Events/Workshops

The Avery-Mitchell-Yancey County market is considered a ‘travel and tourism’ dominated market. The population varies greatly from summer to winter. In this class, we will explore data sources that are available to assist a business owner to predict sales and income from season to season. This seminar will also show you how to use this information to plan your business year.

Speaker: Branch

Want to try it before you buy it? Taught by a CPA, this four class series allows students to work with a sample business to learn the features of Quickbooks. This class typically costs $200 per student, but is being offered free through the Mayland Small Business Center! Seats are limited so sign up today. Class 1: Taught by a practicing CPA who knows all the tricks, tips, and trends related to QuickBooks. Class one of this four class series will discuss the features of QuickBooks Online and compare it to QuickBooks desktop. Determine if QuickBooks is a right for you by "test driving" the software on a sample business. Computers with QuickBooks installed will be available to use at this class.

Speaker: Sisk-Morris

Want to try it before you buy it? Taught by a CPA, this four class series allows students to work with a sample business to learn the features of Quickbooks. This class typically costs $200 per student, but is being offered free through the Mayland Small Business Center! Seats are limited so sign up today. Class 2: QuickBooks taught by a CPA! Class two will focus on setting up QuickBooks in a manner that will work best for your business. Explore feature while learning how to launch QuickBooks the right way. Class will work with a sample business downloaded on the Mayland computers.

Speaker: Sisk-Morris

Want to try it before you buy it? Taught by a CPA, this four class series allows students to work with a sample business to learn the features of Quickbooks. This class typically costs $200 per student, but is being offered free through the Mayland Small Business Center! Seats are limited so sign up today. Class 3: This class will focus on recording income and expenses in Quickbooks as well as balancing transactions. We will also look at various scenarios that your business may face when keying transactions into QuickBooks. This a great class to get answers to QuickBooks questions.

Speaker: Sisk-Morris

Want to try it before you buy it? Taught by a CPA, this four class series allows students to work with a sample business to learn the features of Quickbooks. This class typically costs $200 per student, but is being offered free through the Mayland Small Business Center! Seats are limited so sign up today. Class 4: The final class of this series will explore the use of QuickBooks for payroll. Learn how to set up payroll and cut checks using QuickBooks payroll features. Cut checks and make deposits on a sample business in this test drive of the most popular small business accounting platform in use.

Speaker: Sisk-Morris

Cultivating online sales channels for your studio can be a great way to make extra money and add visibility to your art. Let instructor, James "Zen" Douglas, educate and inform of the latest trends in online sales for artists. Find out which sales platform might work best for you!

Speaker: Douglas

World renowned basket maker and marketing expert, Matt Tommey, started out creating baskets for fun from Kudzu. Merging his love for art with his knowledge of marketing, Matt went full time into the business of making baskets. He made his passion his job and now owns a lucrative studio on the River Arts District of Asheville, NC. Sign up for this seminar and get ready to create, market, and sell your art!

Speaker: Tommey

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

Make efficient use of your time by learning strategies to manage your social media marketing! Learn how to save time by posting to multiple sites simultaneously. Class will also explore time saving resources and tips.

Speaker: Morris

A business plan is vital to starting and operating a business. Learn how to turn ideas into a solid plan for financing and long-term success. This seminar teaches the important components of a business plan and helps lay the foundation for a functional plan. Discover how a business plan is used by potential lenders, the dos and don’ts of writing a plan, and steps for making the process easy. You will also learn to introduce yourself and your business with confidence and clarity, utilizing your personal “Elevator Speech”.

Speaker: Cook

This class will discuss the four most important financial statements in business: the personal financial statement, the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement. The class will also cover basic bookkeeping and record keeping skills. Attendees will gain a workable knowledge of how to properly record financial transactions for a business.

Speaker: Hollifield

This seminar teaches how to get your business successfully launched into the digital world as well as online marketing strategies that will increase sales. Energetic and Informative Glo Digital Public Relations Director, James “Zen” Douglas will discuss current online marketing platforms that are proven to build sales.

Speaker: Douglas

Gain a solid understanding of taxes required for small business owners and develop the best tax strategy for your business. Attendees will become familiar with the latest tax forms and procedures for both state and federal taxes. Class will be taught by a CPA.

Speaker: Sisk-Morris

Development of a business pitch is a crucial factor to gain funding and build a customer base. In this seminar, each participant will be provided a maximum of ten minutes to present their story, passion, and business idea to their classmates. Graduation follows with a presentation of certificates.

Speaker: Cook/Phillips

Developing a revenue stream from online sales is often an easy way for small businesses to increase profits. Learn what sites work best to sell your product or service. Energetic and Informative speaker, James “Zen” Douglas will discuss popular as well as up and coming websites that might increase your bottom line.

Speaker: Douglas

An effective ad creates buying demand for a product or service. How do you construct an ad that generates demand? What are the secrets that big companies use to attract customers? What platforms work best for your business? Let our instructor help you build better ads and pitches!

Speaker: Branch

Just in time for the Wooly Worm Festival! In fact, this seminar will be located at the site of the 2017 Wooly Worm festival at the Banner Elk Mayland Satellite Campus! Learn how to properly display your items to get the attention of prospective buyers. 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.

Speaker: Styles