In Their Own Words: Venture Forward Program Success Story

Venture Forward is an in-depth program targeted to meet the needs of established businesses. Participants learn effective skills and strategies for business growth. Oakland County’s inaugural workshop, which ran for a ten-week period last fall,  has already produced results for participating entrepreneur Rukmal Fernando, president of Breeze Design Studio. 

We asked Fernando about the Venture Forward Program and here is what he had to say:

I attended the Venture Forward business training program conducted by MI-SBTDC and Oakland County. This program and the speakers that presented through out the program provided a wealth of valuable information that I was able to assimilate into my business plan. The program showed me the significance of networking and clearly defining my business strategy.  These tools allowed me to successfully market my business and complete one of our biggest projects to date in less than one year of operation. It also helped me successfully network the Breeze product line in several local markets. 

I joined many entrepreneurial groups and carried mini-presentations with me everywhere I went and took every available opportunity to present our creative and interactive design capabilities.  As a result of this focused networking and self-marketing, I was awarded a design project from the Detroit Regional Chamber.  Breeze Design Studio created an interactive video to help the Detroit Regional Chamber re-brand “New Detroit.”

This video was shown by the Chamber at the North American International Auto Show and will be used by the Regional Chamber to promote the Detroit region in all their economic development work nationally and globally. Recently, an economic development team from the regional chamber along with Oakland County toured India and this video was to be used by Richard E. Blouse, Jr. and L. Brooks Patterson to show the world the brand new image of Detroit and the vibrant and fun things our region has to offer to the world.

The next Venture Forward program runs April 4 through June 13.  For more information, please contact Lola Aré, Oakland County Senior Business Development Representative, at 248-858-2021.