After Kim Osterhoudt lost her human resources job at a financial services firm in a 2009 downsizing, she tried to eke out a living selling homemade jam near her home in Belle Mead, N.J. To improve her odds of success, she enrolled last year in Entrepreneur University, a free, 60-hour, local entrepreneurship training program. Launched by the New Jersey Department of Labor in partnership with the nonprofit Intersect Fund, the program supports small business development in poor and distressed areas of the state.
Today Osterhoudt’s 18 varieties of jam are popular at farmer’s markets and distributed at a handful of specialty markets. Osterhoudt says her business is on track to hit $60,000 in revenue this year—double that of 2011—but she has yet to turn a profit and has been living off the proceeds of a home she sold shortly after she lost her job. Her goal this year is to pay back the $15,000 she withdrew from her retirement account in order to start the company.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Can Entrepreneurship Training Shrink Unemployment? - Businessweek
