IHOPE Women's Business Center Ribbon Cutting

8570 Rivers Avenue,North Charleston SC 29406

17 May, 2022

Description

The I-HOPE Women’s Business Center Grand Opening! North Charleston, SC – May 9, 2022 – Women own nearly half the businesses in the U.S., worth $2 trillion and supporting roughly 9 million jobs. Yet women-owned businesses receive just 7% of venture capital for their startups, and the odds are even more daunting for women of color. Increasing H.O.P.E., the Charleston area’s leading non-profit financial training center, has been guiding women and minorities on the path to business ownership success for over a decade. On Tuesday, May 17, at 11:00 a.m. at The Opportunity Center, 8570 Rivers Avenue, the organization will cut the ribbon on the Lowcountry’s first Women’s Business Center, funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The I-HOPE Women’s Business Center grand opening will kick off at with a 10:00 a.m. panel discussion of issues facing women-owned businesses. Panelists will include a cross section of business owners, SBA officials, local economic development experts and others. The featured speaker at the ribbon cutting will be Natalie Madeira Cofield, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Women's Business Ownership, at the U.S. Small Business Administration. The I-HOPE Women’s Business Center mission is to inspire and empower women, minority, and veteran entrepreneurs of the Lowcountry by providing programs and services focused on small business education, development, and support.