Contact:
Shirah Apple 414-297-1096/rachel.apple@sba.gov
Robin Dittberner 608-441-5521/robin.dittberner@sba.gov
Second Wisconsin Location Seeks Native American, Tribal CEO’s
MILWAUKEE–Green Bay will be the second Wisconsin site for Emerging Leaders, a Small Business Administration training course for small business CEO’s. Milwaukee and Green Bay are now the only locations east of the Mississippi bringing the course to Native American businesses.
“The goal of the Green Bay location is to make the course more accessible to the Native American businesses north of Milwaukee,” says the SBA’s Wisconsin District Director Eric Ness.
The Emerging Leaders Initiative is the only federal training initiative focused on CEOs of established small businesses that are poised for growth.
Interise, a Boston-based business- and management-training company, provides the instruction for the seven-month course, which includes about 100 hours of classroom time as well as networking and mentoring relationships. The Emerging Leaders Initiative is modeled on Interise’s StreetWise “MBA” program.
The SBA is seeking 15 Native American business owners, to participate in the 2013 program. The application deadline is April 9, and classes begin April 24.
Participation is free for entrepreneurs who are chosen. A business must be at least three years old, have at least one employee besides the owner, and have gross annual sales of at least $300,000.
The SBA and Interise said that since the Emerging Leaders Initiative was started in 2008, more than 1,300 business owners have gone through the training. More than two-thirds of participants reported seeing their companies’ revenues rise, and three-quarters said their companies were able to maintain or create new jobs.
Eighteen Wisconsin entrepreneurs graduated from the program during the past two years, with 350 graduating nationwide in 2012.
Other markets with substantial concentrations of Native American business owners have been targeted in 2013, including Albuquerque and Farmington, N.M.; Helena, Mont.; Honolulu; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle.
U.S. cities where the classes will be offered to urban businesses in 2013 are Atlanta; Baltimore; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Jacksonville, Fla.; Los Angeles; Memphis; Minneapolis; New Orleans; Philadelphia; St. Louis; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Youngstown, Ohio.
“Emerging Leaders has a proven track record of helping small businesses in underserved communities,” said outgoing SBA chief Karen Mills. “Graduates of the program have increased their revenue, created jobs and helped drive local economic growth in their communities.”
To apply or learn more about this program, contact Robert Giesfeldt, Lead Business Opportunity Specialist with the SBA, at 414-297-1455 or visit http://www.Interise.org/SBAe200. Green Bay will be listed on the link’s menu of locations beginning the week of March 24.
