Featured Entrepreneur – Maria Stapulionis
April 14, 2011
Maria Stapulionis is like a lot of metro-Detroiters. She’s trying to reinvent herself.
The Oakland Township attorney has been away from the full-time practice of law for about ten years, as she took time off to raise two young children. Now that both are old enough, she feels comfortable restarting her career.
But Stapulionis isn’t looking to return to a law office. Instead, she’s been mulling over an idea and wants to try to turn it into a business. Stapulionis knew she had a good idea, but really wasn’t sure where to begin. So she signed up for a class designed to help people learn what it takes to launch a business.
Halfway through the course, Stapulionis realized that the class was helping her develop a business plan, but not helping with the nuts-and-bolts of running the business itself. Her idea required a website, and since she had no real IT knowledge to draw on, she realized she needed a mentor. That’s when fate made its appearance.
While reading The Detroit Free Press, Stapulionis came across an article about The MORE Program and decided to see if they could help.
“I was very impressed with their responsiveness,” said Stapulionis. “I sent a message through their website and received a response the next day. It wasn’t an automated response either. It was Bonnie Fahoome, resource coordinator for The MORE Program. Even more impressive, Bonnie was calling me from her vacation in Florida. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“And when I spoke with Bonnie, I was even more impressed,” continued Stapulionis. “She didn’t just say ‘Here are some places to look;’ she asked me what I needed. It was a very personal and professional approach. That won me over right away.”
The MORE Program’s Fahoome introduced Stapulionis to the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest (GLEQ) and their business plan competition. Stapulionis has already registered and is putting the final touches on her business plan, hoping for a chance at the $5,000 new business idea first prize.
Through the GLEQ, Stapulionis also got connected to the head of Information Technology for a local company. He became her mentor and has been helping her achieve her vision ever since.
Stapulionis was so impressed with The MORE Program, that she’s included information about it in her blog, ournewventures.blogspot.com, which she created as a clearinghouse of ideas for her classmates. She plans to continue adding to her blog to create her own resource contribution to entrepreneurial growth in Metro-Detroit.
“The MORE Program is so impressive, I want to be sure more people like me hear about them,” she said. “Not only do they understand the needs of entrepreneurs, they really listen and offer help tailored to our needs.”
