The Center for Economic Options (CEO) is selected for MicroMentor, An Initiative of the Aspen Institute’s FIELD Program

March 2006

The Center for Economic Options (CEO) was one of twelve non profit organizations across eight states selected by the Washington D.C.- based Aspen Institute for the FIELD MicroMentor initiative. MicroMentor was designed to help enhance the capacity of development agencies across the U.S. to support growth-oriented clients by connecting them with highly skilled volunteer mentors, using the Internet. Through this service, CEO will enable up to 15 of West Virginia’s small business owners, known as protégés, to receive a range of mentoring services with estimated value of $13,500 to $22,500.

The advisors, or mentors, sourced by MicroMentor, are business professionals, current or former entrepreneurs, corporate managers or professionals with at least three years of business ownership experience or five years of business management experience.

The protégés chosen by CEO will be connected with advisers for three to six-month intervals via an online enrollment, searching and matching process. Mentoring will take place through e-mail and/or phone at the convenience of both advisers and entrepreneurs. The mentoring service is designed for entrepreneurs who are ready for a mentoring relationship. They will be matched with a seasoned business professional with experience in their industry or in the particular functional issue that they face (marketing, management, branding, technology, etc.). They have been in business for at least six months and are facing real business growth issues.

FIELD’s implementation of the MicroMentor is supported under special funding provided by the Small Business Administration’s PRIME program and the Citigroup Foundation. Although the project will enhance CEO’s capacity to provide resources to business owners, it does not provide any financial support to CEO for its coordination and operation expenses.