December 23, 2025 • 36 mins
Join host Dave Miller on this episode of Inside the Vault as he welcomes Anne Flynn Schlicht, the director of the Center for Women's Entrepreneurship at Chatham University.
With nearly 20 years of experience in supporting women entrepreneurs, Anne shares her journey from Ireland to the U.S. and her commitment to empowering women in business. Anne tells Dave about the vital resources and programs offered by the Center for Women's Entrepreneurship. Anne highlights the common challenges faced by women business owners, such as navigating compliance, securing financing, and the importance of market research. She emphasizes the need for continuous learning and the value of seeking help from available resources. For more information or to connect with the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship, visit cwe.chatham.edu or call 412-365-1253.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Inside the Vault. Subscribe today and follow us for updates, and if you have any questions or topics you would like to hear about, please email us at insidethevault@enterprisebankpgh.com!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Welcome to Inside the Vault, Enterprise Bank's podcast series, where we
talk about items of interest to the small business community. Today,
we are going to talk about an important resource for
women entrepreneurs and women-owned business in the region. With
me today is Anne Flynn Schlicht, who is the director of
the Center for Women's Entrepreneurship at Chatham University and
(00:34):
Sure, sure. So, uh, let's
start as all good stories start. Let's start from the beginning. So
before we start talking about the center for winter women's entrepreneurship, let's
talk a little bit about you professionally and personally. So what's,
what's your professional, uh, business background
(00:55):
All right, well, I was fortunate enough back
20 years ago now to come to the United States through
a visiting scholars program. It was sponsored actually
by a well-known family here, the Sleaters, the
Rooney family, and Robert Morris University. So
that's what brought me here. Prior to that, I was working at the University of
(01:17):
Limerick in the business school, and we had a business incubator there as
well. And while I was here working
at Robert Morris, Chatham University was establishing a center
for women's entrepreneurship. And this is how small the world is.
They had brought in a lady, Mary Reby, from Minnesota
to set up the center and she was recruiting faculty and
(01:39):
other people to work at the center. And she had
done her PhD in Ireland. And her second
reader on her PhD was my direct boss at the University of
So my boss at the University of Limerick said, hey,
you're in Pittsburgh. It can't be that big a place. So go and meet
with this lady. So I met with Dr. Reby. And
(02:02):
good or bad, I don't know, but Dr. Ruby offered me a job.
So that's how I ended up at Chatham University. And that's close
Wow. So we're getting into the history of
the center here in a second. Obviously people are going to pick
up right away that you're not necessarily a native Pittsburgher with
(02:25):
So yeah, so I grew up in Ireland, in the south of
Ireland in County Cork. I grew up on a farm and
it's very hard to earn a living on a
farm. So my father also worked for the Irish Forestry
Board on Cuilta Torrenta. It was called for many years.
And then, you know, we eventually kind of sold off parts of the farm, moved
(02:49):
So you came from a business background in the
Oh, very, very, yes. A business background. We held onto the land, rented
out the land for many years. My father still farmed part of it. You
know, my mother was actually involved in the childcare industry as
well. So, um, and my brother, you know, and I were kind
of around the same age. So, um, when my brother graduated college,
(03:11):
he had multiple businesses as well. So, um, one or
two I invested in, some had money, some did not. So, uh,
but yeah, so I had a lot of experience, but really got involved
in the academia world and working at a university and really enjoyed it.
So give us a little bit of history. So you mentioned, you know,
20 years ago, the program was founded at Chatham. What
(03:38):
Yes. So Chatham has a long history over, you
know, close to 160 years now of supporting women and in
education. And our president was
very adamant about supporting women at all stages of their
life. So she wanted to put a center together to support
women as they went into the workforce, if they wanted to start their own companies. So
(03:59):
that really was the background to how the
center came about. I should mention at Chatham, we also have a
Center for Women in Politics, too, which Elsie Hillman
was one of the founding members of that. But really, it
was to help women if they wanted to go into business. Now, it's supporting women
as they are studying at Chatham, but primarily, it's women in Western
(04:21):
PA. So that's how it came about. And
then we got support from the Pittsburgh Foundation to found the center.
And over the years, we had different support from different foundations, primarily
to help with training, right? Education, you know, focus on
everything we do is education. And then in 2006, we
had the opportunity to apply for a grant from the Small
(04:44):
Business Administration for one of their educational programs
called Women Business Center. And we applied for that. So
that's a three year revolving grant we apply.
And yeah, so that has really helped us scale our operations over
the last, um, since 2016, where we
(05:05):
Okay. So how many staff do you have
We have a mighty team of four, Dave. A mighty team
of four. That's what we have. So I have four staff,
and then we have some graduate students to get experience, work
in our center. And then we have probably about a team of 15 to 20 you
(05:26):
know, independent contractors that we work with, most of them
being women entrepreneurs themselves. So many
of them give back because they've taken our programs over the years, have
grown and scaled their businesses, and now want to mentor and
So, um, it's a membership based organization, correct?
We have two levels. So we have, um, our tour federal
(05:49):
funding, our, our counseling is free to everybody. You do not
have to be a member, right? So membership is kind of a training program, but,
um, so we have a free one-on-one business counseling. We
service 11 counties in Western PA. So, and
I should say we have businesses that are clients who, you
know, lived here and moved to Florida, which many do, and we still work
(06:10):
with them thanks to the internet. But most
of our clients are in Western PA and in Allegheny, Butler,
Beaver and Westmoreland. Okay, then, so
you can take advantage of our services, free business counseling and
training, then we have a membership model as well. And
the membership really is more in terms of to help businesses connect
(06:31):
with other businesses, right? So networking, so networking, we
do training, business development, we do training events every
month for members. We try and do all of those in
person. And we mix them morning time,
evening time, different topics as well. So membership is
So what is, however you describe it, what
(06:54):
is the scope of the membership or how many women
So in terms of the businesses we work
with, on average, we work with anywhere between 600 to 800 businesses
a year, right? That's usually normally
our numbers. And because we're partially funded through the SBA, these
are all data that we have to collect. Right. So, um, but
(07:18):
around between six and 800 a year, um, again, throughout Western
PA, uh, of those, I would say about, we
have a membership about 200 and that's revolving. Sometimes people,
you know, maybe move states or they sell their business or
they go on to other things. So usually our membership is around 200. Um,
but we service around 800, six to 800 clients a year. Yeah.
(07:39):
And is there any eligibility criteria? I mean, does it have
to be a certain size business, certain stage of
No. I mean, anybody can be involved at our center. I
should say our services are open to all regardless of gender. Predominantly
our businesses are smaller, so I would say 50 employees or
less. They are for
(08:01):
profit. That is an area. We are focused on for profit entities
and usually registered in the state of PA because our
services are really focused about doing business if you're setting
Somebody that's aspiring to open a business as a startup or existing? Existing.
