women ENTREPRENEURS teach lessons from building their small businesses
ABOVE VIDEO:Brevard County’s Kitty Hatton, the owner of Melbourne Dancewear, is featured in DreamBuilder Online business training program designed for women entrepreneurs.
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Brevard County’s Kitty Hatton is sharing the lessons from building her small business in video interviews to be featured in DreamBuilder, an online business training program that helps women start and grow their own businesses.
Hatton, the owner of Melbourne Dancewear, will be featured in the version of DreamBuilder currently in development for North America.
Kitty Hatton
“I was really surprised to have been selected,” Hatton said. “They told me I had something to share because I’ve run my business for 30 years.”
DreamBuilder is funded by the Freeport McMoRan Foundation and implemented by Thunderbird School of Global Management. Currently, DreamBuilder is offered in Spanish in Latin America, and will be offered in North America upon launch of the course later this year.
Women’s Business Centers across the nation and other partner organizations recommended the 11 entrepreneurs to Thunderbird for participation in the DreamBuilder’s project.
Hatton and the other 10 business leaders were filmed on Thunderbird’s campus earlier this year and share their stories of successes and challenges in running a business in videos for the course.
Florida Tech’s Women’s Business Center recommended Hatton for the project.
The entrepreneurs featured in DreamBuilder represent various industries and they each began their adventures at very different times in their lives.
Some are in their late 20s while others are in their 60s. Hatton’s videos debuted at the 2014 National Women’s Business Center Training Conference.
Beth Gitlin and Wanda Lipscomb-Vásquez of the Women’s Business Center at Florida Tech, participated in panel sessions that featured DreamBuilder and Hatton’s video interview.
Wanda Lipscomb-Vásquez
“We were honored to work with Kitty, and believe she is an inspiration for others who aspire to be entrepreneurs in our community,” Vásquez said.
Hatton said her inspiration came from her love of dance. In the video, Hatton recounts how she danced as a child and into adulthood before opening up the dance store in Melbourne. She shares how she took her five-year-old daughter to dance class after moving to Melbourne and asked the teacher where the dance shop was.
“The teacher told me we really didn’t have one in Melbourne and a light bulb just went off,” Hatton said.
ABOVE VIDEO:Kitty Hatton, and 10 fellow business leaders were filmed on Thunderbird’s campus earlier this year, and share their stories of successes and challenges in running a business in videos for the course. DreamBuilder is unique because it offers online business skills training and certification course available for free via the Internet anytime, anywhere.
Courses include testimonials from successful women entrepreneurs, such as Hatton, and quizzes, and interactive games.
“Kitty and the other women entrepreneurs featured in DreamBuilder provide concrete examples of their successes and challenges in starting and running a business. We are so grateful for their contributions to DreamBuilder and the support that Women’s Business Centers provide to entrepreneurs like Kitty,” said Katherine Zuga, Project Manager for DreamBuilder at Thunderbird.
