Strategic Focus Provides Workshop on Business Skills to International Crafters

November 9, 2006 -- Kathy Krisher (standing) leads a group of handicraft artisans from the Kyrgyz Republic through a workshop of business planning lessons to help them to market and sell their unique fiber arts. Krisher, owner of Strategic Focus, a Hartville, Ohio-based firm, provided the workshop to the group as part of a Community Connections Program funded through USAID and administered by World Learning. For more information about this program, contact Strategic Focus at 330-587-1911.

Local Businesswoman Participates in USAID Program

Kathy Krisher of Strategic Focus Helps Group from Kyrgyz Republic Learn Business Planning

HARTVILLE, OHIO (November 28, 2006) – As the founder and Principal Consultant of the process consulting and business planning firm Strategic Focus, Kathy Krisher has given presentations to a variety of audiences. On November 9th, though, she met with her most unique group yet- a group of handicraft artisans from the Kyrgyz Republic, here as part of a Community Connections Program funded through USAID and administered by World Learning. The group attended one of Krisher’s sessions to learn lessons about business planning that they could apply to the large to mid-size non-governmental organizations (NGOs) they lead at home.

“Every business needs a plan to guide it toward making a profit,” said Krisher. “This workshop was designed to teach the group how to create a business plan to market and sell their unique hand-crafted fiber arts, and to keep the owners focused on the necessary steps toward growing their NGO businesses.”

The workshop provided the basics needed to structure a company and develop that plan. The structure, financial, marketing and growth factors that every plan needs were covered. In the workshop, the participants also created a plan to pass on their new knowledge to members of their NGOs who could not make the trip.

Participants in the program were identified by working with USAID-supported organizations in Northern Kyrgyzstan and various international NGOs such as the Central Asia Craft Support Association, the Swiss Coordination Office, and the Helvetas-Community Based Tourism project. The participants play an active part in the handicraft small business of northern Kyrgyzstan as handicraft producers and sellers, and as leaders of handicraft NGOs and Associations.

Strategic Focus provides a variety of workshops throughout Northeast Ohio on subjects ranging from strategic visioning to business analysis and structuring of key systems and processes. Kathy Krisher, CPA, is a member of the Ohio Society of CPAs (OSCPA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the Lake Township Chamber of Commerce, Lake Township Rotary, Canton Chamber of Commerce, and Toastmasters International. For more information about this program, contact Strategic Focus at 330-587-1911

Media Contact:
Chris Brown
330-656-9793
Cbrown@resources-results.com