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Milwaukee's Ward4 Makes Entrepreneurship A Less Solitary Experience

Mitch Teich

Making your way as a newcomer in the business world can be hard enough.  But for people working in start-up businesses, especially without a lot of business experience behind them, the challenges can be daunting. 

"A lot of start-ups have people who are really good at one thing," says Kenzi Enright, community curator for a Milwaukee facility called Ward4. "Like, really really great at one skill.  But someone with a development background doesn't necessarily have a great sales background."

Enter coworking spaces, like Ward4. "In the community here, we have people with all these kinds of skills that we can work on, and it's really helpful to start-ups," she says.  Ward4 is in the historic Pritzlaff Hardware building, and features workspaces, conference rooms, and other support for businesses that are just getting off the ground.

Over the next week, Ward4 is lending its collective expertise to women entrepreneurs in particular.  That's because, Enright believes, women start-up entrepreneurs especially benefit from networking opportunities. [Editor's note: The snowstorm has postponed events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday until next week.]

"[Entreprenurship] is still a male-dominated space," Enright says. "Often, I'm the only woman in a group of people I'm meeting with."  She says her own opportunity at Ward4 opened her eyes to the need to bring opportunities to other women entering the workplace.