Yes, exactly. And I would say in terms of our client base, we're
(08:23):
probably maybe 55% early stage,
which is we want to three years in business. And then the
other 45% is existing more, maybe three years plus.
So, so let's jump into the kind of the programming here. What
are some of the competencies that you can help women entrepreneurs in
(08:44):
So for starting out, a lot of it's not
knowing what you don't know. We go through the steps
of what type of business you want to start, how you
legally go and register. So we do a lot of work on compliance. Every
industry has compliance, but in terms of just the
standard of registering your business, make sure you're following the
(09:06):
regulations that are there. So getting the business legally registered, getting
their documentation in place, also making sure they
understand the process. Yes, they can hire an attorney, but it's important
they understand what they're doing. So that's the
first area. The other area then is in terms of they need funding. And
this is where your enterprise bank and other lenders
(09:27):
come into place. majority of the businesses we work with
would, if they're looking to launch and grow, they are primarily
focused on debt financing. We have a few that have investors, but
most of them are debt financing. So again, helping them understand what
does that process look like, you know. We'd have people, I
don't know why they're asking me for all this information, and why do they
(09:48):
need all this documents? Story of my life. Yes.
So I would say we're often the clearinghouse to
give them reassurance that this is legit, this
is normal, this is not just you, this is not personal, this
is what these lenders will ask you. So
(10:10):
that's another area we do. We do a lot as well in feasibility, um,
and try and help them understand and put business plans and
projections together. Uh, you know, going from an
employee to owning your own business or being an employer is
a very different process. And, um, is
this a, you know, a product or service that has a viable market?
(10:32):
How are you going to price your product? all
those areas. So we do that to counseling and then we also do
So you have some signature kind of training programs
or curriculums for your clients that you work with.
Yes. So for the early stage business owners, we
(10:52):
do a program called Concept to Launch. It's a six week
program and it's for anybody who's from zero stages in
business to maybe two or three. So maybe you're doing a part time and
it's really taking them from what a concept is to how you launch it.
going through all those compliance and legal process, putting
your market research together, putting your business plan together, finding
(11:14):
out, you know, do you sell this online? Are you selling it, you
know, in a store? Whatever it may be. How you put
a pitch deck together, pricing of your products. That's one
of our signature programs. I will say one of the, you
know, if someone has been in an industry for a while and they're like,
oh, I can just start a business in this industry. And, you know, everybody says,
(11:34):
well, I have no competition. That's the thing we hear all the
time. And you might hear that as well. So it's
really like it's so important that you do your research. And we
are coming from an educational organization, so we kind of reiterate that.
Do more research. Let's investigate this. Because research
gives you potential. It opens up opportunities that you may not have known before.
(11:56):
Well, that's obviously one of the huge benefits of being associated with a university.
Yes. Because you have access to a lot of... We have access to
data and information. You're correct. So we have access to
like census data, but also, you know, market research
Which, by the way, was founded by a woman. Yes. So
(12:19):
that's market research data. It goes into, you can go locally,
Allegheny County. You can go state. You can go national. But
that gives me what's benchmarking, understanding what the margins
are in your industry. So someone who might
be in a particular industry and very good. We have actually
(12:39):
I was going to ask you if you have a particular types
You know, it varies. It depends on the market conditions.
I would tell you during COVID, there was a lot of dog walkers. Seemly
everybody got a dog during COVID. But we have everything from
services, you know, from mainstream businesses and services to
(13:04):
professional services, people who might want to open their law firm or their own
bookkeeping or accounting firm or consulting firm. And
then we have people who are making products as well, whether
that's textiles or candles or,
you know, all different products. And it's kind of going through, well,
how do I find, make a prototype of this? So a
(13:27):
lot of it's helping them just kind of walk through the process, get referrals, build
on just, you know, and we often get people who, I had a lady the
other day, just emailed me, scanned this letter and sent it to me.
And she goes, is this legit? And once you register with
the state of PA, your information is up there. So it's up there for
everybody. And I said, unfortunately, you're on a
(13:49):
mailing list now of all these. So you'll get a lot of spam email. And
no, this is not legit. So it's a lot of questions. So
that's one program concept to launch. We
do another one called Business Planning Capital Readiness. And that
one, as it's named, focuses primarily on the business plan
and are you ready for capital. So getting your projections together.
(14:10):
And that's for both startups and existing business owners. getting
all that financial information together, whether it's for debt financing
or investors. We do ad hoc workshops, and
depending on, you know, the topics and areas, we just did one on AI,
the other day, working smarter with AI for small businesses the
other day, as we're all learning about this new tool that is
(14:32):
available to us and how you can incorporate it in your business. We
do a lot of consulting and legal work or
training on legal matters because anyway everybody has compliance
and legal issues. Employment. Because
a lot of the businesses we work with will be the
(14:55):
And I will say, if I think about some
of the challenges that people have, the scariest thing there is
hiring their first employee. That's often it's like, I don't
know if I'm doing it right, or what
if I have to fire this person, and what
if I get sued? So we talk about
why it's important to have insurance, and what types of insurance that
(15:18):
you need, and depending on your industry. So yeah, lots
of in HR, legal, accounting, kind
of the main areas. Obviously, marketing, if you're selling online.
having a dynamic website, e-commerce website, again,
protecting yourself, you know, and having that insurance and
working with your banker, you know, if you're selling online. So,
(15:43):
Now, do you have a relatively small staff?
You have partnerships, I'm assuming, with other professionals and other organizations?
We have lots of community partnerships and
corporate partners, both from helping us get
the message out on what we're offering, but also referring clients. And
(16:04):
Enterprise Bank has been great to us, referring clients over the
years. You may come across a business that might need help in
order to get projections put together for their loan. But
we also work within with Allegheny County, with
the city, with the URA, with the SBA
resources as well. But I would say our biggest
(16:24):
referral and biggest partner is our clients. Yeah,
I mean, we do. like, spend nothing on marketing. So
You're doing something right if you're getting... It is our clients, Dave,
you know, who refer businesses and, you know, I
get a call, my neighbor's sister, you
(16:45):
know, took a program at your center. I want to take that program. So
usually it's referrals and over the years you build a reputation and thankfully
ours, you know, has grown that we can provide quality training programs.
and provide counseling to business owners as well. So
(17:05):
For those women-owned businesses that are doing public or quasi-public
work, there's also some benefits of having certain certifications.
