Fourteen local entrepreneurs are celebrating their graduation from the Retail Lab Boot Camp—a program created in 2021 to address the complex nature of starting and operating a retail establishment. The 14 graduates of Retail Lab completed an application-based, six-week immersive boot camp on May 3. The following week, twelve of the graduates chose to pitch for members of the Entrepreneurship Council for $2,500 micro-grants. Five of the twelve were successfully awarded the grants. Olivia Van Etten, founder of Blondie...

On Wednesday, September 28, the Cabarrus Center welcomed a new cohort of fourteen entrepreneurs into the Retail Lab Boot Camp program. The six-week immersive boot camp began in the fall of 2021 as a program to support local entrepreneurs in the early stages of starting a retail business. A partnership between the Small Business Center at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and the Flywheel Foundation, the curriculum consists of instructor-led sessions supplemented by a self-directed Learning Management System. The program...