Business seminars
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on March 4, 2004 1:58 PM
KENANSVILLE -- Cathleen Eldridge has joined James Sprunt Community College as the new director of the Small Business Center.
A native of Ohio and the wife of Duplin County Manager Fred Eldridge, Mrs. Eldridge has years of management experience and has operated her own management consulting practice for five years.
Mrs. Eldridge has a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Arizona.
She spent 17 years with Procter and Gamble in manufacturing management, working as plant manager in three different plants. She left the company to head a community bank with 13 branches in Ohio.
It is her experience in consulting that makes her a perfect fit for the SBC post, say college officials.
"We will provide a service for small businesses and people who want to start their own business," Mrs. Eldridge said. "We'll provide one-on-one counseling, mentoring and education through free seminars we offer all year."
To better help the business community, Mrs. Eldridge plans to start a local chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives and involve interested volunteers in the center's work.
"There are about 1,300 businesses in Duplin County, and 90 percent of them could be classified as small businesses," Mrs. Eldridge said. "So we have quite a large prospective client base. We'd like to increase the number who are getting counseling and help them be more successful."
Free seminars scheduled for the remainder of the Spring Semester are as follows:
*Time Value of Money, March 16;
*Cash Flow Management, March 18;
*N.C. Wage and Youth Laws, March 25;
*How to Start a Small Business, April 13;
*What Every Supervisor Should Know, April 15.
All seminars begin at 6 p.m. in the Boyette Building on campus. For information about the Small Business Center and its programs, call 910-296-2431.