Do you guys work with women that are
Yes. If you are looking and selling a product or service where you
might want Allegheny County or a public entity or
(17:29):
the federal government to buy your product to service. You know, there
is advantage of getting certified and that could be getting certified
as a woman owned business, a minority owned business, a
veteran owned business. You know, we do have clients who
meet all of those three categories. Unfortunately, you know, there's different certifications there,
but yes, there is. And we walk them through that. Firstly, if it's
(17:49):
beneficial. So, Some of them are free and some of them, there's
a fee for them. So we walk them through it. Unfortunately, it
comes back to compliance again, and there's a lot of paperwork that
And obviously, if you follow the politics these days, whether
it's federal or state or local, There's a big focus on
(18:14):
Correct. And they are who they say they are. They're doing what they say they do.
You know, so I often say, you know, they give me material and
I look at it and I'm like, OK, so if I ring that number, is it
you that's going to answer it? You know, do you sign off on
invoices? Do you sign off on checks? You know, do you, if
you're a landscaper, do you actually go out to people's houses and
(18:35):
look at what you're doing? So do you do what you say you do? And
And then you, you do have a specific industry niche focus
Yes, we do. So a few, this came around just around
COVID time. When was that? 2020-21? Actually it
(18:55):
was the city of Pittsburgh that approached us and
they had obviously a lot of home childcare providers but also centers.
When the state put a restriction on them that
they could only be at 50% capacity, unfortunately a lot of them
went out of business with that. So they said to us,
well, would you put a training program together to really help
(19:16):
more people get into this industry? Because there is a lot of compliance. So
we worked on that. And since the fall of 2021, we've been
offering a program called the Business of Child Care. And that's what
it is. It's a business. So we're trying to work with these providers, again,
who are, you know, really mission driven and great and
what they want to do is take care of our most precious things on earth, our
(19:38):
kids, but they have to view it as a business. And
so working with them to make sure they're in compliance with the state. but
also with their local community or borough, wherever they're located. And
then making sure that they are offering a quality service,
but also getting paid and being able to
(20:01):
support themselves and their employees. So it's called the business of
childcare. It has been extremely popular. I'm
shocked at how many people that apply. It's also, I'm also shocked
that, you know, I often taught food businesses for, you know, a highly
regulated industry, nothing, nothing compared to Chalker. But
yeah, so we've had people who've gone through that program, I
(20:23):
think we're close to about 200 people right now. And I
would say about 20-25% have launched. It
is a long process, because you have to find a building that
meets the requirements. Or if you're doing it in your home, you still have to have
your home meet the requirements. And throughout
Allegheny, but also we've had people open in Butler County, and Beaver County, and
(20:44):
Westmoreland County, their child care businesses.
Yeah, so it is an area. Food is another area we do a lot
of work on as well. We are fortunate at Chatham to
have a whole center that focuses on food. Oh, I
wasn't aware of that. Yeah, it's called CRAFT, and it
focuses on food and agriculture and the whole transportation of
(21:05):
food from the ground into the
retail stores. So we've worked a lot with their academics
there to do training programs on food. And
often it's taking people who maybe have
food trucks or sell to get them maybe into
restaurants or even with farmers to have added
(21:30):
And you also do an annual conference too,
So we have all of them. That's been there since we started our
Think Big conference. And it was really more in terms of motivational.
The purpose was to have women to see, OK, look, we've had
look at these women who have grown and scaled their businesses. And
(21:51):
in most cases, they've been low-tech businesses. We've
had the founder of Pampering Chef come. The most
interesting woman I've ever met was Maxine Clark. People
probably don't know who she is, but Maxine Clark is
Yes, yes. Everybody knows Build-A-Bear. And she founded it in
(22:13):
her mid to late 50s. And,
you know, she shared the story about going to a
lender, no offence Dave, but going to a lender and
trying to explain to a lender she wants to build this company where people can
come and dress up a bear. And the lender was
like, I'm not going to fund that. So it took her some time to
(22:33):
grow it. She obviously has franchised it. internationally,
you know, but it was a great story that she shared about, you
know, as a woman later in her life, you know, how she took
this on board and how she approached it. And she
talked a lot about culture, very important about that. And
Build-A-Bear is still here. It has changed its model and pivoted around the
(22:54):
years. We've also had the founder of
Yes. Yeah. So she's out of California, through
a contact I had, she came to Pittsburgh. And
again, this she was a teacher, and started, you
know, had was writing a book actually with her mother. And this is
(23:16):
how they started. And then they designed decided, okay, we
should have a character, right. And they created the elf. And
it just built from that. But, um, and she was interesting
because she shared a lot about, you know, when you're successful, when
you have a lot of copycats, because everybody's come out
with, she said, you know, it was like Mrs. Elf on the shelf
(23:40):
under the shelf. And, um, fortunate for
her, she said she got a contract with Macy's.
And actually, it was true with certification. She got certified as a woman-owned business, Trueway Bank,
and got a contract with Macy's as their exclusive distributor. And
that helped her, that money helped her then fight these
competing products coming in from overseas. And if
(24:03):
you ever look at it now, or if anybody goes to
the store and buys it, you'll see it's called the original Elf on a
Shelf. But she said she took it as a compliment that
all these copycat products came out. Yeah, so that is
and we kind of have pivoted that slightly, you know, because during COVID, we
didn't have large events. And we do a series now
(24:23):
called the Voices of Business. So it's a quarterly series,
where we bring in the business owners, same thing, sharing their voices about,
So we just talked about some of the accomplishments of some of your outside
speakers that you bring in. What are some success stories you've had with your
(24:45):
They can be small and big, right? So there were some examples I
gave you. Obviously, we've had a lot of success with some childcare businesses,
opening and scaling. One is, I'm
looking here at a lady, Ms. Works. grew
up in Pittsburgh in the Hilltop District. And the
Pittsburgh public schools consolidated over the years. So
(25:08):
her and her husband wanted to reinvest in their community. So
they purchased an old Pittsburgh school in
Ellington and has converted it into a
community hall and a child care center. And
so it's a big old building that they're making use of it. We helped
her with both the planning, but also the financing for
(25:29):
that as well. So that's one example. You
know, we have, I'm looking here, we have another lady, Jay Serrini.
Jay is a good friend of mine. So Jay, you know, was a
nuclear engineer, Westinghouse for many, many,
many years. And what brought her to Pittsburgh, she grew up in India. And
(25:49):
when she retired, she decided, you know, I want
to do something else. But she loved cooking. So
she, we helped her create a company called, it's called
Popping Mustard Seeds. So if you ever eat Indian food, they
use these mustard seeds that pop when you put them into a pan.
