Lower Cape Cod Community Development Corporation
3 Main Street, Unit 7,
Eastham, MA 02642
(800) 220-6202
www.lowercape.org
email: info@lowercape.org
The Lower Cape Cod Community Development Corporation exists to promote a vibrant and diverse community on the Lower Cape by addressing housing needs and encouraging small business development and job growth.
Small Business Programs
Encouraging small business development
and job growth
The Lower Cape Cod CDC is committed to supporting economic development within our community through programs and education that foster the start-up and growth of local businesses, as well as those that tackle the unique business challenges of the fishing and aquaculture industries, home-based businesses, artists and other crafts people on the Lower Cape.
Education and Training
Smart Start Workshop
The Smart Start Workshop is a three-part interactive program for individuals at the early stages of business development. Participants learn how to apply best practices of successful corporations to their own small business—including identifying and understanding their market, analyzing the competition, and assessing their management strengths and weaknesses. If you are wondering if your business idea is a good one, or if you want to sharpen your basic business skills, this workshop is for you. To learn more about the Smart Start Workshop or to sign up for our next session, please contact Lisa Panaccione, Business Development Specialist, at (508) 240-7873 ext. 25 or via email.
One-on-One Business Develoment
A Business Development Specialist is available to meet one-on-one with business owners to discuss a variety of business issues, including business plan creation, marketing, financial management and operational issues. To learn more or to set up an appointment, please contact Lisa Panaccione, Business Development Specialist, at (508) 240-7873 ext. 25 or via email.
TechSMART
The TechSMART program supports business owners on the Lower Cape by helping them to streamline and grow their small businesses with integrated technology solutions.
Micro Lending
Through the Micro Loan Program, the Lower Cape Cod CDC provides loans to qualified businesses of up to $40,000. These loans can be used for working capital, real estate for the use of small business, and for machinery and equipment.
Programs for Artists
The Lower Cape Cod CDC recognizes the unique character the many local artists and artisans bring to our community, as well as the multitude of challenges these artists face each day in trying to make a living through their art. In response to these challenges, the CDC offers a number of programs that focus on the professional and personal development of our valuable artist community.
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Grants for Artists
Arts Foundation of Cape Cod
The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod is now accepting applications for the 2008 fall grants cycle. The AFCC Grants Program provides cash awards to local artists and cultural organizations that are engaged in projects that help create a strong, stable, and diverse arts and culture industry on Cape Cod, and contribute positively to the quality of life and economic vitality of the region.
The AFCC will hold a grants information workshop for interested applicants on Wednesday, September 3rd at 5:30 p.m. at the AFCC offices in Centerville. Reservations are limited and space may be reserved by calling the AFCC at 508-362-0066.
The deadline to apply for a grant is Friday, September 26th no later than 5:00 p.m. Guidelines and application materials are available online or by calling 508-362-0066.
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CapeWomenOnline.com
P. O. Box 720, North Eastham, Cape Cod, MA 02651
Telephone: (508) 255-5084
All rights reserved
Breaking the Pattern of Overwork
by Beverly Ryle
UNLIKE THE FROG who failed to realize he was in boiling water until it was too late, I fortunately became aware that I was chronically tired before the downward spiral this form of self-abuse inevitably triggers had taken me to the danger point.
The breakthrough came when I participated in a leadership program withJoan Goldsmith where I was introduced to the self-assessment survey in the book Tired of Being Tired: Rescue, Repair, Rejuvenate by Jesse Hanley and Nancy Deville.
As soon as I admitted to myself that I was not tired because of any specific set of circumstances, but because I was trying to do more that was humanly possible, I stopped justifying the need to work more.
After I read the book, I began to open myself up to the possibility that the problem could be me, not my workload.
I knew just enough to be acutely aware of how many times a day I said I was tired, or reached for a cup of tea or coffee to perk me up.
Gradually the discomfort of seeing how these entrenched patterns were hurting me helped me to think and speak about “being tired” differently, and to establish new criteria for productivity.
Drawing by Eloise Morley
Change How You Talk About Fatigue
I learned that, rather than saying I was “burnt out”, which described my condition in mechanistic terms—people don’t “burn out”, machinery does—I should say that I was “starving for rest and renewal.”
I could also try replacing phrases like, “I’m exhausted,” or “I’m overwhelmed,” with something a bit less sweeping, something more direct and immediate like,“I need a nap!”
Being honest with myself in how I verbalized what was happening to me helped strip away the illusion that by sheer determination I could continue to plug myself in and endlessly produce.
Admitting that I was a person and not a machine helped me accept that I needed to get enough sleep, exercise, and maintain health-sustaining habits. Only when I was able to do so could I work within my human capacity rather than against it.
How many hours a day do you feel you are truly productive? Most people would say 6 to 8.
Then what are you doing with the rest of a long day at the office? Answering emails? Playing telephone tag? Participating in diversionary conversations? Sitting zoned out in front of the computer screen?
If you are working 2, 4, or 6 hours longer, are you actually getting 2, 4, or 6 hours of extra work done?
Your answer to this question may help you make better choices about how you spend your “off peak” hours.
Look At What You're Measuring
People who overwork tend to know a lot about making their numbers because this is usually what they base their performance on. They use such measurements to justify pushing themselves to try to cross a goal line that is always moving farther away, or jump over a bar that gets gets higher the closer they come to it.
What they often do not see is their own part in setting up these objectives. The goals they are trying to achieve are narrowing their view of life to the point where other goals of equal or greater importance are out of sight.
To achieve the balance we all say we want to have in our lives, we need to establish our own critera in addition to those set up by our bosses or clients.
We can do this by deciding what percentage of our available time and energy we want to devote to work. For one of my clients, it’s 70%. She needs to save the remaining 30% for herself, for things like walking her dog several times a day.
Because she has consciously put in place her own metrics, she knows when she is “over budget” and can make adjustments accordingly.
A couple of my own measurements are: how many nights a week do I get to leave the office by 6 pm and watch “The News Hour” on PBS? How often do I spend the evening watching a video because I'm too brain dead to do anything but plant myself in front of televesion?
Create your own measurements. Only you can decide what’s important to you and make what you value real in your life.
Three Things You Can Do
Hanley and Deville have a number of suggestions that have helped me, one day at time, reinforce my commitment to breaking out of pattern of overwork. Here are three of them:
Examine the “shoulds” that keep you in a overwork pattern. When I reflected on the messages about overwork I carry in my head, I realized that I learned as the child of a parent who grew up in the Depression that work always had to come before rest or pleasure. As a result I felt I could not leave the office until everything was done, or enjoy the weekend until all the house chores were completed. I have come to understand that the strong work-ethic I am grateful to have inherited from my parents will not disappear if I meet a friend for breakfast on Saturday morning before I do the laundry. The tasks will still be there when I come back to them, and I will be able to do them more efficiently because I am refreshed.
As a career counselor and business consultant, Beverly Ryle has been helping corporate professionals, business owners, and people-in-transition achieve their full potential for over 25 years. She was a regular contributor to CapeWomen magazine and has writen her first book, "Ground of Your Own Choosing," now at the publisher. She relates her process of bringing this creative project to fruition on the Women and Words page. She lives in North Eastham where she runs the Center for Career and Business Development.
Tel: 508.240.3532
PO Box 156, North Eastham, Cape Cod, MA 02651-0156
www.successonyourownterms.com