MILWAUKEE, WIS. – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced Friday the opening of 17 new women’s business centers across the country, including one in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC) will open this center as its sixth regional office based out of northern Wisconsin.
“We’re so grateful for our continued growth through SBA programs and support and thrilled to be opening a new women’s business center,” says Wendy K. Baumann, President and Chief Visionary Officer at WWBIC. “This will allow us to further work in partnership with our state’s tribal communities in the northern part of Wisconsin, bringing our training and technical assistance services closer to where the residents of these communities live and want to start or grow their small businesses.”
WWBIC’s sixth regional office in the state this center will open later this year. WWBIC’s current regional offices are located in Appleton, Kenosha and Racine, La Crosse, Madison, and Milwaukee, which also serves as WWBIC’s statewide headquarters office.
“We have seen a historic Small Business Boom with women, especially women of color, filing new business applications at double the rates of men,” said SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman in the SBA’s press release. “The SBA’s expanding network of Women’s Business Centers is meeting these new and established businesses where they are with resources to help them get funding to grow, create jobs, and strengthen our economy.”
In the ensuing months, WWBIC will partner with other business and economic development organizations serving northern Wisconsin to pool resources and offer services through this new center as well as find an office location and hire staff before the new center officially opens.
