WEB empowers women, bolsters area’s economy

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - It’s always an amazing sight, Joanne Saltzberg says, when students suddenly grasp the impersonal operation of a market economy and understand what it takes to achieve financial self-sufficiency.

Chief executive officer of Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore since 2005, Saltzberg oversees a $1 million-per-year, seven-employee nonprofit that prods such insights through entrepreneurial training of low-income clients, promoting self-sufficiency through business development.

“There’s a chronic [national] disparity in income and opportunity based on gender and ethnicity,” Saltzberg said of the compensation comparability issue that WEB addresses, noting that the disparity only gets worse when ethnicity is considered. “And although there’s been lots of progress and improvement, that disparity remains.”

“Entrepreneurship,” she said, “is the best way for [women] to overcome those barriers — and may be the only way.”

The program also pays for itself, Saltzberg said. In 2006, WEB-sponsored microenterprises added 2.5 jobs per startup to the local economy and an average per-business profit of $13,000 on revenues of $45,000.

To date, about 1,900 out of 2,300 students graduated from WEB’s program, and 80 percent created area businesses.

Established in 1989, WEB offers qualifying women and men three 12-week nighttime business-skills training courses per year and four eight-week courses during the day.

The classes feature instruction in market assessment, setting business goals, market planning, product pricing, financial plan preparation and other topics critical to microbusiness success. The screening is rigorous — only one in four are accepted — and the training is intensive, with a 15 percent dropout rate.

“That program gave me the confidence to go forward and launch a business in a big way,” said 2002 WEB graduate Jim Maguire of WindCurrent, a downtown carbon offset vendor.

The nonprofit also offers after-services for graduates, including technical assistance, mentor-matching and promotions, and just added a six-week business primer and aptitude assessment course called First Step, according to its Web site.

WEB’s evening classes are fee-based on a discounted sliding scale partially subsidized with state employment development funds.

“We work with people who don’t have a lot of money but who often have the best skills and survive the rigors of owning a business,” Saltzberg said. “We would like to offer it to more people.”

At a glance

Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore

1118 Light St. Suite 202

Baltimore, 21230-4152

410-727-4921

webinc.org

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