A Joint Initiative Between     Heart of Wisconsin     Business & Economic Alliance and     Community Foundation of     South Wood County

Home About Us B2B Club Breaking News Contact Donate Events / Programs Feedback Ideas Incubator Industry Clusters Links / Resources Progess Funds Progress Teams Public Art / Murals Publications		Breaking News February 9, 2006 - Camp helps start center By: Caroline Casper, for the Daily Tribune Editor's note: The Daily Tribune will regularly run columns updating Community Progress Initiative activities and the work of its groups in local communities. Caroline Casper is a recent Entrepreneurial Boot Camp participant. It all started with our vision to create a safe, healthy and caring environment, while acknowledging a shared responsibility with parents in the care and nurture of their children. Our idea was to begin a child care center that would provide quality child care within a Christian atmosphere. But where do we begin? We first sent out flyers to families, businesses and churches to see if there was a need for this type of service. The responses we received were a definite yes. So, where would we start? The first call I made was to Mary Wirtz at Community Foundation of South Wood County to see if she knew of any funding that was available to open a new child care center. Mary suggested we attend the Entrepre-neurial Boot Camp that was being held the following week. Talk about timing! Mary explained that Boot Camp is an intensive training in business planning and operation. Over the course of just a few short days, current and potential business owners are treated to 21 hours of instruction and feedback about their business planning process from local experts in their field. Bringing in local business owners to share their knowledge was incredibly helpful. These true-life experiences gave us insight into what running a business is really like. But, I would have to say that the most important thing we took away from the Boot Camp was the confidence that we could write a successful business plan. It's one thing to write a business plan. It's another to have it accepted by a bank. Getting our business started took a lot of work, but it was definitely worth it. The Entrepreneurial Boot Camp was exactly what we needed to get started. We just celebrated our first-year anniversary Jan. 24. Hopefully, we will serve families for many years to come. Many businesses in our area are known for quality. Little Dears also would like to be known for quality. Quality child care means continually striving for high standards. For more information on Entrepreneurial Boot Camp, call Melissa Loken at Heart of Wisconsin Business & Economic Alliance at 422-4856. Caroline Casper is owner of Little Dears Child Care Center and an Entrepreneurial Boot Camp participant.
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