment of time, money and service required.
• work with mentors to identify organizational, technical and operational resources and skills needed to develop and operate the venture
• work with mentors to quantify potential levels of membership participation and commitments
• work with mentors to project early stage finances including cash flow projections