A “small business champion” has spent 25 years helping women in the Philadelphia area start businesses, including two in Delaware County, writes Diane Mastrull for philly.com.

Lynne Cutler, who grew up in Wallingford and Swarthmore, is founder and president of Women’s Opportunities Resource Center, (WORC). She was recently named the SBA’s Eastern Pennsylvania Small Business Champion.

Rosliana and Mitchell Zigmund, owners of Z’s kitchen, an Indonesian bakery in Ridley Park, benefited from Cutler’s Center.

“They gave us the confidence to survive when other businesses give up,” said Mitchell Zigmund, who co-owns the bakery with his wife, Rosliana, an immigrant from Indonesia.

“A lot of times business owners start from a dream,” said Cassandra Hayes, a former opera singer, now founder and CEO of Bodacious Promotions Inc. in Upper Darby. “The reality is taxes, the federal government, market share, profit margin. They make sure you understand the implications of all of that.”

Thousands have received microloans, entrepreneurial training, and other support from WORC. It was one of the first microenterprise programs in the nation that focused on entrepreneurship and asset-building to help lower-income people achieve economic self-sufficiency, with the objective of preparing women for entrepreneurship.

Read more about Lynne Cutler here.

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