Entrepreneurs find mentors at Sussex County is Open for Business event
Entrepreneurs Melissa Schrock and Nicole Truitt are both mothers with children ranging from 1 year to 7 years old. And with those children, it’s a great challenge to keep them all occupied.
“As a mom in Sussex County, my kids get out of school at the same time in summer, and I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to keep myself sane for three months,” said Schrock. “I would search so many sites looking for fun activities that were appropriate. I thought, ‘Why isn’t there a place to go to find all that information?’ I saw a real need.”
So Schrock and Truitt started Ready, Set, Kidoo! and ReadySetKidoo.com as a kids' activity portal for Sussex County, listing community and educational events, public parks and facilities, and everything in between.
The site also provides reviews of family-appropriate experiences and facilities to give parents some background before they head to their destinations. Even though the partners’ own children are still young, the activity information caters to all ages, including teens.
“I look for educational sites that are really enriching for older kids as well,” says Truitt, remembering how it was being a teen in Sussex and wondering where to find something interesting to do.
The partners hope to open the Ready, Set, Kidoo! brand to regional site managers who will focus on kids' events in their own communities. To do that, Schrock and Truitt know they have to rally a variety of technical, financial and marketing resources.
“It’s a matter of building on the infrastructure we have,” Schrock says of the technical needs alone, knowing the investment she’ll need to make. “I’ll need a programmer to write the frame so people can just plug in the information.”
With the desire to understand the available resources that could aid them in their business plan, Schrock and Truitt went looking for opportunities to explore Sussex County’s entrepreneurial supports. They decided to attend one of a series of resource workshops called Sussex County is Open For Business, which creates a one-stop experience with a number of financial, educational and consulting resources to help beginning entrepreneurs and existing companies looking to expand.
Participating organizations and agencies include Delaware Center for Enterprise Development, Delaware Economic Development Office, Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Delaware Small Business & Technology Development Center, Delaware State Treasury, DTCC-Entrepreneur Center, First State Community Action Agency, Job Center of Delaware Libraries, Southern Delaware Tourism, SCORE Delaware, Sussex County Economic Development Office, U.S. Small Business Administration and YWCA-Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship.
“We don’t have a mentor telling us where to go, and it can be a little bewildering,” said Truitt. “I really found the event helpful for me. We spoke to a few people and started to realize we were on the right track.”
The workshop series was developed by Sussex County Economic Development Action Committee, a nonprofit partnership of business people, educators and government officials to further retention, expansion, creation and attraction of better business for Sussex County. SEDAC’s goal is creating resources to support existing businesses, fostering entrepreneurship, facilitating improvements to infrastructure and nurturing a well-trained workforce.
Sussex County Is Open For Business is sponsored by Delaware Small Business & Technology Development Center. The next event for the series will be held from 8:30 to 11 a.m., Monday, Jan. 23, at the Georgetown Public Library, 123 West Pine St. in Georgetown. Regular resource events will be held the fourth Monday of each month, excluding December. For more information or to preregister, call 302-856-1555 or visit www.sedac-de.org.
