Entrepreneurial Support at WREN
Whether you’re starting a business or growing your small business, WREN is here to help!
We’re always working on developing entrepreneurial support programs to meet the changing needs of new and emerging small business owners in our community. Is there a class you wish that WREN offered? Are you interested in teaching a class, course, or workshop? We want to hear from you! Please reach out to Julia at juliab@wrenworks.org. See our current offerings below, and sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop about what’s happening at WREN!
The CDBG program has helped thousands of entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. WREN is proud to be an administrator of this program. If you are a low to moderate income person who’s a small business owner, or who would like to start a small business, the CDBG program can provide funding for technical assistance and training to help your business grow. Learn more about this program and see if you qualify here.
Marketing: Crafting Your Brand: Developing a Verbal and Visual Identity will be led by Alena Lane Allegretti. Learn about brand identity; why it matters, and how to build yours!
Your brand isn’t just your business name -- it’s your business’ identity; its look, its voice, its personality, and its story. Having a brand identity means knowing who you are and then communicating that in a consistent and memorable way to your customers!
In this workshop, we’ll talk about the development and consistent application of key verbal and visual elements that customers will come to associate with you and your business, and the conceptual brand elements at their foundation. We’ll discuss target audiences, strategies, and implementation opportunities for your business.
Marketing: Launching Your Social Media Presence will be led by Alena Lane Allegretti. Want to market your business on social media but aren’t sure how to start? This workshop will introduce some of the larger platforms and discuss strategies for setting up your social presence via content creation, interaction, and more!
Getting your business on social media can be a great way to reach customers, develop your brand’s voice, and establish your business within your community. But it can also be hard to get a signal through all the noise, and not get buried beneath the algorithms.
In this introductory workshop, we’ll start with discussing where to best connect with your audience and how to set up a consistent brand online. From there will discuss strategies for posting and interacting, and brainstorm content creation ideas for your specific business, as well as look at tools and resources. Attendees are encouraged to bring a smartphone or tablet they can work on.
If you’re new to leveraging social platforms for your business, or want to reboot and reinvent your social presence, this is the workshop for you!
Our spring session of Taking Flight: Starting Your Small Business, led by Meg Brown of Miss MegaBug, is underway. If you’re interested in registering for a future session of Taking Flight, email Julia at juliab@wrenworks.org to save your space!
WREN’s Entrepreneurial Advisors
Looking for one-on-one support? WREN staff may be able to help. Meet our advisors here.
Mary Secor
Mary Secor has over twenty years of experience developing and delivering education programs and workshops for academic, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations.
In her role as Vice President, Curriculum at the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), an international train-the-trainer company, she led the development and implementation of CPI’s Program and Product Development Process and contributed to the design, development, testing, marketing, launch and evaluation of new training programs and products. As Program Coordinator for Outreach at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), Ms. Secor was responsible for working with member institutions in planning, organizing, promoting and delivering over thirty entrepreneurship workshops and events each year including idea pitch competitions, business plan competitions and entrepreneurship conferences and workshops. She also served as an educational consultant and provided curriculum development expertise to colleges and universities working on developing and strengthening their undergraduate entrepreneurship programs. She has presented her work at regional and national conferences and co-authored articles on models and curricular approaches for developing and delivering collegiate entrepreneurship programs.
Ms. Secor moved to Bethlehem, New Hampshire in 2018. She served on WREN’s Board of Directors and teaches classes and provides 1:1 advising to WREN members.
If you would like to work with Mary, the first step is to complete our business assessment form. Contact us to receive the assessment form and to schedule a 1:1 consultation.
The CDBG program covers the cost of 1:1 consultations with WREN advisors. Click here for more information about the CDBG program.