006 Supporting Small Business Development Through Collaboration with Mountain Bizworks’ Entrepreneurship Program Manager Kimberly Hunter
Show Notes
Kimberly joins me today to share her journey and how she began working with Mountain Bizworks. She discusses how the organization, the programs, and the people behind Mountain Bizworks helps entrepreneurs start and grow their business. I also spoke with Susan to reveal why she created Toybrary and discover how the Foundations Business Planning Class from Mountain Bizworks was fundamental to making her idea a reality.
It’s about celebrating the individual and their ideas and thoughts and how they integrate into any one or multiple regions. We are an intermediary for giving access to capital for businesses and people who are low to moderate income earners.
Kimberly Hunter
This week on the Supportedly Podcast:
- Kimberly’s background and how she joined Mountain Bizworks.
- The vision and the big problem that Mountain Bizworks is trying to solve.
- The specific programs offered by Mountain Bizworks.
- How aspiring entrepreneurs and existing businesses can learn comprehensive business skills and develop a business plan through the Foundations Business Planning Class.
- How existing entrepreneurs and past Foundations participants can utilize the Alpine Class and peer-to-peer learning to assess how their business is performing and uncover the right time to upscale their company as a precursor to the ScaleUp WNC Program.
- How businesses with strong growth potential can join the ScaleUp WNC Program and capitalize on tailored services to achieve significant business development milestones.
- How Mountain Bizworks lends money.
- The low to moderate income Scholarship Program.
- How the Test Drive Program brings startup businesses to the forefront.
- How entrepreneurs can get involved with Mountain Bizworks.
- What excites Kimberley about her future work with Mountain Bizworks.
- Susan’s background and the creation of Toybrary of Asheville.
- Her experience with the Test Drive Program and the exposure that it offers.
- What it is like to work with Mountain Bizworks.
- How the advice and mentoring from Mountain Bizworks helped Toybrary of Asheville.
- The advice that Susan would give to anyone who is getting started.
- How the community can assist Toybrary of Asheville.
Mountain Bizworks has a foundations course, and that was the game changer. I had this vision to learn the business aspect, and they gave me the comprehensive tools and support to take an idea and birth it into reality. That was extraordinary.
Susan Dobroski
Free & Low-Cost Programs and Classes at Mountain Bizworks:
Connect with Kimberly Hunter:
Connect with Susan Dobroski:
- Toybrary
- Phone: (512) 765-4174
- Email: info@toybraryaustin.com
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Host: Stephanie Kissel
I utilize my background and expertise in project leadership to find creative operational solutions every day. I’m passionate about great ideas and inspired by the entrepreneurs who bring them to life (ever seen someone cry happy tears over your prototype?). I'm fortunate to work with people who share my passions and inspire me every day. Together, we're working non-stop to create cool things that empower entrepreneurs and business owners, like Supportedly.com, the place to find entrepreneurial support programs, events, and actionable content like The Supportedly Podcast. To all the providers and entrepreneurs they support, thanks for letting me tell your stories, and if you’re reading this, I hope we’ve helped make your entrepreneurial journey just a little be easier and maybe even more exciting!
Kimberly Hunter
Kimberly Hunter is the Entrepreneurship Program Manager at Mountain BizWorks where she manages their business learning programs including overseeing the individualized business coaching program and managing a network of small business coaches. She has extensive business training and management experience, having run her own business, facilitated accelerator programs, and been a college business professor.
Susan Dobroski
Susan Dobroski is founder/Chief Play Officer of The Toybrary of Asheville, a subscription based mobile toy-lending service. She is blessed with two thriving adult sons whose skill sets as a software engineer and public interest architect have contributed to the Toybrary branding, Play Hero characters, and on-line infrastructure.
They grew up enjoying the perks of a brick-n-mortar toy lending library where their mom volunteered. Susan is passionate and committed to one day directing a similar model in Asheville that will serve the community for generations to come. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelors of Science degree in Parks and Recreation/Environmental Education with a specialty in Therapeutic Recreation. She holds twenty-two additional post graduate credits in health education. Susan is grateful for her academic knowledge in conjunction with her vast transferable professional skills as a parent, teacher, published author and presenter, prior business owner, and life long community volunteer to launch Asheville’s first toy-lending library. When Susan isn’t behind the wheel of the Toybrary bus, she recharges her battery by playing outdoors and weekly “Auntie” play dates with June.
