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U.S. Chamber Magazine, February 2008
Get
Answers to Business Challenges
After managing an arts and craft store for nine
years, Rose Sabel-Dodge of Portland, Oregon, was ready to open her
own fiber arts and craft shop specializing in natural supplies.
Though skilled in managing inventory and running a business day-to-day,
Sabel-Dodge lacked knowledge about other aspects of business ownership.
"I didn't know about cash flow charts or how to write a business
plan," she says.
For answers, Sabel-Dodge turned to a mentor she found through MicroMentor.
Sabel-Dodge had firm criteria in mind when she began reviewing mentor
profiles on MicroMentor's Web site in July 2007.
Read
the full article >
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Kelly K. Spors, The Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2008
Your
Mentor Is Out There -- in Cyberspace
Last spring, Morgan Dalley of Austin, Texas, needed
guidance on targeting and marketing her fledgling business hosting
spa parties. At a meeting of a local business group, she heard about
a Web site, MicroMentor.org, that matches entrepreneurs with volunteer
mentors.
She built a profile on the site, and then searched
its database of prospective mentors. She found a professional business
coach in Georgia with start-up experience and a sales background
who agreed to mentor her free over the telephone.
"Each conversation kind of builds on the one before
it," says Ms. Dalley, 31, who had $43,000 in revenue from her business
last year. "By the end of it, I came out with a whole plan that
I didn't realize I was creating."
Read
the full article >
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Robin Xander, San Francisco Business Times, December 21, 2007
Mentors
bring entrepreneurs into the big leagues
Not an expert on everything you need to know
to run a business? Not to worry. Business
coaches can fill in the gaps in your education.
...Another option is MicroMentor, an online support network focusing
on micro-businesses...
...The site works like a rudimentary dating site for entrepreneurs...
Read
the full article >
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November 6, 2007
Fed
Chair Ben Bernanke Highlights MicroMentor Business Model
In a November 6 speech at the ACCIÓN
Texas Summit on Microfinance in the United States, Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke pointed to MicroMentor as an example of new
business models for microenterprise development:
"MicroMentor
matches inexperienced entrepreneurs with more experienced businesspeople,
thereby providing important assistance to new business owners at
a relatively low cost."
Link
to full speech >>
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| MicroMentor
Goes Global |
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MicroMentor will expand globally as part of
a transfer to Mercy
Corps, effective October 1. Plans also call for strengthening
the program domestically.
Read
more >> [PDF]
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| Support
from the eBay Foundation |
| We are happy to be working with the eBay
Foundation to continue serving entrepreneurs across the United
States. Their investment is also enabling us to study how we can best
improve the MicroMentor program. |
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Hire
Frequencies Radio Interview |
As a guest on Hire
Frequencies, a program of career and worklife news, David
Rand, Director of MicroMentor, speaks with host Dave Abrams
on how entrepreneurs can grow their businesses through mentoring
relationships with business professionals.
Listen
to the full interview here >> |
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| Entrepreneur
Magazine Radio Show |
January 14. 2005
MicroMentor's director, David Rand, recently discussed how on-line
mentoring can help
strengthen microbusinesses with Lee Mirabal, host of the Entrepreneur
Magazine Radio Show. Listen
to the full interview (01.14.05 - Segment Three) here >> |
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| National
Dialogue on Entrepreneurship Newsletter |
Public Forum Institute
Sept. 22, 2003
This on-line newsletter, which regularly features stories on "various
trends driving the innovation economy," put MicroMentor in the spotlight,
describing how it helps budding entrepreneurs and promoting the need
for more mentors. The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, an initiative
of the Public Forum Institute, seeks to increase awareness and understanding
of entrepreneurship among policymakers. The initiative is supported
by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. |
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| District
Bulletin |
Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco
August 2003
MicroMentor's national campaign to recruit more mentors got a boost
from this on-line publication, which posted an announcement about
the project. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is one of 12
regional banks across the U.S. that, together with the Board of Governors
in Washington, D.C., serve as the nation's central bank. |
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| "MicroMentor
Helps Grow New Businesses and Forge New Relationships," Pursuing Value:
The Newsletter for Relationship Business |
July 31, 2003
This article explains MicroMentor's mission, while also putting the
project in the context of relationship building. Pursuing Value is
an e-mail newsletter published regularly by The Rhythm of Business,
a Boston-based consultancy that helps entrepreneurs and other businesspeople
master the art of collaborative business. |
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| "MicroMentor
uses the Internet to connect entrepreneurs with expertise," The Charles
Stewart Mott Foundation's Web site |
July 2003
This news story, posted on the Mott Foundation's Web site, details
the purpose and scope of MicroMentor. The Foundation has been one
of MicroMentor's earliest and biggest funders. |
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| "Mentor
program helps out startups: Business veterans help budding entrepreneurs
find their feet," San Francisco Chronicle |
May 26, 2003
By featuring the owner of a Spanish-language Web magazine who was
paired with a helpful mentor, this Chronicle article paints a lively
picture of MicroMentor's benefits. In addition, this in-depth feature
story explains the nuts-and-bolts of MicroMentor through interviews
with the microentrepreneur, her mentor and Project Director David
Rand. |
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Spotlighted: MicroMentor Director David Rand touted the
benefits of on-line mentoring during a recent Web cast sponsored
by the National Women's Business Council (NWBC). Rand was part of
a five-person panel that discussed mentoring as a tool to help women
grow their businesses. To view the one-hour discussion, and access
resources related to small business development and mentoring, visit
NWBC's
Web site.
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New Funder: The
Citigroup Foundation has awarded a $25,000 grant to MicroMentor
for operational support in 2004. This grant marks the second time
in recent months that MicroMentor has attracted a new funder.
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| Budding Relationship:
MicroMentor is joining forces with the National Women's Business Council
(NWBC) to promote the benefits of mentoring to women business owners.
NWBC is a bi-partisan advisory council created to serve as an independent
source of advice and policy recommendations to the federal government
on economic issues important to women business owners. Recently, the
NWBC hosted a Web cast devoted to mentoring (see above item) and launched
a new Web site portal featuring links to mentoring programs, including
MicroMentor. Learn more at www.nwbc.gov. |
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| HP and MicroMentor: In
November, Hewlett-Packard
awarded a $140,000 grant to MicroMentor so that mentoring services
could be offered to nine organizations in HP's Microenterprise
Development Grant program, which is designed to increase the capacity
of both microenterprise organizations and microentrepreneurs in underserved
communities. |
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| AEO
Accolades: MicroMentor has been recognized as a "unique and creative
innovation" by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), which
presented Director David Rand with the 2003 Innovation Award in
Technology at the national trade association's recent annual meeting.
AEO, which represents hundreds of microenterprise programs across
the U.S., bestows the award annually to recognize projects that are
"genuinely new, unique and creative in terms of technology or program
design." |
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Pictured: Welthy Soni,
Former Chair, AEO Board of Directors, David Rand, Director, MicroMentor,
and Sheilah Rogers, Executive Director, WEST Company |
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