BBCC to host free business learning series

Goodwin, Daschel to show off opportunities available in town

MOSES LAKE — New and would-be entrepreneurs within the region will have the opportunity to sit down with their own kind next week.

Beginning Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., and running the first Wednesday of each month through 2006, Big Bend Community College will host a business learning series for new and potential entrepreneurs.

Of the series, entitled Business at the Bend, Center for Business and Industry Services small business development counselor Allan Peterson said that the community is already providing infrastructure to make things happen economically.

"The next step that I saw was, who is going to occupy these businesses when this is all said and done?" he said, pointing to efforts by the Moses Lake Business Association and Vision 2020 to promote incoming businesses.

Peterson began looking at statistics, and saw that new and would-be entrepreneurs have many opportunities. According to the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, one of every two businesses will go up for sale in the next 10 to 15 years as baby boomers retire.

Also, coming from a small community, Peterson said he knows it's tough to keep people in town once they get out of the school system.

"I've had people in entry-level positions who want to work for themselves, who do not want to work for somebody else," he said.

Chris Fargo will act in an advisory capacity during the series.

"I had always wished there was some type of medium where people could get together, not necessarily young, but people who were just real naive as far as developing a business," he said of his own experiences. "Like-minded people that I could grow with, and have association with, and that seems difficult to find."

Fargo said he hopes anyone would find the series to be a primer to shatter what he calls deeply ingrained assumptions about the difficulty of going into business. He hopes the series will evolve and grow, and people realize it is something they want to be involved with.

"I hope that we all just find enthusiasm here and use it for encouragement," he said.

Peterson said each two-hour meeting will address three functions — observation of a successful business person or model, an instructional piece to learn about pertinent small-business topics and networking with other new or potential community entrepreneurs.

Guest speakers at the first meeting will be Sally Goodwin, executive director of the MLBA, and Jacie Daschel, president of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce and Vision 2020 chair.

"It's a wonderful learning opportunity for new business people, business entrepreneurs," Goodwin said of the Business at the Bend program. She thinks the program will open the door to people, noting that some tend to go into business without understanding what's involved.

"They don't realize that sometimes they need years of backing before they break even, much less show a profit," she said. "You're not going to be successful without a business plan. Since it's a free program, I don't know how you can not want to take advantage of it."

Daschel agreed.

"It's really important to assist new business people or people looking into starting a new business as much as we can, because it is a risky venture," she said. "I hope that they would come away with a few more tools in terms of business skills and basic, practical understanding of some of the important things in running a small business."

NEWS TO KNOW

The first Business at the Bend meeting will be held at BBCC's ATEC Center in Harding Room #1837. For information, call Allan Peterson at (509)793-2373.