Events/Workshops

HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (HP LIFE) is a global program that offers aspiring entrepreneurs and small business-owners valuable business skills. HP LIFE offers participants a path to realizing their business dreams. The NC Small Business Center Network, in partnership with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), is pleased to offer this innovative program to NC entrepreneurs and small business owners free of charge! This program is self-paced, making it possible for more aspiring entrepreneurs to participate. All you have to do is register to start.

Speaker: Various

This seminar will discuss filing requirements as it relates to various business organizations and business expenses that may be deducted in the course of business.

Speaker: Evette Davis - Internal Revenue Service

This seminar will discuss filing requirements as it relates to various business organizations and business expenses that may be deducted in the course of business.

Speaker: Evette Davis - Internal Revenue Service

A business plan can be the most important tool a small business owner has. Learn how to turn your ideas into a solid plan for financing and long-term success. This seminar teaches you the important components of a business plan and helps you lay the foundation for a winning plan. Find out how marketing, operations, and finance are interrelated. 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. This seminar is designed for new and established business owners.

Speaker: Scott Rockafellow

Gain a workable knowledge of how to properly record financial transactions for your business. Discover the three most important financial reports and how to use them to make the best-informed business decisions. If you’re a new business owner or need a refresher on the basics of accounting, this seminar is designed for you.

Speaker: Jess McLamb

Market research isn’t just for startups; it’s an important ongoing process for every small business. Developing a focused and effective marketing plan requires up-to-date market analysis. Discover the variety of market research tools that will give you critical information about your industry and customers. Get the data you need to test the feasibility of a new business, find the competition and potential customers interested in your proposed product or service.

Speaker: Dawn Ohaver Moyer

After completing this seminar, the participants will be able to: • Explain how an evolving planning process can help them make key decisions as business owners. • Describe how to convert a vague idea into a resource plan. • Explain the importance of a healthy personal credit score and healthy relationships with lenders. • Describe how a business plan helps motivate stakeholders to understand and support their business ideas. • Explain the benefits of creating a day-to-day action plan for running a small business.

Speaker: Paul Licary, Small Business Specialist - AVP, Woodforest National Bank

Market research isn’t just for startups; it’s an important ongoing process for every small business.  Developing a focused and effective marketing plan requires up-to-date market analysis. Discover the variety of market research tools that will give you critical information about your industry and customers. Get the data you need to test the feasibility of a new business, find the competition and potential customers interested in your proposed product or service.

Speaker: Dawn Ohaver Moyer

Gain a workable knowledge of how to properly record financial transactions for your business. Discover the three most important financial reports and how to use them to make the best-informed business decisions. If you’re a new business owner or need a refresher on the basics of accounting, this seminar is designed for you.

Speaker: Jess McLamb

Starting a business can be confusing, challenging, and frustrating. Whether your business is new or established - or you're just cultivating the seed of a great idea, success depends on getting the assistance you need, when you need it. Learn about programs and resources available to the small business owner or potential owner.

Speaker: Melissa Terrill - Women's Business Center of N.C.

Marketing for the 21st Century small business is more dynamic and challenging than ever.  Discover how to most effectively and efficiently use the many marketing tools available.  Gain insights to understand and reach your customer, analyze your industry and business environment and differentiate between branding, advertising, and grassroots marketing techniques.  Explore the components of an effective marketing plan in this comprehensive seminar.

Speaker: Dawn Ohaver Moyer

Everything that we experience and enjoy in current day began with a thought. No longer should you suppress your ideas due to unawareness of what to do next. Together we will review and discuss processes and areas that will guide your path and serve as an active blueprint to move your idea from thought to action. Learning Objectives: • Reflection on ideas and answering your why. • From head to journal. Exploring the effectiveness of putting pen to paper. • Following necessary steps and setting timeframes. • Remaining encouraged and celebrating small victories.

Speaker: Diana Graham

Marketing for the 21st Century small business is more dynamic and challenging than ever. Discover how to most effectively and efficiently use the many marketing tools available. Gain insights to understand and reach your customer, analyze your industry and business environment and differentiate between branding, advertising, and grassroots marketing techniques. Explore the components of an effective marketing plan in this comprehensive seminar.

Speaker: Dawn Ohaver Moyer

There is a tremendous interest coming from our communities of wanting to know how to form a nonprofit business. Careful consideration should be given to this quest and much attention needs to be given to the proper steps to take. Failure to do so could result in with serious consequences for individuals as well as becoming detrimental to the original cause for which the non-profit was designed. If you are considering stating a non-profit business, please plan to attend this very informative seminar. Participants will discover: • Basics on what a non-profit business is • Refine the definition of a non-profit • Issues to consider before starting a non-profit • Key steps in forming a non-profit • Forms and Documents needed to be filed • What takes place at the first board meeting • Do you need an attorney?

