{"id":23849,"date":"2017-02-23T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=23849"},"modified":"2017-02-23T05:18:47","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T11:18:47","slug":"clarksville-area-chamber-of-commerce-to-hold-entrepreneurial-event-march-21st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2017\/02\/23\/clarksville-area-chamber-of-commerce-to-hold-entrepreneurial-event-march-21st\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce to hold Entrepreneurial Event March 21st"},"content":{"rendered":"

Event to Focus on Local Franchise Opportunities<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ClarksvilleClarksville, TN<\/strong> – The Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce announces its second annual event aimed at enhancing and enriching local entrepreneurial opportunities.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s workshop, titled Franchise Focus, will provide materials on franchises that have expressed interest in the Clarksville-Montgomery County market.<\/p>\n

\"April<\/a>

April Consulo and Gigi Butler to speak at Chamber’s Entrepreneurial Event<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEntrepreneurship is at the heart of the local business community,\u201d said Sidney Johnson, board chairman of the Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce. \u201cWe have seen increased interest in franchise opportunities in the last few years and, by focusing this year\u2019s event on franchising, we hope to match entrepreneurs with specific opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franchise Focus is a half-day workshop that includes two keynote speakers plus a panel of local entrepreneurs. Each will share their experiences and offer step-by-step advice relating to both starting a business and franchise options.<\/p>\n

The seminar will take place at Old Glory Distilling Company, 451 Alfred Thun Road, on Tuesday, March 21st, 2017. The cost is $30.00 per person and includes breakfast. The event is offered at a discounted rate thanks to additional funding by the Aspire Clarksville Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future of Clarksville is dependent on small business owners and the services that they offer this community,\u201d said Melinda Shepard, Chamber of Commerce executive director.<\/p>\n

Keynote speaker April Consulo is a Hall of Fame songwriter, a top five percent award winning Realtor\u00ae, vice mayor of Lakewood, Tenn., and CEO and founder of a non-profit organization. Her  501(c)(3) not-for-profit, The Friends of Lakewood, assisted children and addressed issues like beautification and neighborhood watch programs.<\/p>\n

Consulo is also the author of Permission to Live. \u201cThis book comes from the desire and passion to teach women to dust of their dreams, and offers step-by step-advice on how to make it happen,\u201d she says. \u201cAs a \u2018serial entrepreneur,\u2019 I know what it takes to sacrifice time away from your family and friends to build a successful business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants will also hear from Gigi Butler, entrepreneur and founder of Gigi\u2019s Cupcakes, which opened a franchise location in Clarksville in 2016. Butler, who had opened a cleaning company at age 15, moved to Nashville to pursue county music professionally. After a decade of cleaning houses by day and singing at night, Butler decided to take a chance on another passion \u2013 baking.<\/p>\n

In eight short years, Gigi\u2019s is now the largest cupcake franchise in the world with more than 100 locations. Her franchise locations grossed an estimated $43 million in sales in 2013. Gigi admits she\u2019s living the unexpected American Dream as she risked it all on an idea hoping customers would love her creations.<\/p>\n

A panel of local entrepreneurs, Allan Groves (DQ of Clarksville), David Berggren (Furniture Connection), and Dr. Deborah Hellums (Right at Home) will kick off the event by sharing their insight and experience.<\/p>\n

To reserve your spot or for more information, please contact Lucian Green at 931.245.4342 or Lucian@clarksville.tn.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About the Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce<\/h3>\n

The Chamber of Commerce was established in 1905 to represent the interests of the business community and its membership by advancing community development, promoting the business and economic environment, and improving the welfare of the community by enhancing the quality of life in the region. Today, Chamber membership is composed of 1,625 individuals from 896 businesses and is located at 25 Jefferson Street, Suite 300.<\/p>\n

Learn more at www.clarksvillechamber.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Event to Focus on Local Franchise Opportunities Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce announces its second annual event aimed at enhancing and enriching local entrepreneurial opportunities. This year\u2019s workshop, titled Franchise Focus, will provide materials on franchises that have expressed interest in the Clarksville-Montgomery County market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[7920,7498,29776,12825,1675,825,12399,3734,2004,19416,29779,29775,577,29778,29234,29777,29781,6046,4950,27411,29780,6748],"class_list":["post-23849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-alfred-thun-road","tag-allan-groves","tag-april-consulo","tag-aspire-clarksville-foundation","tag-clarksville-area-chamber-of-commerce","tag-clarksville-tn","tag-clarksville-montgomery-county-area","tag-country-music","tag-dairy-queen","tag-david-berggren","tag-deborah-hellums","tag-entrepreneurial-event","tag-furniture-connection","tag-gigi-butler","tag-gigis-cupcakes","tag-lakewood-tn","tag-lucian-green","tag-melinda-shepard","tag-nashville-tn","tag-old-glory-distilling-company","tag-right-at-home","tag-sidney-johnson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6cF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23850,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23849\/revisions\/23850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}