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
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