A serial entrepreneur and former executive at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has launched his own institute in Charlotte to provide young adults an alternative to the traditional college path.
Joel Wiggins, founder of the Charlotte-based Wiggins Institute of Entrepreneurship and Life Development, has always had an entrepreneurial mindset. He started his first business in the lawn-care space at age 11, hiring high schoolers to transport the equipment to each job.
"As a very young man growing up in Kinston, North Carolina, one of the things that I observed was that the business owners created opportunities that made my mom and my stepfather and others confident and feel good about themselves," he told CBJ. "And so I always wanted to be a business owner."
How Wiggins got started on entrepreneurial path
Following his high school graduation, Wiggins attended N.C. A&T in 1989 and pursued an engineering degree. Recognizing Wiggins had a go-getter spirit, the dean of engineering recommended that he switch his major to business. He took that advice, changing his major to marketing with a concentration in finance.
After graduating from N.C. A&T in 1995, Wiggins used his finance degree to land a career in the corporate world. He worked in several roles at Ford Motor Co. and other corporations before purchasing his own dealership and leading various other organizations.
Wiggins became fully emerged in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in 2021, when he was named interim executive director of N.C. A&T's Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. During his two years in that role, the center went from an office in an unknown corner to a weekly gathering place for hundreds of students.
He eventually recognized his purpose through working with the N.C. A&T students: to teach young adults what college can't offer, such as the life skills needed to excel in adulthood. That led to the creation of the Wiggins Institute of Entrepreneurship and Life Development. It officially launched on Sept. 5 with its first cohort.
How the WIELD program works
The program utilizes a nontraditional apprenticeship model to teach participants, age 18 and older, five foundational steps: character building; financial independence; home management; healthy living and wellness; and professional development. WIELD is a six-week program in which participants meet three days each week at the institute. It's located at 101 S. Tryon St. in uptown Charlotte.
"It has been life-changing," Wiggins said. "In three weeks, I've never seen anything like this, and I've seen a lot of success and failure in my life."
The program is taught by seasoned entrepreneurs who provide mentoring and support. Fellows have the option to team up and grow an existing business or start a new one based off their own ideas. Participants are provided with a housing option, offering them the opportunity to learn how to manage a home, budget and plan.
Fellows can also earn money while they learn. Wiggins said WIELD plans to buy a franchise and turn interested members into owners of the business.
"So we've literally created a model that simply says, 'We know what it takes for you to have success in the ownership, first, of your life. And then secondly, you can extend that to owning a business that will allow generational wealth to be created for you and your family,'" he said.
The program's first cohort was originally designed for male-only members to test its model, Wiggins said. The next cohort, which starts Oct. 30, will be available for men and women to apply. WIELD selects 12 members for each cohort. Members of each class pay $5,000 to participate in the program.
WIELD is working to partner with an organization that will allow fellows to receive a professional certificate upon completion of the program, a spokesperson for the institute told CBJ.
"We're looking for qualities like a go-getter type of mentality," Wiggins said. "They're usually creative. They are usually also resilient, meaning they're over-comers. They have a mentality of, 'I want to be in control of my own destiny.' And then, more than anything, they want to reach their fullest potential."
He hopes to continue to provide young adults opportunities that were not as easy for him to find until his late 20s.
"For the rest of my life, what I want to do is pour into this next generation that were like me when I was 18 and 20 years old and 23 years old," he said. "I'm guiding them into being not just successful in business, but in life."
