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May 2012 |
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Make your voice heard in KC, your state and DC
Impacting the business environment
Voting isn't the only thing you can do to impact your business environment. Join a group of Kansas City women business leaders as they discuss how they became involved in public policy work and their experiences testifying on various legislative issues.
Panalists:
Shelley Armato, MySmartPlans LLC; Colleen White, Strategic Workplace Solutions Inc.; Jeri Bartunek, Bartunek Technology Group, Inc; Denise Farris, Farris Law Firm LLC (Moderator).
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Enterprise Center of Johnson County
8527 Bluejacket Street | Lenexa, KS 66214
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SmartConnectKC Networking
Wake up and meet me for coffee!
Join Luann Feehan of Smart Connect KC along with OneKCforWomen for a cup of coffee as you network with other entrepreneurs. Make new friends and build your business. This month's event is sponsored by Arvest Bank, Fritz Painting and Snyder Homes Remodeling.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
$10 Hosted at:
Women's Business Center, 8527 Bluejacket Street, Lenexa, KS
Register online here
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Take the First Steps in starting your business
Designed for those thinking about starting or growing a business
The Women's Business Center is partnering with the Small Business and Technology Development Center to offer First Steps, a seven week program designed to help you determine if your business idea is sound and to formalize a plan to move forward. This program is geared toward those starting a small business or those who started a small business but feel they need to step back and develop a plan to assure their success.
Location:
4747 Troost Ave.
Kansas City, MO
The program begins with an all day session Saturday, June 2 and runs for successive Tuesday evenings (6:00 - 9:00 pm) through July 17. Participation in a free orientation session prior to class is required. Orientation sessions are being held:
- Tuesday, May 8 from 3:30 - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday, May 15, 6:00-7:30 pm
 This class will be co-sponsored by:
The Small Business and Technology and Development Center at UMKC and the Women's Business Center
Call Dorothy Browning for more details or to sign up for an orientation session: 913-438-2282
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The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Big 5 Entrepreneurial Initiative launches One Week KC June 18-26th. The week will culminate on June 26th with Entrepreneur Day at the K where YOU and other local entrepreneurs will be celebrated. Join us as we honor you with a special pre-game announcement by Mayor James, The Johnson and Wyandotte County Council of Mayors, and other area Mayors.
- First Annual Event
- Crown Vision V of Entrepreneurs
- Special announcement by area Mayors
- First Pitch by local entrepreneur
- 10 chances to be on field during batting practice
- 1500 area entrepreneurs all in one section
Limited tickets available - reserve yours today!
Field Box & Field Plaza tickets: $13
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
vs. the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
For more information please contact Jo Anne Gabbert at
816-305-3493 or jgabbert10@gmail.com
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Kansas City Digital Storytelling Forum
Coming June 21, 2012
Find out why digital storytelling is changing the way multimedia connects with audiences, learn about the various industries needed to support a vibrant digital storytelling community and how your business can become involved. Frank Rose of Wired Magazine along with other experts will lead the discussion. If you are thinking of starting a business in this arena, this conference is for you too. Look for applications for a special FastTrac® New Venture class targeting those starting a business in the digital/film industry on KCSourceLink.com
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FastTrac® New Venture for Women
Fall dates announced!
A FastTrac® certified facilitator leads this 10-session business-training program for entrepreneurs. It provides a structured time to focus on your business and on yourself. Guest entrepreneurs and subject matter experts illustrate business concepts and share their real-life business experiences.
Class size is limited to 30 participants
Classes meet Sept. 13, 20, 27, Oct. 4, 11, 18, 25, Nov. 1, 9, 15
Fee: $450
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ECJC Workshops
Seminars offered by the Enterprise Center of Johnson County
Cloud Computing - May 10, 2012
Facebook for Business - May 17, 2012
E-Learning Technologies - May 24, 2012
Advanced Facebook for Business - May 31, 2012
Time & Location
11:00 am - 1:00 pm, $25 (lunch included)
The Enterprise Center of Johnson County
8527 Bluejacket Street, Lenexa, KS 66214
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Webinar, A Basic Guide to Exporting
How to protect your intellectual property in foreign markets
May 24, 2012
$15 - Register online at export.gov
For more information, please contact Kellie.Halloway@trade.com
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Missouri's largest procurement conference with over 1,500 Government Agencies and Prime Contractors
May 31, 2012
Location: University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg
For more details click here The U.S. Department of Commerce has many excellent resources and webinars available to help you navigate the in's and outs of exporting. You can find these resources by going to their website, export.gov
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Photos from the March 30th Wake Up! event
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Not for women only:
Men are welcome at almost all of the seminars and networking events held at the WBC.
