An inside look at the impact of the Stu Clark Centre's How to Start a Side Hustle course, where students build their confidence and practical skills
Danielle Preusentanz didn't set out to become an entrepreneur. She was helping a co-worker plan a wedding.
But somewhere between that first favour and her second booked client, something shifted. By the time the Faculty of Education student enrolled in the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship's How to Start a Side Hustle course, what had been a quiet spark became a full-fledged business, Danielle's Detailed Events.
Today, she has two assistants and is building a custom client portal to manage a growing client roster. More than logistics, though, it's the confidence she carries differently now.
The How to Start a Side Hustle course, a six-week virtual program open to UM students, faculty, staff, and alumni, was built for a moment exactly like Danielle's.
Instructor Jeff Mitchell of Lane Two has watched the relationship between people and their work transform rapidly, shaped by AI, economic uncertainty, and a generation rethinking what a career can look like.
He believes in helping people play defense – building income resilience against an unpredictable economy, as well as offence – unlocking the kind of autonomy and creative freedom that a single employer rarely provides.
The future, he believes, belongs to people who treat their careers as portfolios: a diverse mix of skills, projects, and ventures that grow with them. Thirty entrepreneurs at a time. That's exactly what the course sets out to build.
For University of Manitoba alumni Nick Kohuch, the course gave structure to something he'd been circling for a while: nojoTea, a functional wellness tea brand rooted in his passion for well-being.
After completing the course, Nick applied his learnings at local markets and generated over $7,000 in new revenue. But ask him what the course really gave him, and he doesn't start with the number.
It's a theme that surfaces repeatedly in this program. Starting something on your own is exhilarating and isolating. Mitchell is deliberate about creating space where 30 entrepreneurs can have honest, vulnerable conversations about imposter syndrome and self-doubt, the unglamorous realities that come with building something from scratch.
And the connection doesn't end when the six weeks are done. Cohort members continue meeting monthly on Zoom, long after the course wraps.
Danielle says she "genuinely looks forward to those meetings every month."
Another story that captures the course’s ethos fully is the story of Emmanuella Nti.
A Faculty of Arts student and international student herself, Emmanuella saw a gap that no one else in her immediate world was filling: the overwhelming complexity of navigating Canada's immigration system as a newcomer, without a guide.
She launched migration support and newcomer consultancy side hustle not because it was a trending niche, but because she lived it.
The course, she emphasizes, taught her something she hadn't expected: that a business can be deeply rooted in community need and still be commercially real.
From wedding coordination to wellness tea to immigration guidance, the businesses that emerge from this course are as varied as the people building them.
What they share is harder to put on a résumé: a community that shows up, a framework that works, and the confidence to back themselves.
At UM, we encourage life-long curiosity while providing tools – inside and outside the classroom – to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Empowering learners is one of the strategic themes you’ll find in MomentUM: Leading change together, the University of Manitoba’s 2024–2029 strategic plan.
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