By TORY DENIS
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CLAREMONT — On Tuesday, May 29, six entrepreneurs in varying stages of planning and development took part in a free business-branding class given by the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE) New Hampshire in the Claremont MakerSpace. This was the first class given in the MakerSpace’s newly-completed computer lab.
The group included crafters, a local photographer, a woman looking to open a health facility, an independent engineering contractor, and a Vermont tour guide. They traveled from within Claremont and from as far away as Deering, New Hampshire and Sturbridge, Vermont to take the course.
Claremont resident Ann Campbell, who has more than 12 years of experience as an office manager, said she attended the “Branding for Your Small Business” class because she is in the early stages of forming a business with her two sisters and one of her brothers. The siblings, who also have experience in health care, hope to bring a new assisted-living community to Sullivan County, but have not yet decided on a location.
Campbell said took the business branding course partly to figure out what to do with the emblem on her personal business card. The image is of the crest of the Campbell clan, a boar’s head bearing the motto: Ne Obliviscaris (“Forget Not”).
“We were trying to figure out a brand,” she said.
The siblings thought a logical next step would be for one of them to attend the class and bring back what they learned, she said.
On Tuesday the participants were offered a chance to recognize the difference between strong and weak branding, understand how a well-conceived brand is critical to a company’s growth and success, and to complete exercises and brainstorm ways that will help define a vision and brand for their own potential or registered small business. The class also included instructor and peer feedback and take-away activities.
The course was free because of a grant from the Clowes Fund. “Branding for Your Small Business” is one of several courses offered without charge or at a low cost to people of any gender who are seeking to enhance their business skills and resources.
CWE considers Claremont a hub for educational offerings that can help with the organization’s mandate to help women and veterans start and grow their small businesses, which can in turn spur the city’s economic development, course instructor Christine Halvorson said. Halvorson, the self-described “head honcho” at Halvorson New Media, has a background in consulting and training for social-media marketing, and she teaches this course and a few others under the auspices of CWE New Hampshire.
“They just find that people have good ideas and just need a little encouragement and structure to reach their dreams,” Halvorson said.
CWE operates Women’s Business Centers in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The centers are designed to assist women who wish to start and grow small businesses, and to offer comprehensive training, resources, counseling and connections to women, but the courses and resources are open to everyone. The New Hampshire office is in Nashua, but CWE New Hampshire Director Nancy Pearson, Program Coordinator Alexandra Bishop, and instructors have traveled to speak or teach in Claremont. There is another CWE hub in the town of Washington.
“I am very grateful to the Clowes Fund for their interest in supporting rural entrepreneurship in New Hampshire. It is their generosity that allows CWE to offer this programming for people in Sullivan County,” Pearson said on Wednesday by email.
CWE has held a total of four business planning classes recently, three in Claremont and one in Washington, she said.
“These comprehensive 10-week classes have enabled people to explore their idea, and even take their small business to the next level,” she said.
In those 10-week classes, participants who complete the program walk away with a full business plan, and they also recently presented their plans to a panel of community members including Claremont City Manager Ryan McNutt and Director of Planning and Development Nancy Merrill.
Through May and June, CWE is following up that class with practical workshops on branding, marketing and social media, “which is the logical next step,” Pearson said.
Pearson added that CWE is committed to Sullivan County, and hopes to continue to offer the types of programs and services that people are looking for in Claremont and the surrounding area.
The organization’s Community Classroom program ensures that people have “a place to go to get the critical skills, quality training, technical assistance and confidence they need to start and grow a viable business,” according to the organization’s website.
CWE will offer classes in June and July at the MakerSpace, in downtown Claremont adjacent to the parking garage on Main Street. Classes include “Social Media Made Simple” on June 25 and “Marketing on a Shoestring” on July 25.
Joshua Bushueff, the driving force behind the nonprofit Claremont Makerspace, said the center — which houses studio space and dedicated work areas for making of all kinds, such as metalworking and fiber crafting — will soon be open to the public.
“In the meantime, we’re running classes like this,” he said.
For more information about CWE’s courses and small business support resources, email [email protected] or call (603) 318-7580.
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