The self-made businessmen and women of Philadelphia now have a new helping hand.
The Philadelphia Entrepreneurship Week, held this week, seeks to educate and encourage local entrepreneurs with a series of public events.
"Most people who want to become entrepreneurs don't know the resources that they have out there for them," said event coordinator Megan Barnes.
The program is put on by the Empowerment Group, a local nonprofit business development organization. Planners hope to hold an event annually.
Barnes said the event aims to connect "business-development organizations to entrepreneurs who may not have known what is available to them."
The week's activities have included workshops and networking events for area entrepreneurs and a party at the World Live Cafe last night featuring Philadelphia business success stories like Sean Agnew from concert-promotion group R5 Productions and Kristen and Courtney Kammerer from Remedy Tea Bar.
West Philadelphia's Enterprise Center, a minority-business support center founded in 1989 by the Wharton Small Business Development Center, will host a conference on youth-led business tomorrow.
Della Clark, Enterprise Center president and CEO, said the "Make Change" Philadelphia youth social entrepreneurship conference aims to introduce students to the sorts of career options seldom taught in classrooms.
"Schools always bring in people who talk about how to have different careers," Clark said. "But very seldom is entrepreneurship put up there or elevated as a career option along with other activities."
Clark added that the unpredictability of the economy and a resulting lack of job security make entrepreneurship abilities especially valuable to students.
"The days of working for someone for 30 years are no longer going to be in existence for these young high-school students," Clark said, mentioning General Motors plant closures.
College freshman Sunita Desai will participate in the event as a volunteer for Empowerment Group's ELITE, a Wharton program that mentors high-schoolers in independent business ventures.
Desai is currently working with three juniors at Motivation High School in West Philadelphia to open the school's first student store.
"It's a really significant opportunity to be able to learn about entrepreneurial skills and start their own business," Desai said of her students. "It's definitely a lot of work on their part ... but they're going to get through it, and they're going to be able to get this business off to a good start."
The success of the Entrepreneurship Week, Barnes said, ensures it will not be the last.
"It's been received very well," she said.
