|
Graduate Rachel Pearson, owner of Speesees, a children's clothing line
1. Business Success Teams - once you've written your Business Plan through our Business Planning Class, you need a way to keep your energy and momentum moving toward implementing your plan. The Business Success Team will give you support and guidance to keep you on track, stay focused and make your business a success!
2. Listing in our On-line Graduate Directory - when a graduate is open for business, you are listed in our on-line directory. Do not miss this opportunity to be part of our community of over 400 businesses and increase your Google rating! This list is the basis of the Evites issued to our Graduate Networking Mixers.
3. Participation in our Graduate Yahoo Group - the group is over 300 entrepreneurs strong and is growing. It is a great place to network with your fellow graduates, ask questions and share resources. We also post bay area opportunities and resources that are available to graduates as they come along. Although the group is open to non-graduates, we encourage graduates to control the conversation threads and actively market their businesses.
4. Direct Selling Opportunities - As a graduate of Renaissance, you have the opportunity to be a part of many direct selling opportunities through out the year, including our Annual Event Marketplace, our Holiday Gift Fair and Shop the Block, and shop Local First.
5. Monday Night Workshops - as a way of offering continuing education to our graduates, Renaissance offers workshops on common business capacity building topics such as sales, customer service, pricing, networking, presentation skills and more. While these workshops are open to the public, graduates enjoy a specially reduced fee.
6. Alliances/Community Partnerships - we have been busy securing alliances with other bay area organizations to provide our graduates with multiple avenues of support in business development, strategic growth and other training opportunities throughout the Bay Area.
Examples of such partnerships include:
Pacific Community Ventures - qualified graduates can take part in their no cost Emerging Business Program.
Bayview Center for Arts and Technology (BAYCAT) - qualified graduates can participate in their no cost on-site business training and mentoring programs.
Urban Design Collective - started by Renaissance graduates, this exciting collective of women designers is a great resource for industry specific information and merchandizing opportunities.
eBay Techquity Program - this program is an equity award program that assists micro-entrepreneurs in purchasing computers and/or related technology that will enhance or improve their businesses.
Women & Company Microenterprise BOOST Program -this program makes cash awards of $500-$2500 available to eligible low income women-owned small businesses.
Athena Project - provides intensive mentoring and coaching to selected graduates.
LaCocina Community Kitchen - a non-profit shared use commercial kitchen and business incubator.
And there are many more! For more information, please contact Jill Winkelstein at jill@rencenter.org.
7. Featured Graduate Listings - as a graduate, you have the opportunity to be featured on our home page, monthly newsletters and written marketing materials. Have you been in the paper recently, experienced an exciting success, or have you won an award? Please let us know (contact Jill at jill@rencenter.org) and we will write you up in our "Graduates in the News" flyers.
|
