September Entrepreneurial Insider This month Karen Benson, our business development officer based in the Muskegon Innovation Hub at GVSU, had a chance to sit down with Shelley Irwin at WGVU Radio to share a little bit more about our recent expansion, her role there and how we continue to expand to serve entrepreneurs on … Read more
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Beginning With the End in Mind… The Importance of Having an Exit strategy With the excitement of starting a new business, it’s easy to overlook the fact that one day, it may no longer fit into the current makings of your life. In fact, when someone brings up “exit strategy,” it’s normal to be … Read more
Dealing with Self Doubt, Feeling Like an Impostor, and Learning to Take Care of You Being a woman in this world doesn’t come without its challenges. And those challenges need to be addressed. It’s our duty as women who champion other women, to talk about our struggles, and to remind one another that we’re … Read more
Nevertheless, She Persisted… Celebrating Women’s Equality Day What is Women’s Equality Day? Today is Women’s Equality Day! But here at GROW, we don’t use only today as a reason to celebrate the successes of women. We focus each and every day on working toward providing women entrepreneurs with the tools they need to be … Read more
The Ins and Outs of Business Insurance Why do I need business insurance? Because you want to protect your investment. There’s always an element of chance involved with a new business venture, but business insurance can help minimize financial risks associated with unexpected events such as the death of a partner, an injured employee, an … Read more
Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women (GROW) announces two new staff members to their growing team. Annie Trupke joins as Administrative Assistant, and Jill May joins as the new Director of Lending Programs. The addition of these two professionals will support GROW in their mission to serve women and men entrepreneurs throughout West Michigan, including the … Read more
Planning for a Healthy Business Earlier this year, GROW’s Business Development Officer, Mary Hartfield, led our GROW Connects class about planning for a healthy business by sharing 4 essential steps. No matter where you are in the development of your business, asking yourself (and answering!) these key questions will help ensure that you create and … Read more
Business Model Canvas, Explained If you’ve ever attended one of our Start Smart classes, you’re probably familiar with the Business Model Canvas. It’s a tool that will help you thoughtfully plan out the next steps in your journey as an entrepreneur. At its core, this strategy is used to develop a new business model or … Read more
With everything that goes on in the lives of entrepreneurs, we know they are always looking for ways to streamline processes, eliminate stress, and work more effectively! For our June Entrepreneurial Insider segment, we talked about some of the best apps out there for entrepreneurs. Calendar: Accompany Mary suggests this particular calendar app because … Read more
May Entrepreneurial Insider Recap May’s Entrepreneurial Insider segment is all about food! We’re thrilled to talk about our new partnership with Michigan Good Food Fund and the opportunity to provide lending to good food enterprises in Grand Rapids who are increasing access to healthy food in the community. In cohorts with the Michigan Good Food Fund, we’re enlisting the help of … Read more