So that's her name. We helped her with her branding and marketing. And
(26:11):
she has a food business now where it's a subscription business,
but she also teaches classes, you know, throughout Phipps
and different places as well. Two very different businesses. We
also have work a lot, like I said, with food businesses, getting them
into, you know, from a food trailer into restaurants
as well. But yeah, there's many, many, many, many that
(26:33):
we can think of. Another lady, she
owns a company called HRT Solutions. Jessica
worked in the industry in HR for many years and then went
out and launched her own company. She was probably one of the first graduates
of our Concept Launch training program. And
(26:54):
now Jessica has a, you know, large HR company, recruits
employees for large companies all over the world. So and
her company is completely virtual as well. And so
So on the flip side of that, I mean, what do you see is the most
common challenges that women owned businesses have either
(27:15):
getting started or growing their businesses to the next level?
I'm assuming You know, the family dynamic is
an important part of what you guys, your clients are
Correct. Yeah. You know, often people go
into entrepreneurship and this isn't just women, but it's kind of two main
things. You're either pushed into it or pulled into it. Women
(27:36):
are often pushed into it, so they find themselves pushed
into launching a business because A, they might have lost their job, their
company went overseas, we've had a lot of people who were furloughed
and who now are looking to start businesses as consultants. over
the years, airlines, right? We had a lot of people worked in the airlines. So
(27:57):
they're kind of pushed into it, or maybe because of family needs,
you know, and they're often, but then there's some who are
pulled into it as well, who are finding, you know what, I've got
as far as I'm going to my profession, I like to do this, I'd like to do
it myself, and maybe having a more flexible schedule. So
there's push and pull factors that bring them to that stage in
(28:18):
their life. And it's just then finding in terms of
what their goals are. Can they generate enough income to
support themselves and their family? And then if they're going to have employees,
you know, but it's really looking at where
they are when they want it. Is this a lifestyle business or is this something you
want to exit and sell, uh,
(28:40):
onto whether it's onto your family or onto another
buyer, a future out. Uh, I will say what, because
we're at a university, we do have, um, we work with all the universities
around us, Pitt and CMU as well. You know, we have
a lot more creative businesses than ever before now. So
if they want to sell it, you have to set it up that way. And,
(29:03):
So, um, I'm assuming with you having both
a training and a counseling component, these are long term
Correct. Yes. Uh, you know, we have some clients we've been working with
on and off over 10 years, maybe more. Uh, and sometimes because
they had a business, they sold it, they start another one or they might
be, uh, growing. So yeah. So a lot of our classes then
(29:26):
do counseling and most ages, I say a business might stay with us two or
three years. And then, but they can always come back. There's no timeframe on
the relationship. They can come back at any time and things change. Uh,
we often have people come back and say, you know what, I'm selling my business. Do
you know anybody who wants to go into this industry to buy this business? And
yeah, so there's, you know, there's a long timeframe that are there, but
(29:48):
I will say access to capital or is still
a challenge for a lot of businesses. Um, and
whether it's getting that put on paper, showing the projections or
as they grow. in terms of
having that equity as well. And I think that's probably the
thing I see for businesses is, you know, you have to have skin
(30:09):
in the game and for them to understand that, that if you're
looking for... It's helpful to have somebody other than the banker. Yes, correct. Yes,
exactly. So I'm like, OK, you can't be asking for 100% here. You
have to contribute and have equity yourself.
And again, if they have never done that before, it's not
like a car loan. That's what I try to explain to people. It's a different process.
(30:37):
So what does the future look like for the center?
And what are some of the upcoming programs? When's this
Yeah, so we still see a
lot. We have businesses coming to us every day,
whether they're new or existing, which is great. I
(30:59):
will say an area we're focused on is given advances
in technology and with AI, does that
change the delivery of some of these products
and services? Does that make these businesses still relevant in
five years? So that is a concern for some business owners. Obviously,
staying on top of it, we want to make sure our clients and our women are staying on
(31:22):
top of what the technology is, and you can embed it into your business
and learn about it. So, you know, there's a lot of
challenges in that area. And we as a center want to learn that as well
as we grow. You know, I think there will still be
a need, you know, as amazing as AI is, I don't think it's going to
cut my hair. So there's still be need for services
(31:42):
that we all have. But yeah, so there's
still a lot there, you know, to grow and scale. I think our center will
maybe adapt in terms of trainings that
we offer and services that we offer to meet those needs
So where are the interested existing business owners
or aspiring business owners? How do they
(32:07):
All right, well, I would love everybody to go to
our website, cwe.chatham.edu, and
check out our website. Even if you Google Center for Women's Entrepreneurship,
it will come up. We have a lovely new website that
we just launched last month because
(32:28):
we're celebrating 20 years. So we have a lot of success stories out
there and a lot of great information. So, and we
actually have a resource guide on our website as well. So a
lot of great tools for you to use. Some of ours and some
of our resource partners that we share. Then you
can always, obviously we call the center
(32:51):
412-365-1253. We have someone there every day. We'll answer your call. And
So as I always ask, as kind of
parting words, with as many business
owners and entrepreneurs that you've dealt with over the years, what
(33:13):
Well, the first thing is research. is you
have to research your industry. And it's
not just when you're starting out, it's as you continue in business.
Things change all the time. And I
wouldn't be in academia if I wasn't telling you, you need to read, you need
to research, you need to continually educate yourself, be
(33:34):
involved in your industry. So if there's an association for
your industry, be involved in that, because that
helps you to understand where is it moving as an industry as a whole.
You know, stay on top of compliance. The
two areas where we see people get in trouble for businesses, A,
they're not in compliance, or B, they're undercapitalized. They
(33:56):
have no cash. So that is the two main areas. So
we stay in compliance. Laws and regulations change all
the time. We tell people all the time, update your insurance. People
move from one building to another. They don't update their insurance.
So those kind of things, just staying on top. It's
easy when you're in business to get very busy in the business and
(34:19):
not staying on top of it. And the
other thing is I say, ask for help. Right? Everybody needs
That's one thing about this area. Everybody needs help. There's a lot of resources. Yes,
We have a lot of resources out there. You know, ask for
help. It doesn't matter. Like I said, whatever question is,
if we're not able to help you, I know that we can refer you to someone
(34:41):
else who can. So ask for help. Do your research. And
research will help you identify opportunities, too. It's not just,
you know, open your eyes to other opportunities that
Well, excellent advice, a great local resource,
and a great relationship that we've had with the bank as the sponsor
(35:02):
of the program for many years. So wish you continued
success with the center. For
those of you that are interested in
contacting Anne and working with the Center for Women's
Entrepreneurship at Chatham, That phone number and website?
