Calling all Castlegar businesswomen
By Contributor
Women’s Enterprise Centre’s is bringing a free Peer Mentoring program to Castlegar this year specifically to help locally self-employed women build successful businesses.
Peer mentoring is designed to help women entrepreneurs address the issues and barriers they experience while making the transition to self-employment.
These issues can range from creating a balance between work life and personal life, to facing a steep learning curve while developing new business skills.
Women’s Enterprise Centre is seeking six to eight women who are in the first three years of business operation to join the Peer Mentoring Group.
Kathline Holmes, owner of Gailforce Resources will be the group mentor. As a local business woman and successful entrepreneur, Holmes will offer her experience, advice and support to the members of the group, helping them build successful businesses in Castlegar.
The group will meet six times and the members will decide the focus of each meeting, but the facilitator will ensure that the mentees work together — fostering a cohesive and comfortable group of women, who are there to listen, brainstorm and provide moral support for each other.
This group will also provide participants with an opportunity to learn from other women’s experiences.
“Our research found a gap in the mentoring programs offered around the province and that’s why our Peer Mentoring Groups focus on women who are in the transition to self employment – the first three years of business,” said Laurel Douglas, CEO of Women’s Enterprise Centre.
“These are the entrepreneurs who are most at risk of becoming part of the 40 per cent of small B.C. businesses that fail after two years. We want to reverse that trend.”
If you are a woman in the first three years of business and would like to read more about Women’s Enterprise Centre Mentoring or apply to become a member of the Castlegar Peer Mentoring Group, please visit www.womensenterprise.ca or contact Sara Couper, mentoring co-ordinator at mentoring@womensenterprise.ca or 1-800-643-7014 ext. 201.
Women’s Enterprise Centre’s mission is to empower women to their business success.
With offices and business advisors in Victoria, Kelowna, and Vancouver, Women’s Enterprise Centre is B.C.’s leading resource for women who are starting, purchasing or growing a small business.
They provide essential resources and services designed for women, by women, to build business capacity and fuel success.
To date, Women’s Enterprise Centre has assisted over 40,000 B.C. women to start, grow and succeed in business.
Women’s Enterprise Centre is an initiative of Western Economic Diversification Canada.
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