Program helps entrepreneurs

By D.A. Wilkinson

A former business consultant is now providing help for small businesses.

SALEM — Want to be an entrepreneur? Kent State University wants to help.

KSU’s Workforce Development Program is offering a seminar to help people start their own business.

Diane Kloss, director of workplace development and continuing studies, said Wednesday, “It’s hard to find jobs.”

The KSU development program already helps people get the basic skills needed to get and keep a job.

The new program, Kloss said, is “for others who have the interest or idea to get started.”

The area’s loss of large-manufacturing jobs over the years is no secret. The KSU program is designed to help interested people to “write the plan, get the funding, step by step,” she said. “We want to give people the tools.”

KSU has tried several times in recent years to offer to help local businesses. The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce is awaiting a final report on its long-term plan for the city that is expected to include ways it can help businesses. The chamber has also sponsored programs for people who want to start their own business.

The KSU program is being run by Joe Belinsky, a business adviser who works out of KSU’s Tuscarawas Campus.

“We need to bring Joe in and work with these ideas,” Kloss said.

Belinsky said he used to provide information to entrepreneurs for up to $400 an hour when he worked in the private sector.

The program will cover writing and having a basic business plan, financing, and marketing basics, he said.

Many of the businesses may be part-time family businesses that wants to grow, he added.

wilkinson@vindy.com