I'll share it. I'm like NPR here. 412-365-1253. Okay. And
(35:31):
Thanks so much, Ann, for the time and the information, which
is a great value to our viewers and listeners. For
those of you that have any ideas for future episodes of
Inside the Vault, you can email us at InsideTheVaultAtEnterpriseBankPGH.com. You
can check us out in audio format on all the major podcast platforms
(35:52):
and in video format on YouTube. Thank you very much for
Welcome to Inside the Vault, Enterprise Bank's podcast series, where we
talk about items of interest to the small business community. Today,
we are going to talk about an important resource for
women entrepreneurs and women-owned business in the region. With
me today is Anne Flynn Schlicht, who is the director of
the Center for Women's Entrepreneurship at Chatham University and
(00:34):
Sure, sure. So, uh, let's
start as all good stories start. Let's start from the beginning. So
before we start talking about the center for winter women's entrepreneurship, let's
talk a little bit about you professionally and personally. So what's,
what's your professional, uh, business background
(00:55):
All right, well, I was fortunate enough back
20 years ago now to come to the United States through
a visiting scholars program. It was sponsored actually
by a well-known family here, the Sleaters, the
Rooney family, and Robert Morris University. So
that's what brought me here. Prior to that, I was working at the University of
(01:17):
Limerick in the business school, and we had a business incubator there as
well. And while I was here working
at Robert Morris, Chatham University was establishing a center
for women's entrepreneurship. And this is how small the world is.
They had brought in a lady, Mary Reby, from Minnesota
to set up the center and she was recruiting faculty and
(01:39):
other people to work at the center. And she had
done her PhD in Ireland. And her second
reader on her PhD was my direct boss at the University of
So my boss at the University of Limerick said, hey,
you're in Pittsburgh. It can't be that big a place. So go and meet
with this lady. So I met with Dr. Reby. And
(02:02):
good or bad, I don't know, but Dr. Ruby offered me a job.
So that's how I ended up at Chatham University. And that's close
Wow. So we're getting into the history of
the center here in a second. Obviously people are going to pick
up right away that you're not necessarily a native Pittsburgher with
(02:25):
So yeah, so I grew up in Ireland, in the south of
Ireland in County Cork. I grew up on a farm and
it's very hard to earn a living on a
farm. So my father also worked for the Irish Forestry
Board on Cuilta Torrenta. It was called for many years.
And then, you know, we eventually kind of sold off parts of the farm, moved
(02:49):
So you came from a business background in the
Oh, very, very, yes. A business background. We held onto the land, rented
out the land for many years. My father still farmed part of it. You
know, my mother was actually involved in the childcare industry as
well. So, um, and my brother, you know, and I were kind
of around the same age. So, um, when my brother graduated college,
(03:11):
he had multiple businesses as well. So, um, one or
two I invested in, some had money, some did not. So, uh,
but yeah, so I had a lot of experience, but really got involved
in the academia world and working at a university and really enjoyed it.
So give us a little bit of history. So you mentioned, you know,
20 years ago, the program was founded at Chatham. What
(03:38):
Yes. So Chatham has a long history over, you
know, close to 160 years now of supporting women and in
education. And our president was
very adamant about supporting women at all stages of their
life. So she wanted to put a center together to support
women as they went into the workforce, if they wanted to start their own companies. So
(03:59):
that really was the background to how the
center came about. I should mention at Chatham, we also have a
Center for Women in Politics, too, which Elsie Hillman
was one of the founding members of that. But really, it
was to help women if they wanted to go into business. Now, it's supporting women
as they are studying at Chatham, but primarily, it's women in Western
(04:21):
PA. So that's how it came about. And
then we got support from the Pittsburgh Foundation to found the center.
And over the years, we had different support from different foundations, primarily
to help with training, right? Education, you know, focus on
everything we do is education. And then in 2006, we
had the opportunity to apply for a grant from the Small
(04:44):
Business Administration for one of their educational programs
called Women Business Center. And we applied for that. So
that's a three year revolving grant we apply.
And yeah, so that has really helped us scale our operations over
the last, um, since 2016, where we
(05:05):
Okay. So how many staff do you have
We have a mighty team of four, Dave. A mighty team
of four. That's what we have. So I have four staff,
and then we have some graduate students to get experience, work
in our center. And then we have probably about a team of 15 to 20 you
(05:26):
know, independent contractors that we work with, most of them
being women entrepreneurs themselves. So many
of them give back because they've taken our programs over the years, have
grown and scaled their businesses, and now want to mentor and
So, um, it's a membership based organization, correct?
We have two levels. So we have, um, our tour federal
(05:49):
funding, our, our counseling is free to everybody. You do not
have to be a member, right? So membership is kind of a training program, but,
um, so we have a free one-on-one business counseling. We
service 11 counties in Western PA. So, and
I should say we have businesses that are clients who, you
know, lived here and moved to Florida, which many do, and we still work
(06:10):
with them thanks to the internet. But most
of our clients are in Western PA and in Allegheny, Butler,
Beaver and Westmoreland. Okay, then, so
you can take advantage of our services, free business counseling and
training, then we have a membership model as well. And
the membership really is more in terms of to help businesses connect
(06:31):
with other businesses, right? So networking, so networking, we
do training, business development, we do training events every
month for members. We try and do all of those in
person. And we mix them morning time,
evening time, different topics as well. So membership is
So what is, however you describe it, what
(06:54):
is the scope of the membership or how many women
So in terms of the businesses we work
with, on average, we work with anywhere between 600 to 800 businesses
a year, right? That's usually normally
our numbers. And because we're partially funded through the SBA, these
are all data that we have to collect. Right. So, um, but
(07:18):
around between six and 800 a year, um, again, throughout Western
PA, uh, of those, I would say about, we
have a membership about 200 and that's revolving. Sometimes people,
you know, maybe move states or they sell their business or
they go on to other things. So usually our membership is around 200. Um,
but we service around 800, six to 800 clients a year. Yeah.
(07:39):
And is there any eligibility criteria? I mean, does it have
to be a certain size business, certain stage of
No. I mean, anybody can be involved at our center. I
should say our services are open to all regardless of gender. Predominantly
our businesses are smaller, so I would say 50 employees or
less. They are for
(08:01):
profit. That is an area. We are focused on for profit entities
and usually registered in the state of PA because our
services are really focused about doing business if you're setting
Somebody that's aspiring to open a business as a startup or existing? Existing.
Yes, exactly. And I would say in terms of our client base, we're
(08:23):
probably maybe 55% early stage,
which is we want to three years in business. And then the
other 45% is existing more, maybe three years plus.
