Women’s business center comes to Clanton, Alabama

The Catalyst Center for Business and Entrepreneurship, a Huntsville-based organization, has chosen Clanton to establish its Reach Women’s Business Center. The goal: expand the nonprofit’s success to central Alabama with Clanton as its hub.

The organization recently held an open house to build awareness about its new facility in downtown Clanton, on the second floor of River Bank and Trust, 620 Second Ave. N. Since beginning its Clanton operations in August, Reach has assisted 92 central Alabama businesses with educational opportunities related to business formation and growth.

Austin Bullock. (contributed)

To date, the Reach Women’s Business Center has served 9,200 customers out of its Huntsville location. With support from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Reach hopes to create opportunities for women entrepreneurs and small business owners across central Alabama, including in Chilton, Jefferson, St. Clair, Blount, Walker, Tuscaloosa, Shelby, Talladega, Clay, Randolph, Greene, Hale, Bibb, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Chambers, Autauga, Elmore, Lee and Montgomery counties.

“The best part of this job is providing resources to people and helping them fulfill their dream of starting their own business,” said Austin Bullock, Reach project manager. “Some of the many ways we can do that is through educational opportunities, or with one-on-one professional guidance.”

Reach hosts virtual and in-person classes based on demand. Most classes are free, while some require a small fee. Among the offerings are:

  • “Engage in Entrepreneurship” – A two-hour interactive class focused on how to start a business, create business models, define target audiences and identify problems while creating a business message and an elevator pitch.
  • “Business Accounting” – During this class, Reach’s operations manager and CPA demonstrates how to use Quick Books and the Wave app, how to balance accounts and how to create and maintain balance sheets, invoices and financial projections.
  • “Ignite” – A half-day program where professionals from numerous fields discuss, in-depth, business models, marketing and financing solutions.

Although the Reach Women’s Business Center was founded with a focus on assisting women-owned businesses, its offerings are available to anyone.

The Reach Business Center anticipates adding more class offerings in the future. Among the options being considered are workshops on mental health, personal and professional finance directives, and a class on how to apply for loans through the SBA. A women’s business conference is in the discussion phase.

For more information about Reach, click here.