Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 25, 2011
Brightbridge Center offers female entrepreneurs a helping hand
David Laprad
Eve Williams is the owner of Mojo Burrito, a Chattanooga-owned Tex-Mex favorite. Williams teamed up with Brightbridge Women’s Business Center to open her East Brainerd location. The WBC exists to create opportunities for women in business in Chattanooga and the surrounding region.
- David Laprad
Ask any entrepreneur what he or she believes is the hardest part of launching a company, and he or she will probably say getting the enterprise off the ground. Coming up with an idea is easy; writing a business plan, securing funding and marketing a product are not. And, like it or not, when the owner is a woman, these things can be even harder, says Joe Guthrie, president of Brightbridge, which operates the Women’s Business Center in Chattanooga.
“As much as I’d like to say we have a level playing field, that’s not the case. So the Center was developed to ensure there are opportunities in business for women,” Guthrie says.
To help women gain a foothold in the business world, the WBC provides counseling, education and help writing a business plan, obtaining financing and marketing the product. The aspiring entrepreneur must still do a lot of heavy lifting, but she will have at her disposal a team of experts that can guide her past the more daunting obstacles.
“Our staff has a wide range of expertise and can help with a variety of needs. For example, if you’re looking for private capital instead of a bank loan, we have an individual on staff with experience in that area,” Guthrie says.
To begin the process, clients complete an application and then sit down with a member of the WBC staff to discuss their needs.
Education comes in several forms, from an introductory seminar on starting a business, to QuickBooks classes, to courses on how to secure government contracts. No business experience or college degrees are needed; all the WBC requires is a marketable idea and the drive to make it happen.
In addition to offering their own workshops, the WBC works with the local Chamber of Commerce, the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to teach its clients the ins and outs of the business world.
While newcomers benefit from the schooling the WBC offers, the biggest roadblock every businessperson faces is obtaining capital. Guthrie says this has become even more difficult over the past three years as banks have become more and more conservative in their lending practices.
Fortunately, the WBC can guide clients to alternative sources of financing, including non-traditional loan programs it operates or other secondary lending programs.
Combined, the services the WBC provides can move mountains for clients, whether a woman comes to them wanting to sell a facial cream she developed in her home or launch a larger endeavor.
“We helped a local company that had developed a carry case for the iPad obtain financing through an out-of-town entity. And we’re working with a company that’s involved in energy efficient lighting. Even though they have a long track record of success, it’s not easy to go from a credit line of a half million dollars to several million dollars of financing,” Guthrie says.
Through its work, the WBC contributes to the economic health of the Chattanooga community. For example, when the organization two years ago received funds to stimulate job growth in the area, it turned to a number of established businesswomen, including Eve Williams, owner of Mojo Burrito.
Williams launched her first Mojo Burrito restaurant in St. Elmo in 2002. Since then, she’s opened locations in downtown Chattanooga, Red Bank and East Brainerd. While the downtown store closed within a year, the Red Bank restaurant took off like a rocket, so the WBC approached her to open another one. The goal, she says, was to create jobs.
“They needed work for people in outlying areas, so I drew up a business plan and spent a year looking for a location. I ended up creating 20 jobs,” she says.
Although Williams invested some of her own money in the endeavor, the East Brainerd location would not exist had it not been for the sizable contribution of the WBC. In addition, Williams says the moral support the WBC provided was invaluable.
“They wanted me to succeed as much as I did, and they were a big help every step of the way. It meant a lot to have someone believing in me,” she says.
As Williams suggests, the WBC is invested in the success of its clients. It acquires significant funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the money comes with mandates to develop a certain number of business plans and marketing blueprints, and to apportion a specific amount of money to women entrepreneurs.
This is a mission Guthrie enjoys, especially when the WBC is helping a woman start a small business.
“So many people are out of work and are trying to start something that will be theirs so they can make a living. That’s what why we’re here.”
For more information, call 423-648-9279 or visit www.sewbc.org.
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