Business Seminars & Events
Learning to Lead Luncheon - Small or Home-Based Businesses
Hanover County Economic Development 8200 Center Path Lane Mechanicsville VA 23116
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Cost: $10.00
Join us for a lunch seminar featuring two women entrepreneurs, business coaches and professional speakers who will share their knowledge and experiences of owning, growing and evolving businesses.
We will focus on helping you see yourself as a CEO, clearly defining what your business does and why you do it, targeting your marketing efforts to your desired audience, differentiating yourself from your competitors, the importance of an elevator pitch, and things to consider to scale your business for growth and profitability.
Speakers:
Rita Ricks
Rita is the facilitator and coach with the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity’s Scaling4Growth program where business owners learn to scale their revenue, job creation and management style. During the course of this 6 month program offered to SWAM certified businesses, attendees experience a shift in mindset from entrepreneurs to Chief Executive Officers.
She began her career as a middle school teacher and her gifts have led her to being a successful entrepreneur for over 30 years – first as a partner in a fashion boutique, then the founder and CEO of Mirror Enterprise INC. (MEI) a professional and personal development training company. MEI offered training in areas of Leadership, Diversity, Customer Service and Team building. Rita also created a four week Soft skills curriculum for persons moving from welfare into the workforce. MEI partnered with Richmond City and surrounding Counties, over a 7 year period, to provide training to approximately 3,000 individuals.
Rita earned her B.S. in Sociology from Virginia State University and her M.Ed. in Adult Education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She received executive management certificates from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Courtney Mustin
Courtney is the Business Services Manager covering the Central and North Central Regions of the Commonwealth for the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity. She works with start-up and emerging as well as established small businesses to implement growth and development by teaching them how to conduct business with Virginia state and local agencies which require their particular goods and services and also by partnering with other entities to cover a vast array of topics to engender success for small business owners . She began her career with the Commonwealth at the Virginia Department of Transportation then moved to the Department of Minority Business Enterprise which later merged with the Department of Business Assistance to form the current Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity. She’s been employed by the Commonwealth for 17 years.
Prior to her association with the Commonwealth, Courtney owned three separate but affiliated businesses: Gulfstream Limousine Company, TransLink Corporation, and Metropolitan Taxicab Company dba The Richmond Connector. Those companies operated in the metropolitan Washington and Richmond areas for 12 years.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Sweet Briar College, a master’s degree in Mathematics Education from UVA, and she completed the MBA program at the University of Richmond in marketing and finance.