Current UB/Towson MBA student Lisa Phillips heard over and over again that she had a talent for designing unique gift baskets. Her one-time hobby has now developed into a part-time business.

Her business (Celeebrate Us Gift Baskets and More) is based on an inspiring moment her own life. It all started when she was motivated to create a loving and memorable gift for her grandson’s christening. It was a gift that many people talked about, and it awakened in her some extraordinary talents.
But Phillips’s story is not that simple – some time went by before she took seriously any thought of applying her talents to an actual business. It took another awakening—this time it occurred in an undergraduate marketing class at a local university.

“We had to create a believable business for a project, and I thought: I’ll use the gift basket as my final project,” Phillips said. “I brought in baby- and Ravens-themed samples for the presentation to class, and I walked out with four orders. My professor came up to me and said, ‘You have a request for four Ravens baskets.’ There were a few football players in the class and they loved the football theme. ‘You really need to consider this as a business. You’re gifted—this is like art. You have to figure out a way to turn this into a business.’”

By the time she graduated in 2013 she’d already been in business for two years.

Still, Phillips, said, she knew that if she was going to succeed and be taken seriously as an entrepreneur, she needed to further her business education: “It just made sense to get into an MBA program to enhance my business toolbox.”

Now with a dream of franchising, she attends MBA classes with a sense of purpose and direction.

“I hope to be able to put systems and processes in place because of what I learn in the MBA. There is so much to learn about business—even how to bounce back from a failed business. The MBA is so important,” she said. “And with this launch of the [redesigned UB/Towson MBA], I’m very excited. For example, now there’s a finance class catered just to entrepreneurs. How happy was I to find that out? It’s a finance class that caters to what I need. I was so thrilled!”

Phillips is not alone in her enthusiasm. In fact, those aspects of the relaunched MBA that focus on entrepreneurship are being cited by students as especially helpful in their careers. And it’s not just about understanding the science of small business – it’s the opportunity to forge alliances, find common purposes, and so on.

“What has been so valuable in the MBA classes so far has been the relationships,” Phillips said. “We’re all pretty much working people. They give me good feedback, which I need. Being in the classroom is so different than being online. Those relationship, those friendships, I’m going to take with me. The biggest takeaway for me is that people are starting to take me and my business seriously.”

Check out Celeebrate Us Gift Baskets and More. And by the way: The extra ‘e’ is in the name because, as Phillips says, she does “extra” to make her baskets great.