WISE Women's Business Center Awarded Grant From Empire State Development, Celebrates Entrepreneur of the Year Award

The WISE Women’s Business Center, in collaboration with the Whitman School of Management, announced the renewal of WISE as an Entrepreneurial Assistance Center (EAC) through the Empire State Development EAC  program. This award ensures WISE’s continued designation as one of 26 Entrepreneurship Assistance Centers in the state of New York, and recognizes the center’s ongoing success in advancing entrepreneurs in business and fostering economic growth in Central New York.

With this three-year grant from Empire State Development, the WISE Women’s Business Center will expand its Accelerate: Business Plan Intensive and offer one-on-one, no-cost business counseling. Building on years of success, this funding will help reach more Central New York entrepreneurs, supporting them in building strong businesses, accessing capital, and navigating NYS certification processes.

The Accelerate: Business Plan Intensive program, currently in its fifth year and kicked off the ninth cohort in April, is a low-cost, 10-week program which provides entrepreneurs in the early stages of their business with expert guidance, peer collaboration and personalized support in developing and refining business plans and financial projections which can be used for loan applications, finding business partners and more.

Highlighting WISE’s commitment to empowering entrepreneurs in Central New York, Arteika Hunter, managing director and founder of Clean & Glo Cleaning Services LLC, was honored with the EAC Entrepreneur of the Year award by Empire State Development at the 2024 EAC Annual Conference in October. Hunter launched her janitorial business in August 2022, drawing on over a decade of experience in the cleaning industry. Through the support of the WISE Women’s Business Center and other community resources, Arteika continues to navigate the challenges of ownership and scaling her small business.