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Nearly 30 New Entrepreneurs to 'Graduate'
From SBDC Entrepreneurial Training Series

RELEASED: Dec. 6, 2006

EAU CLAIRE — Participants from this fall's sessions of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Small Business Development Center's Entrepreneurial Training Program will "graduate" in a session to be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, in the Eau Claire River Room in the Royal Credit Union Building in downtown Eau Claire.

The ultimate goal of the Entrepreneurial Training series is for participants to create a business plan that guides their actions and may serve to attract potential investors.

Interest in the program is increasing. Instead of the usual single fall session, two had to be scheduled after the Eau Claire Leader Telegram ran a story on the program Aug. 20, 2006.

Nearly 30 entrepreneurs completed the fall 13-session Entrepreneurial Training Series and will share summaries of 27 new business plans that range from service to retail to product development.

Small business plays an important role in the economic development of our region. How important are small businesses to the U.S. economy? According to the Small Business Administration, small firms

  • Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
  • Employ half of all private sector employees.
  • Pay 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
  • Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade.
  • Create more than 50 percent of non-farm private gross domestic product.
  • Supplied more than 23 percent of the total value of federal prime contracts in fiscal year 2004.
  • Produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms. These patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.
  • Are employers of 41 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer workers).
  • Are 53 percent home-based and 3 percent franchises.
  • Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced 26 percent of the known export value in FY 2002.

The next Entrepreneurial Training series is scheduled to begin Feb. 13, 2007. To register, obtain additional program information, or to request reasonable accommodations for disabilities, please call 715-836-3636/toll-free 866-893-2423, use the Wisconsin Relay System (711), email ce@uwec.edu or visit the Continuing Education Web site.

-30-

NW

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