Entrepreneurship Center offers help as businesses adapt to the pandemic

By Laurence Wilson
Contributor

After a spike in unemployment due to the pandemic, many businesses and entrepreneurs are still trying to catch up.

Kristin Gaspke, who leads WCC’s Entrepreneurship Center, said there’s help for new and existing businesses. Last month, Gaspke and the EC team hosted a four-week Zoom webinar titled “How to Start and Optimize Your Business.”

“99% of what we do in the Entrepreneurship Center for the WCC family is free. We offer all of our programs to everyone. If you look at the pictures on our website, I can tell you the story about each student in the center at that time and where they are now,” said Gaspke. “Today, some of them are still local business owners.”

One of the webinar’s guests was Molly Ledermann, a market research librarian at the WCC Bailey Library.

Ledermann said there’s help with basic legal, insurance and business planning online.

“There are three ways to get assistance with market research at the Bailey Library,” said Ledermann. “One: Fill out an individual startup research help form found on the small business page of the Bailey Library’s website, two: sign up for a 30-min consultation with a professional market research librarian on the first Thursday of the month, or three: attend a free virtual Market Research Workshop.”

“Clarifying your message adds value to your business. Social media is a great tool for the introvert entrepreneur. You must clarify your message. Know and understand who your audience is. Every platform has an audience. Your potential customers are your audience,” said Robert Courtney of Robert Courtney and Associates, another guest speaker.

Logan Lajiness, owner of Great Lakes CBD, also spoke at the recent event.

“Create good content on channels like YouTube to create more ways to get paid. YouTube gets watched more than cable TV,” said Lajiness. “There are a variety of ways to get paid being an entrepreneur.”

COVID is causing entrepreneurs to be more crafty, creative and flexible.

“One of our community members in the picture was a seamstress.  Since COVID-19, she has changed her business model to include face masks. Some entrepreneurs get stronger and successfully transition at a time like this,” Gaspke said.

“We still get about one inquiry per day in the Entrepreneurship Center since COVID-19 hit our area. COVID-19 made entrepreneurs shift gears with their businesses.”

Robin Lieb is the owner of Once Upon a Memory Photography in Belleville. Lieb has been an entrepreneur for 17 years.

“The advantage of being an entrepreneur during COVID-19 is possibly having more time to dedicate to launching your business. For those that have been laid off or have reduced work hours, this can be an unexpected window of opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade,” Lieb said.

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