Women's Entrepreneurial Growth Organization (WEGO)
Susan Hale, Executive Director
Corliss Newsome, Business Counselor
58 W. Center St.
PO Box 544
Akron, Ohio 44309
(216) 535-9346

Founded in 1988 to help low-income women achieve self-sufficiency through business ownership, WEGO quickly gained status as a Women's Specialty Small Business Development Center -- initially one of only two such in the nation -- using Small Business Administration funds passed through state government to provide training in entrepreneurship.

Open to women who are interested in starting small businesses or who already own one, WEGO's program is simple and straightforward: Its monthly three-hour Start Smart orientations, which typically attract 7 to 10 hopeful business owners, provide a three-hour overview of the challenges and barriers of starting a small business. It's intended quite frankly as a "reality check," Hale says, to identify serious prospects willing to undertake the chore of making a business plan, starting a small enterprise and making it work. Survivors qualify for quarterly Business Plan Training courses, which take up to 10 women through a comprehensive 10-week course covering all the basics; at the end of the class, each graduate has completed a detailed plan for her own business.

Women who can afford the nominal fee and who already have basic qualifications pay $15 for Start Smart and $125 for Business Plan Training. However, WEGO also has an entrepreneurial-training contract with the Summit County JOBS program, which covers those expenses for AFDC recipients referred to the program, who also go through a preliminary Personal Skills class focusing on self-esteem, empowerment and basic coping skills before moving on to the business training. At the conclusion of training, graduates also have access to counselors to help them find financing for their business, with WEGO itself serving as the funder of last resort through a $150,000 revolving loan fund from SBA.

It is slow, painstaking work. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, and the barriers standing between welfare recipients and self-sufficiency are high -- not least being the problem with losing the welfare grant and, more important, health benefits before earning enough to cover those necessities. As a result, although there's a handful of inspiring success stories, such as a woman who's developed a candy business from an in-home hobby job to a full retail operation in Cleveland, the hard fact is that relatively few of the graduates are working on their own. But the personal gains from the program seem clear, and WEGO is working in coalition with other non-profits to encourage a system of state waivers to make the system more flexible.

They're also looking at models for a mentoring program and possibly a peer-lending (Grameen Bank) operation. WEGO is an exceptionally lean operation, with a $280,000 annual budget and a staff of just two plus a part-time secretary and volunteer trainers.

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