“If we invest in women’s education and give them the opportunity to access credit or start a small business, we add fuel to a powerful engine for progress for women, their families, their communities and their countries.”
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Dear Friends:
As business owners and clients of WBDC’s, we want you to hear how WBDC helped us move our businesses to levels we never dreamed we would reach.
Amy:
Kiss-u Corps manufactures the “Kiss-u Tissue Tube,” a refillable cylindrical tissue dispenser that fits into automobile cup holders. When I launched my business, the product was manufactured in China. I needed capital to bring the manufacturing process back to the U.S. WBDC helped me improve my business plan and develop the professional financial projections required to approve a line of credit.
Last June, I secured a line of credit from a major commercial lender to bring my entire manufacturing operation home from China to the U.S. And that means local factories operating, more people working, increased community investment, higher tax revenues: the kind of results that have a substantial, positive impact on our economy.
Davette:
After 10 years in the home daycare business, I outgrew the maximum legal capacity of 6 children—yet I knew I could really increase profits if I could expand the space to accommodate the limit of 12 children allowable.
As a 2008 WBDC FastTrac alumna, I was referred to an Access to Capital counselor to help negotiate a loan to renovate my home and landscape the backyard.
I left Access to Capital for a year to focus on learning financial management with WBDC. When I returned for reassessment, I had paid for the zoning variance fees, modified my home mortgage to more favorable terms, and invested my own savings to build a concrete foundation for the addition. I finished my business plan and got a loan from the CT Community Investment Corporation—enough to complete the expansion. The increased profits are sufficient to service the debt and raise my personal income. Best of all, I hired additional staff to supervise my six new “clients”!
Although WBDC programs are partially funded by membership dues, program fees, government support, and grants, they depend heavily on donations from businesses and individuals who believe in their mission—and who can see the difference WBDC clients like us are making all around them.
Both of us run small companies but believe that we’re the ones who are going to make the difference. With help from WBDC, all entrepreneurs have the power to put us on the path to economic recovery.
Please support WBDC. Thank you.
Amy Davis, CEO, Kiss-u Corps, LLC Davette Stephens, Owner, Just a Helping Hand, LLC