Women’s Business Development Council hosts annual breakfast

The Women’s Business Development Council is scheduled to hold its annual business breakfast Nov. 13 at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Conference Center.

National journalist Paula Zahn will lead a panel discussion  featuring Carla Harris, managing director of Morgan Stanley and the president-appointed chairwoman of the National Women”™s Business Council; Amy Millman, founder and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based Springboard Enterprises; and Rose Wang, founder and CEO of The Binary Group, a Virginia-based tech company. The guest speaker is Torise Baker, CEO of 101 Things 2 Do LLC, a tax preparation business in Bridgeport.

More than 500 people are expected to attend the breakfast, including CEOs, legislators, entrepreneurs and community leaders, who will engage in a dialogue about how women-owned businesses can make a positive and lasting impact on the economy.

“Women will create over half of the 9.72 million new small-business jobs expected to be established by 2018,” said Fran Pastore, president and CEO of WBDC, in a statement.

Baker, an entrepreneur who used the WBDC’s resources and small-business training program, plans to talk about her journey into establishing her own business. She had attended a class on access to capital and worked with WBDC counselor Janet Siegenthaler to apply for funding, including a Small Business Administration-backed loan and a Small Business Express grant through the state Department of Economic and Community Development. With the funding, she purchased and renovated a 4,000-square-foot building in Bridgeport, which is now the office for her previously home-based business.

The development council reported that Baker has tripled her revenue  since she came to the WBDC two years ago. She plans to add two full-time positions and diversify and expand her services, according to a WBDC press release.