WEDC Awarded SBA Funding to Provide Assistance to Sandy Impacted Businesses
New Services Added to Assist Lower Hudson Valley Entrepreneurs

More than six months have passed since Superstorm Sandy and many Lower Hudson Valley companies are still struggling to recover.  To aid in the recovery process, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) awarded a Disaster Relief grant to the Women’s Enterprise Development Center Inc.  read more

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Congratulations to WEDC's 2013 LEAP Award Winners! $5,000 grants were awarded to:

• Cary and Meryl Gabeler
  Anjolie Ayurveda
  Natural body care line and perfumes
  
• Viviana Kaffury
  Kaffury Designs
  Graphic design and publicity services

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WEDC Opens Mid-Hudson Satellite in Poughkeepsie!

WEDC is very excited to announce that we have opened a satellite at The Hancock Technology Center at Marist College to give residents in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties access to our high-quality, low cost business training programs.  Read more.

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Veterans Realize Business Dreams

Veterans and WEDC graduates, Deborah Tompkins and Marialisa Walton Zywotchenko, made the front page of The Journal News on August 29, 2012!  Ernie Garcia profiled Deborah and Marialisa in his article about veteran entrepreneurs and programs such as ours that assist them in their small business endeavors.  Check out the article here!

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WEDC is the first Kiva Zip Trustee in NY State!

Congratulations to WEDC grad, Margie Nugent of Making Faces Parties, for being the first NY State entrepreneur to be endorsed on the Kiva Zip platform! Kiva Zip is Kiva's new US initiative that enables borrowers to be crowd-funded by lenders all over the country investing as little as $25 each.

Go to the Kiva Zip web site to see WEDC's Trustee profile and check out Margie's progress in raising $600 to fund the purchase of a stencil cutting machine to increase her market as a body artist.

If you are a WEDC client who needs a loan of $5000 or less to deal with the impact of Hurricane Sandy on your company, please e-mail jrosenzweig@westchester.org.

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Congratulations to our 2012 LEAP Award Winners!

Five $5,000 grants were awarded to:

• Candida Canfield, Dinner In Hand, LLC
• Melinda Huff, Mirame
• Susanne Leary Shoemaker, Undercare, Inc.
• Christine Sinclair, A Bark Above
• Marialisa Zywotchenko, Cyrus Contracting Co.

In addition, Mrs. Lanza generously awarded 5 additional $4,000 grants to:

• Lea Cullen Boyer, Green Guru Network
• Kecia Palmer-Cousins, G&K Sweet Foods, LLC
• Diana Scott-Sho, The Luscious Little Dessert Company
• Donna Simons, Donna Simons Studio
• Tamara Wrenn, Just Us Women Productions, LLC

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Marketplace Opportunity for WEDC Graduates at 6/14 Annual Event

In honor of LEAP Day, WEDC announces our 2012 LEAP Awards Program

What an appropriate day to announce that WEDC will, once again, be offering our Lanza Enterprise (LEAP) Award Program to help women entrepreneurs boost their businesses to the next level!  Five $5,000 equity awards will be presented to WEDC 15-Week Program graduates or participants who have completed comprehensive business plans and who meet the award criteria.

This program is a collaboration among the Lanza Family Foundation, the Women’s Research and Education Fund (WREF) and the Women’s Enterprise Development Center (WEDC). It is designed to help women who are owners of microenterprises (businesses with five or fewer employees) achieve greater business success.

The application deadline for the 2012 LEAP Award is May 3, 2012. ___________________________________________________________________________

WEDC Welcomes 3 New Board Members
Singari Seshadri,venture capitalist and start-up advisor, Martin L. Schmelkin, Managing Director, Associate General Counsel with Goldman Sachs, and Tracey A. Di Brino, General Manager of Carr Workplaces, have joined WEDC's Board of Directors.

 
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IBM Catalyst Grant
On June 15, 2011, WEDC partnered with IBM to present “Big Business Meets Small Business.” IBM Senior Vice President Ginni Rometty presented a keynote speech, which was followed by IBM volunteers mentoring more than 100 WEDC clients in IT, finance, sales, marketing, planning, operations, social media and legal issues. A highlight of the event was when Ms. Rometty presented WEDC’s Executive Director, Anne Janiak, with an IBM Catalyst Grant for $10,000.
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WEDC's Veteran's Entrepreneurial Training (VET) Program
WEDC was awarded a grant from the Walmart Foundation to create the WEDC Vet Program.  VET will open the door to business ownership for veterans and help them to create profitable businesses. For additional information call 914.948.6098.

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WEDC Launches New Web site
WEDC is proud to announce that we have launched our new Website and on-line community.  Look around the site and check out all our new features!  We added a newsroom and a place to share your success stories.  Sign up for our biweekly e-mail blasts, enroll in our workshops on-line, and do business with our entrepreneurs. 

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WEDC Creates On-Line Community with Business Directory

You have been asking us for a WEDC business directory and we are thrilled to introduce it in our on-line community.  To enter your information, click on the "sign up" button on our homepage or sign up directly on our community page.  Then enter your business information.  (If you work at home, you may choose to omit your street address.) Add a photo. Then, whoever comes to our site looking to do business with a WEDC client or supporter will be able to search for you by name, location, industry, name of company, and if you graduated from our 15-Week program, your class.  It's that easy.  So get started now!