So, so let's jump into the kind of the programming here. What
are some of the competencies that you can help women entrepreneurs in
(08:44):
So for starting out, a lot of it's not
knowing what you don't know. We go through the steps
of what type of business you want to start, how you
legally go and register. So we do a lot of work on compliance. Every
industry has compliance, but in terms of just the
standard of registering your business, make sure you're following the
(09:06):
regulations that are there. So getting the business legally registered, getting
their documentation in place, also making sure they
understand the process. Yes, they can hire an attorney, but it's important
they understand what they're doing. So that's the
first area. The other area then is in terms of they need funding. And
this is where your enterprise bank and other lenders
(09:27):
come into place. majority of the businesses we work with
would, if they're looking to launch and grow, they are primarily
focused on debt financing. We have a few that have investors, but
most of them are debt financing. So again, helping them understand what
does that process look like, you know. We'd have people, I
don't know why they're asking me for all this information, and why do they
(09:48):
need all this documents? Story of my life. Yes.
So I would say we're often the clearinghouse to
give them reassurance that this is legit, this
is normal, this is not just you, this is not personal, this
is what these lenders will ask you. So
(10:10):
that's another area we do. We do a lot as well in feasibility, um,
and try and help them understand and put business plans and
projections together. Uh, you know, going from an
employee to owning your own business or being an employer is
a very different process. And, um, is
this a, you know, a product or service that has a viable market?
(10:32):
How are you going to price your product? all
those areas. So we do that to counseling and then we also do
So you have some signature kind of training programs
or curriculums for your clients that you work with.
Yes. So for the early stage business owners, we
(10:52):
do a program called Concept to Launch. It's a six week
program and it's for anybody who's from zero stages in
business to maybe two or three. So maybe you're doing a part time and
it's really taking them from what a concept is to how you launch it.
going through all those compliance and legal process, putting
your market research together, putting your business plan together, finding
(11:14):
out, you know, do you sell this online? Are you selling it, you
know, in a store? Whatever it may be. How you put
a pitch deck together, pricing of your products. That's one
of our signature programs. I will say one of the, you
know, if someone has been in an industry for a while and they're like,
oh, I can just start a business in this industry. And, you know, everybody says,
(11:34):
well, I have no competition. That's the thing we hear all the
time. And you might hear that as well. So it's
really like it's so important that you do your research. And we
are coming from an educational organization, so we kind of reiterate that.
Do more research. Let's investigate this. Because research
gives you potential. It opens up opportunities that you may not have known before.
(11:56):
Well, that's obviously one of the huge benefits of being associated with a university.
Yes. Because you have access to a lot of... We have access to
data and information. You're correct. So we have access to
like census data, but also, you know, market research
Which, by the way, was founded by a woman. Yes. So
(12:19):
that's market research data. It goes into, you can go locally,
Allegheny County. You can go state. You can go national. But
that gives me what's benchmarking, understanding what the margins
are in your industry. So someone who might
be in a particular industry and very good. We have actually
(12:39):
I was going to ask you if you have a particular types
You know, it varies. It depends on the market conditions.
I would tell you during COVID, there was a lot of dog walkers. Seemly
everybody got a dog during COVID. But we have everything from
services, you know, from mainstream businesses and services to
(13:04):
professional services, people who might want to open their law firm or their own
bookkeeping or accounting firm or consulting firm. And
then we have people who are making products as well, whether
that's textiles or candles or,
you know, all different products. And it's kind of going through, well,
how do I find, make a prototype of this? So a
(13:27):
lot of it's helping them just kind of walk through the process, get referrals, build
on just, you know, and we often get people who, I had a lady the
other day, just emailed me, scanned this letter and sent it to me.
And she goes, is this legit? And once you register with
the state of PA, your information is up there. So it's up there for
everybody. And I said, unfortunately, you're on a
(13:49):
mailing list now of all these. So you'll get a lot of spam email. And
no, this is not legit. So it's a lot of questions. So
that's one program concept to launch. We
do another one called Business Planning Capital Readiness. And that
one, as it's named, focuses primarily on the business plan
and are you ready for capital. So getting your projections together.
(14:10):
And that's for both startups and existing business owners. getting
all that financial information together, whether it's for debt financing
or investors. We do ad hoc workshops, and
depending on, you know, the topics and areas, we just did one on AI,
the other day, working smarter with AI for small businesses the
other day, as we're all learning about this new tool that is
(14:32):
available to us and how you can incorporate it in your business. We
do a lot of consulting and legal work or
training on legal matters because anyway everybody has compliance
and legal issues. Employment. Because
a lot of the businesses we work with will be the
(14:55):
And I will say, if I think about some
of the challenges that people have, the scariest thing there is
hiring their first employee. That's often it's like, I don't
know if I'm doing it right, or what
if I have to fire this person, and what
if I get sued? So we talk about
why it's important to have insurance, and what types of insurance that
(15:18):
you need, and depending on your industry. So yeah, lots
of in HR, legal, accounting, kind
of the main areas. Obviously, marketing, if you're selling online.
having a dynamic website, e-commerce website, again,
protecting yourself, you know, and having that insurance and
working with your banker, you know, if you're selling online. So,
(15:43):
Now, do you have a relatively small staff?
You have partnerships, I'm assuming, with other professionals and other organizations?
We have lots of community partnerships and
corporate partners, both from helping us get
the message out on what we're offering, but also referring clients. And
(16:04):
Enterprise Bank has been great to us, referring clients over the
years. You may come across a business that might need help in
order to get projections put together for their loan. But
we also work within with Allegheny County, with
the city, with the URA, with the SBA
resources as well. But I would say our biggest
(16:24):
referral and biggest partner is our clients. Yeah,
I mean, we do. like, spend nothing on marketing. So
You're doing something right if you're getting... It is our clients, Dave,
you know, who refer businesses and, you know, I
get a call, my neighbor's sister, you
(16:45):
know, took a program at your center. I want to take that program. So
usually it's referrals and over the years you build a reputation and thankfully
ours, you know, has grown that we can provide quality training programs.
and provide counseling to business owners as well. So
(17:05):
For those women-owned businesses that are doing public or quasi-public
work, there's also some benefits of having certain certifications.
Do you guys work with women that are
Yes. If you are looking and selling a product or service where you
might want Allegheny County or a public entity or
(17:29):
the federal government to buy your product to service. You know, there
is advantage of getting certified and that could be getting certified
as a woman owned business, a minority owned business, a
veteran owned business. You know, we do have clients who
meet all of those three categories. Unfortunately, you know, there's different certifications there,
but yes, there is. And we walk them through that. Firstly, if it's
(17:49):
beneficial. So, Some of them are free and some of them, there's
a fee for them. So we walk them through it. Unfortunately, it
comes back to compliance again, and there's a lot of paperwork that
And obviously, if you follow the politics these days, whether
it's federal or state or local, There's a big focus on
(18:14):
Correct. And they are who they say they are. They're doing what they say they do.
