Learning Cluster Members

Five organizations were selected in 2000 to receive two-year, $100,000 grants from FIELD to test promising models for providing follow-up services to low-income entrepreneurs at a reasonable cost and with a practical method for testing results.

Women's Economic Ventures (WEV)
Santa Barbara, Calif.
WEV sought to test how business coaching, an increasingly popular tool for entrepreneurs, works for microenterprise program participants. All participants in WEV's core training program received intensive training in how to serve as a business coach to a fellow entrepreneur, meeting on a weekly basis to provide support, encouragement and feedback on entrepreneurial goals. In addition, those who had finished training but had not yet started a business were eligible join a five-member peer accountability group, as yet another source of encouragement and support. Finally, those who had started businesses could join a staff-mentored Roundtable for Business Owners, designed to bring together 10 to 15 peer businesses and guest experts for monthly meetings to exchange ideas and problem solve.

West Company
Ukiah, Calif.
West Company created The Commerce Cafe, a microbusiness association facilitated on-line and via telephone, designed for graduates of the core training program who had opened or would soon open a business. The Cafe was intended to offer a menu of professional development opportunities, including: Web-based training and technical assistance to individual business owners; packets of business information disseminated regularly by mail, e-mail, Internet and fax; monthly technical assistance appointments by telephone or Internet; technology training; annual site visits from a West Company business consultant; topical workshops; participation in trade association activities; quarterly networking meetings; and access to West Company's savings and loan programs.

Goodwill Industries of North Georgia
Atlanta, Ga.
Goodwill proposed to create a "Micro Business Center" to provide clients with convenient access to: business equipment, including copiers, computers and scanners; an accountant, attorney and public relations expert; space for meetings and product creation; a retail outlet; and seminars important to business people. It was envisioned that users would pay for these high-demand services.

Women's Rural Entrepreneurial Network
Bethlehem, New Hampshire
WREN's project involved: staff working individually with entrepreneurs to establish business goals; creating a technology center to provide access to computers, a photo studio and other business equipment; expanding its advanced course offerings; conducting individualized assessments of the marketability and pricing of clients' products; consulting individually on management issues and marketing; and organizing affinity groups so that businesses in complementary industries could work together on promotional activities.

Appalachian by Design (ABD)
Lewisburg, West Virginia
ABD, which recruits and trains women as home-based knitters, used FIELD funding to: offer order-specific training close to knitters' homes; create instructional videos for knitters; provide training and technical information via e-mail, the Internet, brochures and newsletters; offer small grants to knitters wishing to pursue training opportunities; host skill-enhancing workshops; create a peer-to-peer skills training program; connect knitters through e-mail and a Web site; and develop a new career track with workshops for advanced knitters.