Fifty-three small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs from adversity backgrounds across Palm Beach County graduated on Sept. 19 from the Community Bootcamp of the West Palm Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program (WPEAP).
The 10-month program is run by Florida State University’s Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship and Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship in partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s Urban Poverty and Business Initiative (UPBI). It serves entrepreneurs who are building businesses while facing economic hardship and limited access to resources. After six Saturdays at FSU’s West Palm Beach Collaboration Space, delegates now move into mentoring with local entrepreneurs, followed by student consulting.
The bootcamp was designed as a community effort. Delegates learned from 24 instructors and speakers, including local business owners, lenders, economic development leaders and officials from the cities of West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach and Riviera Beach and from Palm Beach County. Sessions showed delegates how to get small-business certified, compete for public contracts, access capital through community lenders and hire and manage a team. The program was built with 11 community partners.
“From the beginning, we knew this program would be impactful in West Palm Beach, and we are so grateful for the support and collaboration of our partners,” said Susana Santos, Jim Moran Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at FSU and Program Director for WPEAP. “Every city office, lender and local business owner who entered that room gave our delegates more than information. They gave them a relationship and a next step.”
“From the beginning, we knew this program would be impactful in West Palm Beach, and we are so grateful for the support and collaboration of our partners.”
– Susana Santos, Jim Moran Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at FSU
Michael Morris, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Notre Dame and founder of UPBI, traveled to West Palm Beach twice to teach sessions.
“I am proud to welcome West Palm Beach into the UPBI network,” Morris said. “Entrepreneurs who are determined to build sustainable businesses despite constraints, and a community that shows up for them: that is what makes this model work. West Palm Beach now joins 60 cities in eight countries that believe entrepreneurship can be a real path out of poverty and disadvantage.”
For many delegates, the change was personal.
“This program changed my mindset, my business and my life,” said Teawanna Teal, owner of The TJ Spot, who is now trademarking her business. “I now know my break-even point, my operations system and my value as a Black-owned, woman-owned business owner.”
Bridget Thornton, owner of Honey B’s Treats, believes the bootcamp accelerated her ambition for taking her business to the next level.
“This experience has given me more confidence and motivation to continue growing Honey B’s Treats and pursuing new opportunities,” she said.
“This program reflects exactly who we are as a college,” added Michael Brady, Interim Dean of the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship. “Our mission is to make entrepreneurship education available to everyone, especially those who have been left out of it. Bringing that mission to West Palm Beach shows what a public university can do for the communities it serves.”