Before You Leap: Get the Simple Steps for Starting Your Business
Ready to pursue your great idea and turn it into a business? Southwest Missouri SCORE's Simple Steps for Starting Your Business workshop will help you avoid costly mistakes and simplify the startup process.
This free, five-part series is being offered as a one-day workshop with lunch provided by SCORE from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, May 14, for adults in the Schweitzer Brentwood Branch community room. Registration is underway; call 417-883-1974.
Here’s what the workshop covers:
- Session 1: Startup Basics - This introductory workshop focuses on the basics of testing your business idea and identifying the key factors that influence start up success, and provides you with an overview of the skills and tools you need when deciding to start a business. Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of owning a business, the most profitable form for your business and the fundamentals of formation, organization, marketing, cash flow and funding sources.
- Session 2: Business Concept - Get step-by-step guidance in researching your idea, your market and your competition. Learn to identify your target markets, describe your products and services and collect key competitive information to support your feasibility plan.
- Session 3: Marketing Plan - This session will introduce you to marketing communication methods and tools to maximize your customer reach. Topics include pricing strategies, positioning and features and benefits of differing marketing strategies. Learn to outline your marketing strategy, test your marketing message, choose the right sales channel and exercise your marketing strategy.
- Session 4: Financial Projections - This session includes hands-on exercises to help you better understand financial concepts, how to use the SCORE financial model to forecast sales revenue and build solid pro-forma financial forecasts. Topics include sales and prices, financial risks and rewards, true start-up costs, ongoing operating expenses, setting benchmarks for tracking progress and organizing your financial information.
- Session 5: Funding Sources - Learn how to finance your small business with information on funding sources, accounting, the six Cs of credit, banking relations, ratio analysis and monthly preparing 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 applications.
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