You know, so I often say, you know, they give me material and
I look at it and I'm like, OK, so if I ring that number, is it
you that's going to answer it? You know, do you sign off on
invoices? Do you sign off on checks? You know, do you, if
you're a landscaper, do you actually go out to people's houses and
(18:35):
look at what you're doing? So do you do what you say you do? And
And then you, you do have a specific industry niche focus
Yes, we do. So a few, this came around just around
COVID time. When was that? 2020-21? Actually it
(18:55):
was the city of Pittsburgh that approached us and
they had obviously a lot of home childcare providers but also centers.
When the state put a restriction on them that
they could only be at 50% capacity, unfortunately a lot of them
went out of business with that. So they said to us,
well, would you put a training program together to really help
(19:16):
more people get into this industry? Because there is a lot of compliance. So
we worked on that. And since the fall of 2021, we've been
offering a program called the Business of Child Care. And that's what
it is. It's a business. So we're trying to work with these providers, again,
who are, you know, really mission driven and great and
what they want to do is take care of our most precious things on earth, our
(19:38):
kids, but they have to view it as a business. And
so working with them to make sure they're in compliance with the state. but
also with their local community or borough, wherever they're located. And
then making sure that they are offering a quality service,
but also getting paid and being able to
(20:01):
support themselves and their employees. So it's called the business of
childcare. It has been extremely popular. I'm
shocked at how many people that apply. It's also, I'm also shocked
that, you know, I often taught food businesses for, you know, a highly
regulated industry, nothing, nothing compared to Chalker. But
yeah, so we've had people who've gone through that program, I
(20:23):
think we're close to about 200 people right now. And I
would say about 20-25% have launched. It
is a long process, because you have to find a building that
meets the requirements. Or if you're doing it in your home, you still have to have
your home meet the requirements. And throughout
Allegheny, but also we've had people open in Butler County, and Beaver County, and
(20:44):
Westmoreland County, their child care businesses.
Yeah, so it is an area. Food is another area we do a lot
of work on as well. We are fortunate at Chatham to
have a whole center that focuses on food. Oh, I
wasn't aware of that. Yeah, it's called CRAFT, and it
focuses on food and agriculture and the whole transportation of
(21:05):
food from the ground into the
retail stores. So we've worked a lot with their academics
there to do training programs on food. And
often it's taking people who maybe have
food trucks or sell to get them maybe into
restaurants or even with farmers to have added
(21:30):
And you also do an annual conference too,
So we have all of them. That's been there since we started our
Think Big conference. And it was really more in terms of motivational.
The purpose was to have women to see, OK, look, we've had
look at these women who have grown and scaled their businesses. And
(21:51):
in most cases, they've been low-tech businesses. We've
had the founder of Pampering Chef come. The most
interesting woman I've ever met was Maxine Clark. People
probably don't know who she is, but Maxine Clark is
Yes, yes. Everybody knows Build-A-Bear. And she founded it in
(22:13):
her mid to late 50s. And,
you know, she shared the story about going to a
lender, no offence Dave, but going to a lender and
trying to explain to a lender she wants to build this company where people can
come and dress up a bear. And the lender was
like, I'm not going to fund that. So it took her some time to
(22:33):
grow it. She obviously has franchised it. internationally,
you know, but it was a great story that she shared about, you
know, as a woman later in her life, you know, how she took
this on board and how she approached it. And she
talked a lot about culture, very important about that. And
Build-A-Bear is still here. It has changed its model and pivoted around the
(22:54):
years. We've also had the founder of
Yes. Yeah. So she's out of California, through
a contact I had, she came to Pittsburgh. And
again, this she was a teacher, and started, you
know, had was writing a book actually with her mother. And this is
(23:16):
how they started. And then they designed decided, okay, we
should have a character, right. And they created the elf. And
it just built from that. But, um, and she was interesting
because she shared a lot about, you know, when you're successful, when
you have a lot of copycats, because everybody's come out
with, she said, you know, it was like Mrs. Elf on the shelf
(23:40):
under the shelf. And, um, fortunate for
her, she said she got a contract with Macy's.
And actually, it was true with certification. She got certified as a woman-owned business, Trueway Bank,
and got a contract with Macy's as their exclusive distributor. And
that helped her, that money helped her then fight these
competing products coming in from overseas. And if
(24:03):
you ever look at it now, or if anybody goes to
the store and buys it, you'll see it's called the original Elf on a
Shelf. But she said she took it as a compliment that
all these copycat products came out. Yeah, so that is
and we kind of have pivoted that slightly, you know, because during COVID, we
didn't have large events. And we do a series now
(24:23):
called the Voices of Business. So it's a quarterly series,
where we bring in the business owners, same thing, sharing their voices about,
So we just talked about some of the accomplishments of some of your outside
speakers that you bring in. What are some success stories you've had with your
(24:45):
They can be small and big, right? So there were some examples I
gave you. Obviously, we've had a lot of success with some childcare businesses,
opening and scaling. One is, I'm
looking here at a lady, Ms. Works. grew
up in Pittsburgh in the Hilltop District. And the
Pittsburgh public schools consolidated over the years. So
(25:08):
her and her husband wanted to reinvest in their community. So
they purchased an old Pittsburgh school in
Ellington and has converted it into a
community hall and a child care center. And
so it's a big old building that they're making use of it. We helped
her with both the planning, but also the financing for
(25:29):
that as well. So that's one example. You
know, we have, I'm looking here, we have another lady, Jay Serrini.
Jay is a good friend of mine. So Jay, you know, was a
nuclear engineer, Westinghouse for many, many,
many years. And what brought her to Pittsburgh, she grew up in India. And
(25:49):
when she retired, she decided, you know, I want
to do something else. But she loved cooking. So
she, we helped her create a company called, it's called
Popping Mustard Seeds. So if you ever eat Indian food, they
use these mustard seeds that pop when you put them into a pan.
So that's her name. We helped her with her branding and marketing. And
(26:11):
she has a food business now where it's a subscription business,
but she also teaches classes, you know, throughout Phipps
and different places as well. Two very different businesses. We
also have work a lot, like I said, with food businesses, getting them
into, you know, from a food trailer into restaurants
as well. But yeah, there's many, many, many, many that
(26:33):
we can think of. Another lady, she
owns a company called HRT Solutions. Jessica
worked in the industry in HR for many years and then went
out and launched her own company. She was probably one of the first graduates
of our Concept Launch training program. And
(26:54):
now Jessica has a, you know, large HR company, recruits
employees for large companies all over the world. So and
her company is completely virtual as well. And so
So on the flip side of that, I mean, what do you see is the most
common challenges that women owned businesses have either
(27:15):
getting started or growing their businesses to the next level?
