FREE PROGRAM TURNS DISPLACED WORKERS INTO ENTREPRENEURS
Free Weekly Program Offers “America’s Bailout” to Motivated Arizonans
(TEMPE, AZ – April 23, 2009) People with the drive to start their own businesses are getting the chance, thanks to Start Up Now, a groundbreaking program dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship. In each workshop, Start Up Now takes a group of complete strangers, many of them recently unemployed, and leads them through a daylong, high-powered business development and brainstorming session that ends with an initial idea and structure for a new enterprise. Since the program’s inception last month, four separate enterprises have been established.
“There’s an incredible amount of entrepreneurial talent and business know-how walking the streets these days,” says Peter Burns, founder of Club Entrepreneur, the Institute for Entrepreneurship and the eFactory as well as the sponsor and host of Start Up Now. “What we do is provide these people with the tools and support they need to turn these assets into real, money-making enterprises.”
Start Up Now workshops are held weekly at the Tempe-based eFactory, a state of the art facility that houses 50 to 60 start up businesses and provides access to collaborators, advisors and back end office support. The Start Up Now program, which includes a complimentary lunch, covers the basics of launching a new business and provides a wealth of start up ideas and opportunities. Through the affiliated ClubE network, participants in the workshop are able to access additional resources including small business and early venture funding opportunities.
“In the morning we come to agreement about the business that we will create together. In the afternoon we put the specifics of the company together and by the end, participants decide if they are in or out,” says Sonia Graham, CEO of Maximum Business Advantage and a Start Up Now creator and facilitator. “On average 30%of participants become partners in the new business. Many of the rest choose to return again until they find the business idea that hits their passion.”
Examples of businesses currently in the early stages of development thanks to Start Up Now include:
- An online information portal for entrepreneurs and start ups
- A company that will transfer surplus equipment and supplies from large businesses to schools and foundations
- A company focused on providing entrepreneurial education and funding for high school students to enable them to earn a college degree
- A child care center at the eFactory.
To register or for more information see:
startupnowworkshops.com
clubeoffice.com
CONTACT: Katie Cobb/Actual Media
katiecobb@actual-media.com
602.478.1331
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StartUP NOW Workshops!
The first Start Up Now workshop on March 4 was a resounding success.
Formed jointly between We Are America’s Bailout (part of Club E and Club eFactory) and Maximum Business Advantage, Start Up Now brought 10 recently laid off business professionals to the new Club eFactory location in Tempe.
They began the day tossing around ideas for, and characteristics desired in, a brand new business. By noon, the group had developed the basic business concept and defined a Purpose, Vision and Mission that all could rally behind. After a catered lunch, complements of We Are America’s Bailout, the team regrouped and designed the business offerings including delivery method and the basic steps and structure of the business operations. Towards the end of the day the newly formed company split into three working teams and each group developed goals and target dates to achieve necessary steps to prepare for launch.
One of the most amazing aspects was that each of the three teams, working separately all came up with the same target launch date of May 1, 2009.Now these recently laid off professionals have a solid basis for a brand new company.
Join us on March 19 for the second Start Up Now Workshop. If you were turned down for the first workshop, please try again. This first workshop was limited only to very recently laid off professionals, future workshops will include individuals who have been out of work for longer periods as well as those who are just contemplating entering the entrepreneurial world. Click here to register.
Sonia Graham
Chief Experience Officer at Maximum Business Advantage AND
Facilitator of Start Up Now Workshops
Call 602-621-0558 for more information
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