BUSINESS RESOURCES BLOG

Learn how to make QuickBooks work for you. This seminar will take you through the steps of setting up and understanding how to manage your company’s money matters, and get a picture of it’s overall financial standing. Through this seminar you will learn bookkeeping, invoicing, record keeping, tax filing, how to generate reports, and much more. Bring your questions with you!

Speaker(s): Tommy Alvis, CPA

Book a 1-hour time slot for a 1-on-1 video call with a librarian! Learn how you can access the library’s online business resources including directories, databases with demographics, mapping tools, market and industry reports, and more. Register at www.cmlibrary.org/calendar, select “Business Development” and pick a date. You’ll be sent a zoom link for the meeting.

Simple Steps for Starting Your Business, Virtual Workshop Series #2 — #5 

(Fee: $150 for Workshop Series)

Join us for four three-hour sessions that help you understand these basics:

• The concepts involved with assessing a business idea,

• Marketing your product or service,

• Understanding business financials and how they work, and

• How to fund and finance your business.

Is Starting a Business Right for You?

Business Start-Up Series – 4 Sessions

Session 2: Business Concept 

The first workshop focuses on your business concept and step-by-step guidance in researching your idea, your market, and your competition. At the end of the Business Concept Workshop, you are able to identify your target markets, describe your products and services, and collect key competitive information to support your feasibility plan.

Session 3: Marketing Plan 

The second workshop provides you with an introduction to marketing communication methods and tools to maximize your customer reach. The discussion in the Marketing Plan Workshop covers pricing strategies, positioning, the difference between features and benefits, and different marketing strategies. At the end of this session, you will know how to outline your marketing strategy, test your marketing message, choose the right sales channel, and exercise your marketing strategy.

Session 4: Financial Projections

The third workshop uses exercises to help you better understand financial concepts. This session reviews sales and prices, financial risks and rewards, true start-up costs, ongoing operating expenses, setting benchmarks for tracking progress and the organization of all your financial information. Using a hands-on approach, you learn how to use our financial model to forecast sales revenue and build solid pro-forma financial forecasts.

Session 5: Funding Sources and Next Steps 

The final workshop offers information on how to finance your small business. In this session, discussions include sources of funds, accounting the six C’s of credit, banking relations, ratio analysis, and monthly preparation and review of financial statements. A bank loan officer will give an inside view of how a banker assesses the merit of business plans and loan application. At the end of the series, you have all the tools necessary to decide whether or not to launch your small business.

Attend all four sessions for $150.00 (A second person from the same company is an additional $50.00)Registration:  The Business Start-Up Workshop Series is presented by SCORE Certified Mentors. Free one-on-one counseling is part of the workshop process.

Zoom virtual workshop, login information provided upon registration:

Registration: https://charlotte.score.org/event/simple-steps-starting-your-business-workshop-series-2-5-sept-2021

Making the Leap to Entrepreneurship – Is the Right Time Now?

Steve Jobs did it. Jeff Bezos did it. Sara Blakely did it. We wouldn’t have Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Nike, Instagram, Pinterest, 23&Me, Starbucks, or Red Bull if aspiring entrepreneurs hadn’t left their nine-to-five to chase a dream. Nearly every successful entrepreneur, famous and non-famous, had to quit a job at some point to make it.

You don’t have to build something huge or take a crazy risk to be a successful quit-to-starter. Today, it is more accessible than ever to be an entrepreneur or solopreneur.

But should you make the leap – and when? Can really anyone do it – and should they? What is it they don’t tell you? How do you know you’ve got the right idea, the right plan, and the right timing to make it stick?

Startup Enthusiast, Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Author of Quit to Start Allen Clary will cover all of the major ‘types’ of startups from software/tech, to physical products, to services, and all points in between – and which ones are ‘structurally’ able to deliver on wealth and freedom one day, some much more than others.

You’ll learn about:

A simple to understand ‘Startup Gameboard’ that breaks down all the major types of entrepreneurship by degree of difficulty, experience required, and money needed
Type A and Type B entrepreneurs but also the lesser known, more equipped to be successful, ‘Type C’ entrepreneur
The ‘Quit Zone’ that describes the formula for when is the right time to make your move
The dangers of ‘Confirmation Bias’ and the emotional ‘Quit Triggers’ to avoid
ABOUT THE PRESENTER(S)
Allen Clary
Allen spent more than two decades working for others and climbing the corporate ranks but something was always missing and he often felt fundamentally unfulfilled…

Allen Clary
Startup Enthusiast, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Author
KEY TOPICS
Business Plans/Startup Assistance Buying or Selling a Business In Business Startup

Registration:https://charlotte.score.org/event/making-the-leap-to-entrepreneurship

Simple Steps for Starting Your Business, Virtual Workshop Series #2 — #5 

(Fee: $150 for Workshop Series)

Join us for four three-hour sessions that help you understand these basics:

• The concepts involved with assessing a business idea,

• Marketing your product or service,

• Understanding business financials and how they work, and

• How to fund and finance your business.

Is Starting a Business Right for You?

Business Start-Up Series – 4 Sessions

Session 2: Business Concept 

The first workshop focuses on your business concept and step-by-step guidance in researching your idea, your market, and your competition. At the end of the Business Concept Workshop, you are able to identify your target markets, describe your products and services, and collect key competitive information to support your feasibility plan.

Session 3: Marketing Plan 

The second workshop provides you with an introduction to marketing communication methods and tools to maximize your customer reach. The discussion in the Marketing Plan Workshop covers pricing strategies, positioning, the difference between features and benefits, and different marketing strategies. At the end of this session, you will know how to outline your marketing strategy, test your marketing message, choose the right sales channel, and exercise your marketing strategy.

Session 4: Financial Projections

The third workshop uses exercises to help you better understand financial concepts. This session reviews sales and prices, financial risks and rewards, true start-up costs, ongoing operating expenses, setting benchmarks for tracking progress and the organization of all your financial information. Using a hands-on approach, you learn how to use our financial model to forecast sales revenue and build solid pro-forma financial forecasts.

Session 5: Funding Sources and Next Steps 

The final workshop offers information on how to finance your small business. In this session, discussions include sources of funds, accounting the six C’s of credit, banking relations, ratio analysis, and monthly preparation and review of financial statements. A bank loan officer will give an inside view of how a banker assesses the merit of business plans and loan application. At the end of the series, you have all the tools necessary to decide whether or not to launch your small business.

Attend all four sessions for $150.00 (A second person from the same company is an additional $50.00)Registration:  The Business Start-Up Workshop Series is presented by SCORE Certified Mentors. Free one-on-one counseling is part of the workshop process.

Zoom virtual workshop, login information provided upon registration:

Registration:https://charlotte.score.org/event/simple-steps-starting-your-business-workshop-series-2-5-july-2021