Local resident part of fourth graduation of Goodwill’s Southwest Florida MicroEnterprise Project
North Fort Myers resident and business owner Esther Cartwright was one of the recent graduates of a unique business mentoring program called the Southwest Florida MicroEnterprise Project.
Sponsored through North Fort Myers-based Goodwill Industries, the class is called FastTrac and is a training program to designed to help emerging entrepreneurs, including those displaced from previous jobs during the recession, start new ventures and grow small businesses.
But Cartwright already had her own business.
“I’m one of those that started backwards,” she said.
After starting her own small business called Title Master, based in Fort Myers, she found valuable instruction on making her business grow.
“I first went to the American Business Women’s Association and learned a lot. One thing I knew is that I didn’t have a thimble full of knowledge on resources available. It opened up my eyes to see that there was more out there, things I had not thought of,” she said.
Title Master is a service business with diverse services concerning titles, anything moveable, she said, from cars to RVs and even airplanes.
“I help prepare a title for my customers. I save them the hassle of going to the DMV, ask the right questions and get them a title for the fee,” she said. “The other part is being a notary, doing permitting and evictions that all require paperwork that all requires the expertise to execute.”
Cartwright said she could not be more pleased with the many things she learned in the program.
“I suggest it not only for start-up businesses, but those who have been in business, to learn everything from a feasibility plan and cash flow issues. It teaches you more things than you thought were ever necessary,” she said.
There were top notch instructors and mentors.
“They were there for us literally 24 hours a day. We could call them, e-mail or fax, and they always, always answered the call immediately,” she said.
She has already recommended the program to friends and associates, said Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida Director of Public Relations Kirsten O Donnell.
The graduates received certificates symbolizing their completion of First Step FastTrac classes through the Kauffman Foundation. The ceremony was held at FineMark National Bank & Trust in Fort Myers.
John Marazzi, chief executive officer of John Marazzi Nissan, delivered the commencement address — a message of inspiration laced with humorous examples of his entrepreneurial business savvy, said O’Donnell.
In a prepared statement, Rick Evanchyk, vice president of Administrative Services at Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, explained the reasoning behind Goodwill’s participation as a partner in MicroEnterprise.
“Part of our mission is eliminating barriers to employment,” said Evanchyk. “If a barrier was eliminated — financial, skill-set or otherwise — our mission was accomplished.”
Evanchyk asked the class if it had been easy. When the graduates all shook their heads to say no, he replied, “Nothing of value ever is.”
Elliott Rittenhouse is the director of the MicroEnterprise Project at Goodwill.
“The next classes will be held April 30 and run to June 30 and they are filling up quickly,” he said. “They (interested applicants) need to go online to: goodwillswfl.org/microenterprise .htm.”
Of a local graduate, he said, “Esther was a wonderful influence in the class. She brought a different perspective that some of the other students didn’t have. She helped broaden their horizons.”
This is a gold standard of business preparation classes.
“Graduates achieve a 96 percent success rate where the industry standard is about 50 percent for failure,” he said.
The Southwest Florida MicroEnterprise Project is a partnership of several organizations and provides training for individuals with low-to-moderate income and/or other disadvantages to start their own businesses. Partners include ACCION, USA, Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, SCORE and the Fort Myers Enterprise Center.
To learn more about the Southwest Florida MicroEnterprise project, visit swflmicro.org or call Rittenhouse at 995-2106 ext. 215.