Artist-entrepreneur Agnes Chavez is never satisfied with the status quo. She’s one of those rare individuals who is equally adept at visual intuitive creativity and logical systematic analysis – and she‘s on a perpetual quest to challenge both sides of her brain on a personal and professional level.

In the mid-1990s, she was teaching Spanish to children at her son’s preschool as a way to share her passion for her native language and culture and supplement her income from sporadic art sales. She came to WESST in 1996 hoping that a little marketing guidance could help her take her art business to the next level. That same year, the emotional rewards and tangible results that she was experiencing from teaching young children Spanish helped her realize how she could combine her love for art and language into a marketable, viable business: teaching Spanish to children through art, music and games. She called her new business, Sube, which means “rise” or “ascend” in Spanish. That’s exactly what Chavez has been doing with her business ever since.

Today, the multi-sensory, multi-media Spanish curriculum that Chavez developed for pre-K through 5th grade students has been adopted by school districts throughout the U.S. and a subsequent ESL version of the curriculum is growing her business with international sales. She recently expanded her target market by redesigning her website and revamping her product offerings to include competitively-priced packages to home schools, language schools and after-school programs; and also offers individually-priced materials for parents. Despite the global economic downturn, 2010 has been a record-breaking year for Chavez in sales.

WESST has guided Chavez throughout her nearly 15-year ascent by providing financing, technical assistance, MARKETLINK training, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media consulting. She attributes much of her recent business success to the SEO consulting she received from WESST. “I’m now able to devote 100% of my sales and marketing efforts to optimizing my website,” says Chavez.

Outsourcing strategies have reduced her overhead and eliminating the need to allocate a large portion of her schedule and budget to attend conferences has freed up her time to develop both her fine art and a new business venture called STEM Arts.

“The STEM Arts website is an online community designed to encourage submissions and collaborations among creative thinkers who have innovative solutions for integrating Technology, Engineering and Math with the Arts,” explains Chavez. The goal is to connect these creative professionals and ideas with schools and organizations interested in supporting projects that can help dissolve subject boundaries and take learning out of the classroom and out of the box.

“After 15 years, I am still evolving and benefiting from WESST services because WESST, too, has kept up with the trends and tactics necessary to help a business grow.” There’s no telling where Chavez’s exploratory drive will take her next, but WESST will be ready to provide her with whatever kind of direction she might need along the way.