Wilmington Chamber of Commerce to host Minority Enterprise Development week
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Women and minorities who have businesses or dream of starting one will get support and encouragement during the Cape Fear Region’s 7th Annual Minority Enterprise Development week.
The event is from Oct. 4 – 8 and is packed with more than 30 events.
The Wilmington Chamber of Commerce coordinated dozens of free seminars geared to help women- and minority-owned businesses learn more about marketing, operations, supply chain issues, business financing and more.
More information can be found online here.
“Business owners, minority- and women-owned businesses, can come in and learn things from accounting to legal,” said Natalie English, the chamber’s president and CEO. “There are going to be some phenomenal networking opportunities and they may network with someone that might buy their goods or services. It’s exciting.”
Some events will be in person while others are virtual due to the pandemic.
The chamber also partnered with the Greater Wilmington Business Journal on the WilmingtonBiz Conference and Expo, which is planned for Thurs., Oct. 7.
“We’ve seen a lot of folks who work for some of our largest employers and what we’re finding is they’re sort of sticking their toe in the water to see if they want to have either side gig or to start their own business,” she said. “These are the types of events next week that will help folks understand whether small business ownership is something they really want to do.”
English said over the last year in North Carolina, 120,000 new businesses were formed. Many of those are small businesses.
“The exciting thing about that is people then have control over their own destiny in a way that you can’t if you are an employee at a large corporation,” she said. “We still have people who are a better fit for those larger corporations. For those who are creative, for those who want to be their own boss and want the flexibility that that might bring, this conference is for them.”
Visit this website to register.
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