The Wheelhouse, a Madison-based nonprofit organization, is known for helping local entrepreneurs grow their small businesses in Morgan County.
This summer, two college students joined the organization as interns to assess the needs of local entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Mae Daniel, who is pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at Georgia College, worked alongside UGA sophomore Thao Nguyen to develop a study called “The Listening Project.” The two presented their findings to Madison City Manager John Klimm and recently shared their experiences interning with the nonprofit.
“The Listening Project was a small business needs assessment for Morgan County, to talk to local entrepreneurs and see what’s going well and what is challenging and how we can support people through those challenges,” Daniel said. “That means scaffolding hard workshops, providing more intentional networking opportunities, and doing a lot of hard work towards that.”
Daniel and Nguyen presented their final research to Klimm in recent weeks, shortly before their internships concluded at the end of July. The two began their positions May 11 and soon began communicating with local business owners.
“We spent the first couple weeks just talking to people, getting to know everyone, taking in the landscape for ourselves,” Daniel said. “Then we started creating our survey tool and our interview tool so that everything would be standardized, so that our research would be valid.”
For Nguyen, the project provided an opportunity to hear directly from local entrepreneurs and gain a different perspective on starting and operating a small business.
“It was really fun talking to entrepreneurs and how they shared their journey with us, what they have been through, and what kind of positive changes they want to make to their economic situations,” Nguyen said. “One thing I learned is that entrepreneurship is really not that scary, because a lot of people love what they’re doing and are really passionate; before, I thought that this path has always been risky, but now, I feel like it is a risk worth taking.”
As part of their summer internships, Nguyen and Daniel also organized a networking event, “Business and Biscuits,” which was held at City Hall on July 23.
“What started as a celebratory brunch kept growing as we met more people, and we reached over 60 entrepreneurs, but we were only here for like three months,” Daniel said. “We ended up working a conversational piece into that event so we could hear from as many people as possible.”
Nguyen has lived in Georgia for a little more than a year after moving from Vietnam to Athens to attend UGA. She described her internship with The Wheelhouse as a “phenomenal” experience that provided opportunities she never expected when she began college.
“If I could go back to a year ago, I never thought that I would do this, because I expected the field to look like working in corporations and big companies and all, because that’s related to the major I’m studying,” Nguyen said. “Coming here, I feel like I’m building connections with people, which is also really important to your journey.”
The two interns said they believe the project was successful and that local government representatives were receptive to their feedback and findings.
“I mean, it’s sometimes scary to give other adults ‘homework,’ but they were very responsive; I feel like they really truly were receptive and they asked good questions,” Daniel said. “Our presentation with the [Wheelhouse] Board of Directors went really well too. They did a good job of helping us map this out into a true long-term plan and actually put action on something immediately.”
Nguyen said the project is only the beginning of what could become a long-term effort to support Morgan County’s small-business community.
“I feel like the city and the county management did a really good job providing advice on how we can bring ‘The Listening Project’ to a nice level,” Nguyen said. “This is just the beginning, and we’re using these materials to improve this community in some ways.”