Eighteen Students Equipped to Open New Businesses
Isothermal Community College News
SPINDALE (Nov. 4, 2008) – Eighteen budding entrepreneurs are ready to take a shot at the business world, thanks to a program of the Small Business Center at Isothermal Community College.
The students recently graduated from the North Carolina Rural Entrepreneurship Through Action Learning program, which is co-sponsored with the SBC by Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center and the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.
Eighteen students equipped to open new businesses
NCREAL is a six-week course designed to equip small business owners with the skills required to create an effective business plan for a new or existing business. Many of the essential areas that confront small business owners are covered: Market Analysis; Sales Forecasting; Customer Profiles; Competition; Product Pricing; Business Operations; Legal Issues; Financing a Business and more.
This session’s graduates plan to open businesses including catering operations, landscaping companies, a deli, a pet therapy center, a cleaning service and a non-profit aimed at helping the victims of domestic abuse, said SBC director Kim Alexander.
“It’s exciting to see these entrepreneurial ideas develop in the minds of the students as the class progresses,” said Alexander. “The networking and sharing that take place are just really valuable experiences, too.”
The NCREAL graduates include Randall Aebersold, Andy Edwards, Sarah Edwards, Lucy Esteban, Alfonso Gutierrez, Gladys Hernandez, Susan Martin, Angela McKinney, Dorothy Mullis, Karen Myers, Don Myers, Catherine Parisi, Gregory Simmons, Denise Tepley, Cathy Watson, Kari Whited and Ismiralla Whiteside.
The program draws on many local resources, including a grant which paid for instructors from the North American Development Bank. The bank was established through the North American Free Trade Agreement to help dislocated workers find new career options.
Just as important, Alexander said, was the expertise shared with students from instructors, facilitators and guest speakers including: Scott Hutchins, an instructor in Isothermal’s Business Sciences Division; Tim Will, director of Foothills Connect; and Richard Adams and Jim Ballard of the Henderson County Chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives.
“Those folks really bring some real-world information to the students and help them really understand what to expect as they move forward,” she said.
There will be another NCREAL class in the spring. In addition, the spring course can be used toward credit for a new Certificate in Entrepreneurship offered by the college’s Business Sciences Division.
For more information on NCREAL and the upcoming class, contact Alexander at 828-286-3636, ext. 390.
Mike Gavin
Director of Marketing and Community Relations
Isothermal Community College
Email
828-286-3636, ext. 206
www.isothermal.edu
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