Women Work and Community "New Ventures" Class March 31 to June 16 in Bangor, Maine

If you have not heard of Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community (WWC), you are definitely missing out. This is an excellent program that helps people (men and women) improve the quality of their life by offering training, advocacy and assistance in four program areas: career building, business startup, money management and leadership development. The staff are wonderfully supportive and nurturing and the programs are free to participants.

WWC is offering the New Ventures Entrepreneurship Training at University College in Bangor, Maine. This is an in-depth coverage of topics such as: identifying your customer, competition (it helps to know their strengths and weaknesses and where you fit in to the whole scheme of things), marketing (how to identify your target market and where to focus your time and resources), record keeping (how to keep track of incomes and expenses so you know if you are making a profit in your business), taxes (what papers to file and some about how you do it), legal aspects of doing business (liability and insurance), financing (how to find the resources to grow your business), and operations (including short and long-term goal setting for your business).

It might sound intimidating (it did to me when I first signed up for the course), but the staff takes you through each aspect step-by-step. They not only help you identify what you need to do for your business, they show you how to lay the groundwork to make your business successful. An added bonus: you will have a working, written business plan by the end of the course! A lot of work, yes...but the pay off is a much clearer, focused direction for your business. (And remember, all this information and training is free!). Class size is limited to 15.

The training will be held Tuesdays March 31 through June 16 from 9:30am to 3:00pm. It is a sixty hour program. Applications for the program are due March 17 and the required orientation is March 24.

I can attest to the New Ventures program. I took it in 2005 and continuously look back on and use the materials I collected from the class. And, as an added bonus, I still keep in touch with some of the other business people from the class. We meet once a month and help each other work through challenges and celebrate successes.

I highly recommend the New Ventures program for people who have a viable business idea just starting out, as well as for people in existing businesses who have never written a business plan or want to look at their business with fresh eyes.

For an application or more information, call 207-262-7843, email Jane Searles (Regional Manager) at searles@maine.edu or visit the web site at http://www.womenworkandcommunity.org

Cheers!--Janyce