Events/Workshops

Learn how to properly display your items to get the attention of prospective buyers. Cosponsored by TRAC, topics will include booth types, setting up, tent styles and recommendations, common show requirements, building displays that target your buyer, and the elements of a customer friendly booth. Held at the Yancey Learning Center in Burnsville a week before the Mount Mitchell Crafts Fair, this seminar will get you ready to sell.

Speaker: Styles

Learn how to emphasize your competitive advantage by describing who you are and what you do. Gain communication strategies that will impress potential prospects and close deals!

Speaker: Collins

Run your own virtual bookstore and coffee bar to see how money moves in and out of a business while learning the fundamentals of accounting at the same time. This course provides an in-depth look at each of the primary accounting transactions used in a business. Without using any accounting jargon, the course demonstrates how to keep score in a business through a simple scorecard approach.

Speaker: Small BizU

Buying a Business is a comprehensive course on how to buy the right business at the right price. Developed by entrepreneurs who buy businesses for a living, this course offers advice and wisdom in such areas as: the key questions to ask of any seller, the due diligence process, valuing a business and determining the offer, negotiation steps and tactics, and sample legal agreements.

Every new venture has to work the complex decision of what legal structure to choose for the business. This course breaks down this decision into its essential characteristics simplifying the decision making process. An in-depth discussion is presented about the pros and cons of structures such as the sole proprietorship, partnership, “c” or “s” corporation, and the limited liability company (LLC).

Speaker: Small BizU

This course details the exact steps necessary to prepare a comprehensive loan package request. Typical loan forms and requirements are explained and included. This course concentrates on what a lender is really looking for and how they evaluate loan requests. Simply understanding the way a lender thinks can more than double your effectiveness in raising money for your business.

Speaker: Small BizU

Creating Buzz is one of the most comprehensive courses on how marketing is actually executed in a small business. Creating Buzz is packed-full of hundreds of strategies, checklists, and tips across the realms of network theory, positioning, advertising media, word-of-mouth campaigns, publicity, and public relations. From informal, easy to implement tactics to full-fledged formal marketing plans, the lessons taught in this course are paramount to any growing business.

Speaker: Small BizU

Financial projections are a collection of statements that present a numerical model of your business. Learn to create a projected income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and breakeven point analysis. Understand what financial projections are and what comprises a good set of projections.

Speaker: Small BizU

Examine the peculiar nature of investment capital. The course presents practical tactics on how to identify and secure different types of capital including seed capital, angel capital, and venture capital. The process used by different kinds of investors as well as tools for completing the fund-raising process. Special focus is given to the federal and state laws that govern the capital and securities process.

Speaker: Small BizU

Gain comprehensive tactics of raising money for small business formation. The course examines the sources of available capital and provides an overview of the difference between debt and equity. Learn financial terms and tactics necessary to successfully identify and secure money for a new business venture.

Speaker: Small BizU

Get advice and strategies from leading entrepreneurs concerning what it really takes to start a new venture. “Starting A New Business” moves through the important tasks of building a strong foundation for a business to the more tactical aspects like marketing, managing, and money. This course will also show you how to protect your ideas, how to hire employees, and how to find out what licenses and regulations may apply. More than 50 resources provided.

Speaker: Small BizU

This ten-part course walks you through the details and tactics of creating a comprehensive business plan while helping you avoid planning mistakes that plague most businesses. As an added bonus, this course comes with Active plans Business Planning Software, which helps you create a plan narrative and financial projections through a simple step-by-step approach.

Speaker: Small BizU

Any entrepreneur should want to know as much as possible about their market. This course provides the guidance and resources necessary to develop a working knowledge.

Speaker: Small BizU

This course describes the fundamentals of the most important aspect of any business: marketing. Learn the concepts taught in college-level courses in just a few hours including the “5Ps”-Product, Promotion, Price, Place, and Positioning. At the end of this course, you will be able to create a comprehensive marketing plan for business that encompasses a creative plan, a positioning plan, and a media marketing calendar.

Speaker: Small BizU

Pricing is the moment of truth. All marketing comes to focus in the pricing decision. Yet, pricing is one of the least understood of all the activities in marketing. From the fundamentals of pricing to advanced discussions on psychological theories focused on pricing formulation, this course is essential to anyone responsible for making the price decision.

Speaker: Small BizU

This course presents a media-by-media discussion of the tips and tricks used by marketing professionals when advertising a product or service. Learn to set an advertising budget, why it’s better to run two smaller ads than one larger one, correctly position your product, and how to best design an effective marketing message. This course also presents an overview of public relations tactics and internet marketing practices.

Speaker: Small BizU

Learning the customer profile for each social media outlet will allow a business to strategically target their online marketing. This two hour seminar will look at the popular social media sites and outline the typical users. Does your customer Tweet, Facebook, Snapchat, Link, or Instagram? This seminar will help you figure it out!

Speaker: Morris

With average computer skills and a little help from our instructor, you can build your own business website using a free online program called WordPress. This three class series will teach do-it-yourself website building using the Mayland computers. Class one will introduce the website building process and notify students of items needed to build a marketable business webpage. In classes two and three, students will learn about search engine optimization as they work on their website under the guidance of the instructor. The goal of this series is for attendees to build a functional business website. This class series will fill up fast so sign up today!

Speaker: Wall

With average computer skills and a little help from our instructor, you can build your own business website using a free online program called WordPress. This three class series will teach do-it-yourself website building using the Mayland computers. Class one will introduce the website building process and notify students of items needed to build a marketable business webpage. In classes two and three, students will learn about search engine optimization as they work on their website under the guidance of the instructor. The goal of this series is for attendees to build a functional business website. This class series will fill up fast so sign up today!

Speaker: Wall

Social media marketing is used in most every business. Make sure that you are doing it right in this information packed hour. Sponsored by Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce and Mayland SBC! Location to be determined.

Speaker: Morris

With average computer skills and a little help from our instructor, you can build your own business website using a free online program called WordPress. This three class series will teach do-it-yourself website building using the Mayland computers. Class one will introduce the website building process and notify students of items needed to build a marketable business webpage. In classes two and three, students will learn about search engine optimization as they work on their website under the guidance of the instructor. The goal of this series is for attendees to build a functional business website. This class series will fill up fast so sign up today!

Speaker: Wall