Cathie Elliott
Lecturer in Business Administration
Cathie Elliott (celliott@western.edu) is the director of the Small Business Institute at Western State College, where she has taught since 1989. She received both her undergraduate degree and her MBA from Western. Her areas of expertise include Marketing and Entrepreneurship. She owns two small businesses herself. This allows her to lend personal, practical experience to all her courses.
Through the Small Business Institute (SBI) program, college and university students throughout the United States participate in hands-on learning experiences by conducting field case studies and providing consulting services to local small business owners. The purpose of the SBI program is to provide high quality business consulting to small business clients requesting assistance while providing an extraordinary learning experience for WSC students through the field case consulting model.
High quality business consulting -- the object of Western's Small Business Institute program -- is comprised of direct contact between the student and the client, detailed analysis of the client's business, thorough research, and a useful case/project report. Each report -- the ultimate product of the research program -- is tailored to the individual client's business and embodies sound business management principles. The goal of this program is to improve the economic health of client businesses whenever possible.
