Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1985)
Small businesses to get big help By Shelley Ball Of The Print Learning how to properly manage small businesses will be the focus of a newly revised program beginning in February at the Business Center of Clackamas County. Located in Oregon City, the center will be offering a two- year Small Business Manage ment program. The program is a revised version of one of fered by the Center in 1980. One of the new features of the program involves giving business owners and/or managers lab time using the center’s micro computers. “To make good business deci sions you have to have good information.” Dollie Mercedes, Small Business Management coordinator said. She explained that the computers can aid participants by enabling them to enter pro jections for future trends, analyze records and learn to handle money well. The rest of the program will consist of instruction and counseling. Individual courses that will be offered include learning to define business goals, marketing strategies, handling income/balance statements, tax planning and stress management, to name a few. As for the counseling, Mercedes said the center will DOLLIE MERCEDES DISCUSSES business strategies with associate Chip Phelps in the Business Center of Clackamas County. f . Photo by Joel Miller work one-on-one with each owner or manager to help them improve their knowledge of running a business, which she said is the number one cause for busniess manage ment failure. The second cause is lack of capital. Mercedes will be handling the program overall and will receive some help from business consultant Roger Neal. Clackamas Community College instructors will also be asked to participate in the pro gram. Cost for the program is $600 a year, or $50 a month. “For the owner it’s (program) a bargain,” Mercedes said. She explained that the pro gram is geared to small business owners, or those businesses the center has targeted as having 15 employees or fewer. Such owners can bring more than one employee into the pro gram without being charged additional money. Husband and wife teams in businesses will also not be charged double tuition. Mercedes added that the normal cost for one hour of consulting time equals three hours of instruction, two hours of counseling and up to 12 hours of lab time at the center. Bringing in employees to the program helps out the Speeches and music at art show opening Should speed registration Opening night for art displays in the Pauling Gallery at Clackamas Community College will be held February 6, 7 - 9 p.m. Clackamas Community College received a new com puter on Jan. 16 that will have a larger capacity than the old one and should make the day- to-day processing activities, as well as registration, go much smoother. Tsuoshi Inouye, the data processing officer for the Col lege said that he is glad to have the new system in place. [Don’t be an heartbreaker The public is invited” to an evening of slides, speeches, music^ refreshments and more, located in Pauling 105. The evening’s speaker will be Sam Bush, the president of the Guild of Oregon Wood workers. A display of drawings by former Clackamas student Betty Tribe will debut that night. Tribe’s drawings in clude several styles of work, some in colored pencils and others in black and white. Tribe’s work uses motifs in a variety pf children’s themes and a collection dealing with patterns and textures, among others. Music will be provided by guitarist Jon Bunce and refreshments will be supplied by the Greek restaurant “Gyros Gyros.” Wednesday, January 30, 1985 business owner because “for one person to have equal skills in all these (business) areas ex pects an awful lot from that owner,” she said. “It’s the finest educational experience I’ve ever been in volved in, because it has prac tical knowledge adapted and geared to their level,” Mercedes said of the program. She added small business owners have not had an easy time of it lately, as last yeai' more businesses closed in the United States than did during the Depression. However, some 600,000 new businesses started up last year as well, the majority of them run by women. Anyone interested in par ticipating in the Small Business Management pro gram should call the Business Center at 656-4447 and talk with either Mercedes or Business Center Coordinator Bruce Borquist. Candidates for the program must be screened, as Mercedes said the center will not accept businesses into the program that will have to file bankrupt cy in the next two months. Mercedes said the center will screen to make sure competing businesses aren’t together in the program as well. New computer on line The computer is a Data General that cost the College $300,000. It has an electronic mail feature and a calendaring feature that helps the staff record appointments and schedules, as well as other im portant information related to dates. Inouye said that the new system will give counselors more information about the students in a shorter amount A BRAIN BREAK. Operator Robin Sharpe changes memory in of time, enabling more people the new computer system. The procedure is repeated twice a day to be helped overall. to avoid losing information due to power failure. Fobert Page 3