UW-Extension reaches out to minority entrepreneurs
UW-Milwaukee SBDC Director Lucy Holifield organizes peer roundtables that meet the special needs of minority entrepreneurs. Photo by SCOTT PAULUS
Lucy Holifield, director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Small Business Development Center (SBDC), knows all about PeerSpectives, the peer advice program developed by the Lowe Foundation in collaboration with University of Wisconsin-Extension. She was trained by the foundation to facilitate the model for second-stage business owners.
But Holifield found that the model didn't fit the needs of the minority community in Milwaukee. "Minority businesses frequently didn't meet the criteria for minimum revenues and double-digit growth, and the cost to participate was too high. I changed the criteria but stuck with the protocol," Holifield says.
She launched the Minority Business Roundtable in October 2004 with 10 minority business owners - six men and four women.
A year later, four members of the first roundtable are planning a joint business venture, and Holifield is about to organize a second roundtable. The roundtable fills an acute need for minority entrepreneurs. "The object is for them to experience the roundtable and see the benefits," Holifield says. "Once they've done that, they can then migrate to the mainstream roundtable and expand their circles." —Patricia Simms
For more information: UW-Milwaukee SBDC Director Lucy Holifield, lucyh@uwm.edu, (414) 227-3242