I'm assuming You know, the family dynamic is
an important part of what you guys, your clients are
Correct. Yeah. You know, often people go
into entrepreneurship and this isn't just women, but it's kind of two main
things. You're either pushed into it or pulled into it. Women
(27:36):
are often pushed into it, so they find themselves pushed
into launching a business because A, they might have lost their job, their
company went overseas, we've had a lot of people who were furloughed
and who now are looking to start businesses as consultants. over
the years, airlines, right? We had a lot of people worked in the airlines. So
(27:57):
they're kind of pushed into it, or maybe because of family needs,
you know, and they're often, but then there's some who are
pulled into it as well, who are finding, you know what, I've got
as far as I'm going to my profession, I like to do this, I'd like to do
it myself, and maybe having a more flexible schedule. So
there's push and pull factors that bring them to that stage in
(28:18):
their life. And it's just then finding in terms of
what their goals are. Can they generate enough income to
support themselves and their family? And then if they're going to have employees,
you know, but it's really looking at where
they are when they want it. Is this a lifestyle business or is this something you
want to exit and sell, uh,
(28:40):
onto whether it's onto your family or onto another
buyer, a future out. Uh, I will say what, because
we're at a university, we do have, um, we work with all the universities
around us, Pitt and CMU as well. You know, we have
a lot more creative businesses than ever before now. So
if they want to sell it, you have to set it up that way. And,
(29:03):
So, um, I'm assuming with you having both
a training and a counseling component, these are long term
Correct. Yes. Uh, you know, we have some clients we've been working with
on and off over 10 years, maybe more. Uh, and sometimes because
they had a business, they sold it, they start another one or they might
be, uh, growing. So yeah. So a lot of our classes then
(29:26):
do counseling and most ages, I say a business might stay with us two or
three years. And then, but they can always come back. There's no timeframe on
the relationship. They can come back at any time and things change. Uh,
we often have people come back and say, you know what, I'm selling my business. Do
you know anybody who wants to go into this industry to buy this business? And
yeah, so there's, you know, there's a long timeframe that are there, but
(29:48):
I will say access to capital or is still
a challenge for a lot of businesses. Um, and
whether it's getting that put on paper, showing the projections or
as they grow. in terms of
having that equity as well. And I think that's probably the
thing I see for businesses is, you know, you have to have skin
(30:09):
in the game and for them to understand that, that if you're
looking for... It's helpful to have somebody other than the banker. Yes, correct. Yes,
exactly. So I'm like, OK, you can't be asking for 100% here. You
have to contribute and have equity yourself.
And again, if they have never done that before, it's not
like a car loan. That's what I try to explain to people. It's a different process.
(30:37):
So what does the future look like for the center?
And what are some of the upcoming programs? When's this
Yeah, so we still see a
lot. We have businesses coming to us every day,
whether they're new or existing, which is great. I
(30:59):
will say an area we're focused on is given advances
in technology and with AI, does that
change the delivery of some of these products
and services? Does that make these businesses still relevant in
five years? So that is a concern for some business owners. Obviously,
staying on top of it, we want to make sure our clients and our women are staying on
(31:22):
top of what the technology is, and you can embed it into your business
and learn about it. So, you know, there's a lot of
challenges in that area. And we as a center want to learn that as well
as we grow. You know, I think there will still be
a need, you know, as amazing as AI is, I don't think it's going to
cut my hair. So there's still be need for services
(31:42):
that we all have. But yeah, so there's
still a lot there, you know, to grow and scale. I think our center will
maybe adapt in terms of trainings that
we offer and services that we offer to meet those needs
So where are the interested existing business owners
or aspiring business owners? How do they
(32:07):
All right, well, I would love everybody to go to
our website, cwe.chatham.edu, and
check out our website. Even if you Google Center for Women's Entrepreneurship,
it will come up. We have a lovely new website that
we just launched last month because
(32:28):
we're celebrating 20 years. So we have a lot of success stories out
there and a lot of great information. So, and we
actually have a resource guide on our website as well. So a
lot of great tools for you to use. Some of ours and some
of our resource partners that we share. Then you
can always, obviously we call the center
(32:51):
412-365-1253. We have someone there every day. We'll answer your call. And
So as I always ask, as kind of
parting words, with as many business
owners and entrepreneurs that you've dealt with over the years, what
(33:13):
Well, the first thing is research. is you
have to research your industry. And it's
not just when you're starting out, it's as you continue in business.
Things change all the time. And I
wouldn't be in academia if I wasn't telling you, you need to read, you need
to research, you need to continually educate yourself, be
(33:34):
involved in your industry. So if there's an association for
your industry, be involved in that, because that
helps you to understand where is it moving as an industry as a whole.
You know, stay on top of compliance. The
two areas where we see people get in trouble for businesses, A,
they're not in compliance, or B, they're undercapitalized. They
(33:56):
have no cash. So that is the two main areas. So
we stay in compliance. Laws and regulations change all
the time. We tell people all the time, update your insurance. People
move from one building to another. They don't update their insurance.
So those kind of things, just staying on top. It's
easy when you're in business to get very busy in the business and
(34:19):
not staying on top of it. And the
other thing is I say, ask for help. Right? Everybody needs
That's one thing about this area. Everybody needs help. There's a lot of resources. Yes,
We have a lot of resources out there. You know, ask for
help. It doesn't matter. Like I said, whatever question is,
if we're not able to help you, I know that we can refer you to someone
(34:41):
else who can. So ask for help. Do your research. And
research will help you identify opportunities, too. It's not just,
you know, open your eyes to other opportunities that
Well, excellent advice, a great local resource,
and a great relationship that we've had with the bank as the sponsor
(35:02):
of the program for many years. So wish you continued
success with the center. For
those of you that are interested in
contacting Anne and working with the Center for Women's
Entrepreneurship at Chatham, That phone number and website?
I'll share it. I'm like NPR here. 412-365-1253. Okay. And
(35:31):
Thanks so much, Ann, for the time and the information, which
is a great value to our viewers and listeners. For
those of you that have any ideas for future episodes of
Inside the Vault, you can email us at InsideTheVaultAtEnterpriseBankPGH.com. You
can check us out in audio format on all the major podcast platforms
(35:52):
and in video format on YouTube. Thank you very much for
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