From staff reports
L’Observateur

RESERVE — Seven local entrepreneurs graduated July 16 from the inaugural class of the Kauffman Foundation FastTrac Entrepreneurial Training Program.

The program was offered through the Business Training Center, which is housed at the South Central Louisiana Technical College River Parishes Campus.

Locals participating included LaTunya Creecy of Head of My House, Chung-Suk and Alfred Cutno of Chung’s Heavenly Sweets, Richard Edwards of ASAP Monograms, KaNeedra Fultz of River Region Training and Development, Carlos Tejada of Tejada-Studio.com, Cheryl Wallace of Nspirational Treasures and Gemyra Williams of Spillway Safe Driving Academy.

FastTrac is a nationally recognized entrepreneurial training program developed by the Kaufman Foundation, a leader in entrepreneurship.

“This is what a successful partnership looks like,” said John Matthews, Louisiana Economic Development executive director of entrepreneurial services.

“Our goal is to provide access to business owners without them having to travel for the information. With information, we create jobs.”

Through FastTrac, participants have the tools to respond to changes that can impact their business and to build an actionable business plan.

Parish President Natalie Robottom said the goal is to provide new and existing businesses with the tools needed to be successful.

“This translates into a sustainable livelihood for our residents and the potential to create new jobs,” she said. “This is only the beginning, and we look forward to offering additional training opportunities in the future.”

The program included ten sessions for approximately 40-50 hours of training over a month. Each session included activities and group discussions on business topics, a guest speaker related to each topic, networking, coaching sessions, wrap up and action steps.

The program is funded in through a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with St. John the Baptist Parish Economic Development, Louisiana Economic Development — Small and Emerging Business Development Program, Louisiana Small Business Development Center and the college.

Class participants were responsible for $100 of the program fee.