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The Women's Business Center
The Women's Business Center offers mentoring, resources, and consulting to women in the Kansas City Metropolitan area who wish to become an entrepreneur or who are currently operating their own business. Through business consulting, classes, workshops, networking, and peer mentoring the WBC is the key to running a successful business for Kansas City's women.
Find out how the Women's Business Center can help you. Click here to learn more!
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Lynette Burkhardt is SBA Small Business Person of the Year
 | | Lynette Burkhardt (right) with Denise Farris |
Lynette Burkhardt has been named the "SBA Small Business Person of the Year" and received her award at the monthly GSA breakfast held on May 1st.
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LuAnn Feehan named intereim Executive Director of Nonprofit Connect
LuAnn Feehan has been named interim Executive Director of Nonprofit Connect and will be working with the board of directors to develop a new director for the organization. Don't worry, she still has her calendar to Wake up and Meet us for Coffee once a month!
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KC Edventures Launches
Jacquie Fisher has launched KC Edventures, an online resource for parents, grandparents, educators and visitors to KC to help find fun things to do with kids in Kansas City.
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Curious Pixel New Hires
Sarah Hebert owner of Curious Pixels, a branding and marketing company ( and fall FastTrac for Women graduate) has added two employees to her staff in the past month.
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Patriot Rehab opens
Carly Elms, also a fall FastTrac graduate, has officially opened Patriot Rehab, a company focused on increasing accessibility and employment for individuals with disabilities.
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KC Microloan Program highlighted; Lending extended to Kansas
Amanda and Josiah Phillips (Glass of Milk Cake Company), Debra Morris (Glory Construction), Richard Garza and son Damon (Garza's Chocolates) and Sunday Oriaku (KoKo's Furniture) all spoke at the press conference held April 26th at City Hall in KCMO highlighting the new KC Microloan program.
The conference highlighted the contribution of $25,000 by the River Market Community Association to the loan loss reserve fund for use by businesses in KCMO. This brings the loan loss reserve fund to $75,000. Our goal is to raise $100,000 to leverage one million dollars in loanable funds from the SBA.
Other good news: Justine PETERSEN, the microlender, has now received approval to extend their services to Kansas.
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Share the good news
Are you a Women's Business Center client or volunteer? Something exciting going on in your business? Let us know if you have added a major product or service line, expanded your territory or won an award. We will help you spread the word.
Email dbrowning@kansaswbc.com
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Research on more than 200,000 managers and workers over a ten year period links employee recognition with financial performance. Companies that effectively recognized personal excellence had triple the profitability in comparison with firms that didn't.
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News from the Women's Business Center |
Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC) Innovation Summit a success
 | | Melissa Roberts |
Event Featured WBC Clients and Resources
KCKCC's first innovation summit held May 2 featured several resources and clients aligned with the WBC. Kelly Pruneau, Network Manager for the Women's Capital Connection (WCC) participated in a panel discussing what investors were looking for, Michele DeSilva, member of the WCC and Kelly also listed to pitches from 6 start-up companies (chosen from 12 applicants). Two of these companies were recent microloan recipients. Congratulations to Melissa Roberts for placing second in the competition.
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MBE/WBE/DBE Certification
Rhonda Harris, Director of the Office of Minority and Women Business Develop for Kansas lead a session on understanding what certification can do for you and how to acquire your certifications on April 25th at the Women's Business Center. Bottom line, once you figure out if certification is right for you, the process is straightforward. Fill out paperwork and prepare for a site visit to verify that you are in fact the primary owner and operator of the business. Of course there is a little more to it than that, but the number one comment of the women attending was that it now seemed like a very doable process. Jason Porch, the PTAC representative for Kansas then spoke about the services offered by PTAC that can help certified business owners find business opportunities.
If you want more info visit Kansas Commerce or Missouri Office of Equal Opportunity (you must certify in the state your business is located in first). For info on PTAC services visit aptac-us.org for the address of your nearest office.
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April 15 - 21st was Volunteer Appreciation Week
The WBC would like to acknowledge the tremendous value our volunteers bring to our clients. From the advisory councils to one on one mentoring to presenting workshops; we wouldn't be able to serve our clients in a meaningful way without your help. Thank you for sharing your time and your talents with the entrepreneurial community of Kansas City.
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Created and lead by two exceptional women - Katie Snapp and Carol Wight
Last month we introduced you to Katie Snapp and Carol Wight and Skirt Strategies. We'd like to share their Mission Statement with you, and also provide you with the link below, and the opportunity for a quick assessment of your leadership strengths. Skirt Strategies Mission At Skirt strategies we empower high potential women to lead and succeed.
Giving women clarity of purpose that drives their productivity, we guide professionals to gracefully move into positions of leadership. Through our experiential workshops and membership community, we help women learn how to communicate with authority and self confidence, manage with natural leadership tendencies and uncover and refine a clear professional style that gets women noticed and heard.
www.AssessMySkills.com |
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 Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA
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