This hands-on workshop will help you get started quickly as you learn the steps necessary to successfully launch your new business. Learn to prepare a written plan you can use to build and grow a profitable business. Learn the best way to structure your business as you identify and focus on the key marketing, sales and financial issues of your business and how to bring it all together. This powerful event has helped many entrepreneurs achieve success.

Date: Wednesday, September 18

Time:  4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Home-Based Businesses are one of hottest trends in business today. The benefits of working from home are endless: be independent, do away with traffic, office politics and more. Learn how to develop the entrepreneurial qualities -motivation, discipline, and creativity – that you will need. This class is a great way to start your own home-based business or enhance an existing one.   This workshop will walk you through:

• Entrepreneurial Qualities
• Business Selection Process
• Start-up Procedures and Legal Requirements
• Licenses, Permits and the Zoning Board
• Banking and Record Keeping
• Sales, Marketing, Advertising and Promotion
• Business Image
• Balancing your Life

Date: Saturday, September 21

Time:  9:00 am – 1:00 pm

A business plan is a necessity for the success of your business! This workshop will cover all aspects of creating a business plan, as well as emphasize the importance of goals and outline methods to achieve these goals. Critical topics such as business development, marketing plans, advertising strategies, financial analysis & budgeting will be covered. Attendees may bring a laptop to work on their business plan during the training.

Date: Tuesday, September 24

Time:  8:30 am – 11:30 am

This workshop is designed to give small businesses and nonprofit organizations some simple ideas for growing their organizations using email marketing and social media. Topics include what to write about, how to get more people to stop and read your messages, and how to get more action, or reaction, to your messages and offers.

We will discuss what it means to run a campaign and tactics for measuring success without spending a lot of time or money. Participants will leave with a workbook full of ideas for timing their messages, how to write a winning subject line, what kinds of offers or content they want to try and how best to approach their next outreach project. This class is best suited for beginners in online marketing.

By documenting your understanding of the following topics, in a way that creates a plan, you will leave with a greater understanding of how to optimize your email and social media marketing from a standpoint of where to find and how to cultivate the best relationships.

• Engagement Marketing
• Marketing Objectives
• Marketing Goals
• Marketing Campaign
• Channels that Matter
• Measurable Results

Register online at:  http://tinyurl.com/Email-and-Social-Media-092513

Date: Wednesday, September 25

Time:  8:30 am – 11:00 am

This orientation will give insight into starting and running a successful small business.  You will learn all about what the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has to offer and how we can assist you in establishing or maintaining your small business through one-on-one consultation and training seminars. We offer the New Client Orientation free of charge to all new clients.  Register online at: http://tinyurl.com/New-Client-092613

Date: Thursday, September 26

Time:  4:30 pm – 5:30 pm

In this day long workshop, participants will learn how to set up their company file from scratch; how to create a quality chart of accounts; how to create new vendors, customer, items and accounts. You will also learn how to pay bills, invoice customers, receive payments, make deposits and reconcile bank accounts. An introduction to the report center will be covered, including how to create a Profit & Loss Statement and a Balance Sheet. Ideal for business owners, office managers, and bookkeepers who are brand new to QuickBooks, as well as, existing users who would like some formal education in one of these QuickBooks features. Training held in a computer lab with limited seating. Please note that there will be a one-hour lunch break, lunch not provided.

Date: Friday, September 27

Time:  10:00 am – 4:30 pm