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When he started his own business in telecommunications right before he began attending UCLA, Shaun Tan did it without the advantage of having the advice of older, more seasoned entrepreneurs.

In an attempt to give enterprising students the edge he did not have, Tan, now an alumnus with several years of experience as an entrepreneur, founded the nonprofit Entrepreneur Mentor Society, or EMS, this past October with cofounder Amy Wang.

Projects already in the works by UCLA students involved in EMS include a virtual karaoke start-up and a business that caters to the formal attire needs of male students.

“The program is for anybody ... who wants to be a business owner someday,” Tan said.

Providing students with business cards and connections to knowledgeable businesspeople, the program gives students access to professionals and allows aspiring business owners to network with students from other schools.

Ideally, EMS will fill a problematic gap in networking and business opportunities sometimes encountered by students interested in starting their own business while at UCLA, which does not have an undergraduate business program, said Wang, a third-year economics student.

Students are well-positioned to put their business ideas into practice and, as a whole, are generally “at that stage of life where (they) don’t really have anything to lose,” Wang said.

The networking opportunities and advice from speakers featured at the program’s meetings have been helpful to Joseph Lei, a third-year business economics student who has just started his own business.

“I’ve started a men’s apparel company for formal wear targeted at college students,” Lei said.

By providing low-cost formal men’s attire and wardrobe suggestions, Lei hopes his company will help third and fourth-year students who are attending career fairs and going on job interviews to cope better in those situations.

The business, called Campus Suits, should be active and on campus within two weeks, he said.

Lei is currently talking with the UCLA Career Center and business organizations and clubs on campus, attempting to create partnerships with them to help create a market.

The EMS program has given Lei opportunities to meet and network with people he believes he would not otherwise have had access to, he said.

“It’s very hard to find mentors who are invested in you and who care about what you’re doing,” Lei said.

The opportunities EMS has provided Lei with are “one of the greatest things I’ve come across in college life,” he said.

Of the 45 students currently in the EMS program, approximately 14 already have businesses started, Tan said.

Students from schools including USC and Loyola Marymount University are involved, as well as students from the California Institute of Technology.

Applications have recently come in from students from Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, Wang said.

“We’re really expanding,” Tan said.

Each semester, 45 students from across Southern California are accepted into EMS, which meets twice a month on Saturdays, to expose students to current successful entrepreneurs, who speak at the meetings.

Teresa Chiao, a second-year business economics student and current EMS fellow, said she has been inspired to start a business of her own after receiving advice on how to go about it from her mentor through the program.

She is currently working on pulling together the technology to start a virtual karaoke business, which she expects to start in a few months.

Business aspirations such as Chiao’s and Lei’s are the types of ideas EMS was created to foster.

“That’s what we’re about, giving these kids opportunities,” Tan said.

The program’s goal over the next 10 years is to have 45 students a semester to start companies, Tan said.

More information about the Entrepreneur Mentor Society can be found at emsociety.org.