CED Mission

CED is committed to helping disadvantaged individuals and families succeed economically and contribute to building healthy communities.

CED's role in advancing this vision is to support businesses and community organizations to respond to economic needs in their neighborhoods in a range of ways:

• Foster and support emerging small businesses;
• Form partnerships (non-profits and businesses) that expand employment opportunities;
• Catalyze/push the revitalization of their community;
• Obtain the skills and information to tap into a range of resources and the organizational strength to use them effectively. 

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Shelter from the Storm

As a 16-year Marine Corps veteran, Patrice Pettaway was pretty sure of herself and her abilities. Then she started her own business. At first everything went exactly according to plan for the Toledo, Ohio resident. In 1998 she purchased a franchise from Janni-King, an office cleaning company, promptly got three good clients and went to work.

“I thought, this is easy!” says Pettaway, who also holds down a full-time job in computer repair for the Lucas county Information Services. “But I couldn’t see the storm clouds coming.”

As it turned out, those storm clouds brought thunder, lightning and rain. First, her largest client canceled its contract. A second cancellation came shortly after.

“When [business] really slowed, I realized I didn’t know as much as I thought. I decided I needed some sort of shelter from the storm.” That shelter turned out to be ASSETS Toledo. “What I needed was a plan.” she says.

She also needed a source of trust-worthy advice. "At ASSETS, I knew I was getting good advice,” she says. Among the good advice was information on accounting and filing procedures.

Soon she completed her last payment to Janni-King, “It’s mine now,” she says. Her goal was to do only the cleaning job so she could do more volunteering and be more involved at her children’s school.

“ASSETS helped me get a plan for my business,” she says. “It gave me the shelter I needed when the storms came my way.”

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