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Mary Murray kicked things off before handing the mike over to Naomi Lolley by saying that Launch Lenawee is a new program actually run by volunteers to assist individuals who want to start their own businesses in Lenawee County. She thanked Adrian Morning Rotarian, Dave Maxwell, for his efforts in the program along with Nate Smith as well as Naomi Lolley who she asked to share more about this program.Naomi said she has been very proud to be a part of Launch Lenawee. She said that the program began with 12 applicants initially which was later narrowed down to 7 who participated in a very structured business training program. All sessions are approximately two and a half hours in length every Wednesday evening at the Adrian Armory and Events Center for six weeks conducted by herself and Gary Clemetson from Lenawee Now. At the conclusion of the training, a mentor is assigned to each. Naomi showed the audience a short video describing the program. You can see it again at: www.launchlenawee.org. Interested candidates, Naomi said, meet with her to determine what things they need, where their deficiencies are and then direct them to the proper resources. A critical partner of Launch Lenawee has been Lenawee Now.
Naomi introduced two students currently participating in the program – Jay and Guinne Marks and Joe Kozakiewicz and Jay Marks. Both spoke about the tremendous help they have received from going through the program and mentioned the importance networking, having a business plan and knowing who their customers are.
Mark Murray concluded this informative presentation by mentioning how proud he was of all of the participants in this program and the leadership team. The Kauffman Institute, he said, whose only job is to educate entrepreneurs for over the past 50 years, makes available a blended on-line program that is intense yet critical to each of the participants. He said that the partnerships with the Adrian Rotary Clubs, Lenawee Now, the Adrian Chamber and everyone else who is on board to support Launch Lenawee have contributed to its success.
Potential candidates in the program, Mark said, should they be selected to participate in the program understand that they must commit to: Two and a half hours per week in the classroom for a total of 8 weeks; 4 hours of homework in between; monthly meetings with cohorts – checking; business topic presentations; monthly individual meetings with their Primary Mentor; other individual meetings with Resource Mentors; attend various networking events.
Mark ended by encouraging all members to seriously consider becoming a mentor since Launch Lenawee is an official Rotary project!