Vermont Women's Business Center: Client Impact Study

The mission of the Vermont Women's Business Center (VWBC) is to provide women with the training, assistance and support necessary to start and expand successful businesses, thus promoting economic independence and healthy communities. The VWBC is a statewide program of the Central Vermont Community Action Council (CVCAC) and funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The VWBC offers programming tailored to the needs and experiences of aspiring and established women entrepreneurs from a central office located in Barre, Vermont and via subcontracts with Vermont's four other community action agencies. Some men are also served.

The VWBC assists women who are starting or growing their businesses by providing resources, training, and networking opportunities for women statewide to achieve business success, including:

• One-to-one business assistance with a business counselor (see key staff)
  
• Classes and workshops that are either a series or a one-time class
  
• Networking events to help related businesses help each other
  
• Business lending library to provide books and other resources
  

Current and past VWBC clients who were served in some capacity from 2002 to the present were called to conduct a 15 to 20 minute survey during the month of June 2009. Clients were asked questions about whether or not they started and/or remained in business and the impact of VWBC services and business counseling on themselves and their business. Client outcomes examined include:

• Business start-up rate and survival rate
  
• Expansions/Enhancements and retention rate
  
• Change in household income
  
• Change in public assistance receipt
  
• Change in business profits or gross sales
  
• Total gross sales of businesses helped
  
• Capital accessed
  
• Jobs created
  
• Client satisfaction and program feedback
  

The Center for Rural Studies (CRS) at the University of Vermont was contracted to conduct this study. For more information about this study or to request additional copies of this report, please contact Michele Cranwell Schmidt, Evaluation Coordinator, at mschmidt@uvm.edu, call (802) 656-0256 or visit www.uvm.edu/crs/.