Speaker: Sam Gore

This session conveys, in plain English, what common mistakes can occur on your site and how they can affect what people feel about your site and even how well it ranks on the search engines. It only takes a few seconds to discourage a user and off they go to your competitor's site. Topics covered include: • Overuse of PDFs • Non scannable text • Badly worded page titles • Opening New Browser Window

Speaker: Paul Kaufman

This seminar has been created for those individuals who are thinking about starting and operating their own business; however, they do not know if they have the personality, drive, creativity, adaptability, and a host of other talents and attributes that comprise a successful entrepreneur.

Speaker: Bob Moore

Have you ever thought of being your own boss and starting a small business? Perhaps you have another dream but your debt is out of control and preventing your dream from becoming a reality. Now is the time to learn how to “Be Free from Debt’s Hold…..” How would you like to pay off all your consumer debt, credit cards, car payments, and loans? How would you like to know the exact month and year you could be out of debt, legally and without a tax liability? Now is the time to start living a better life; a life without debt. In this three-hour seminar, you will learn a simple yet effective method to start the process of making yourself debt free! You will also learn about the shams and “quick fixes” that should be avoided and how to properly and legally deal with creditors. Bring a list of your debts with balances and monthly payments and learn how to develop your own debt elimination plan that can be implemented immediately into your lifestyle. You will learn how to control debt, instead of allowing debt to control you! Before you apply for a business loan, consider making that next large purchase or accept a new credit card, take the time to attend this life-changing seminar. Bring a calculator! “The Worse Place You Can Ever Live Is Beyond Your Means!”

Speaker: Bob Moore

After completing this seminar, the participants will be able to: Understand how credit reports are used in the underwriting of business loans. Apply common business practices and tools to help in proper credit reporting. Develop strategies to build or improve their business’ credit. Protect themselves from credit-related scams and know what to do if their business becomes a victim.

Speaker: Paul Licary, Small Business Specialist - AVP, Woodforest National Bank

Non-profits are one of the fastest growing types of businesses in America today. This seminar has been especially created for those individuals who desire information on how non-profits are started, how they survive, what regulations they must adhere to and what funds are available for their operation. While participating in this seminar, you will learn how to: • Complete the process of obtaining the IRS 501(c)3 non-profit status • Obtain proper tax and incorporation status • Locate sources of grants and the basics of writing a grant • Apply advanced grant writing techniques • Follow the legal and financial requirements for non-profits • Locate alternate sources of funds

Speaker: Sam Gore

True power on a website lies in the words! By carefully sculpting the text on your small business website, you can attract your target audience and earn helping your pages rank higher. paragraphs that act as user magnets - while also engaging content and create keyword-densesearch engine rankings. Learn how to write engaging content and create keyword-dense paragraphs that act as user magnets - while also helping your pages rank higher.

Speaker: Paul Kaufman

What does it mean to be a “certified” minority- or woman-owned business? What is required to receive this designation, and how will it help you grow your business? Learn about the various government and private entities that provide certifications and have programs to support Minority/Women/Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Certifications. Discover how to use these certification programs to boost your business.

Speaker: Melissa Terrill - Women's Business Center of N.C.

For those with a desire to take their SEO effort to the next level, there are a variety of advanced techniques that can increase a website's online exposure and rankings. This program dives into the more technical and advanced tactics. A solid understanding of HTML is required for this training. Topics covered include: • User experience enhancement • Leveraging your robots.txt file • Landing page optimization • A/B Testing

Speaker: Paul Kaufman

Is your business prepared to shake up the competition? Turn Customers into Promoters of your Brand. Whether you are a new or existing small business, a solid plan to manage the customer's journey from sales to service is essential. The practical insights in this session will assist you with: • Designing a plan. Understand the importance of laying the groundwork for exceeding customer expectations. Construct a plan with seven basic principles. • Assessing the process through the customer's lens. Learn the importance of all linkages in your customer's end-to-end journey, proactively identify potential issues, and increase the effectiveness of connections to your brand. • Creating a customer journey map. Develop a practical high level customer journey map. • Keeping promises and knowing the pain points. Increase the focus on measures that matter and understand what your customer really wants you to do. Evolve customers into promoters.

Speaker: Jamonica Hill

Bylaws ar a legal document outlining the self-imposed rules that will regulate an organization's own actions. Since it is a required element when forming a corporation, bylaws are a form of agreement or contract between the corporation and its owners to conduct itself in a certain manner. In the past, organizations often had bylaws but today those bylaws are usually insufficient. This seminar will offer participants the knowledge concerning… • 10 Most Common Nonprofit Bylaw Pitfalls: How to Avoid the Traps. • Required provisions normally included in Nonprofit Bylaws Keep in mind that when starting a Nonprofit business, the organization does not formally exist until the bylaws have been approved by the governing body of the organization.

Speaker: Sam Gore

Amazon.com is not just for books. Whether you are looking for a business to start or you are already in business and want to expand, Amazon is an opportunity you need to explore. In this training you will learn the basics of how to sell on Amazon. Topics will include: what you need to get started, how much it will cost to sell on Amazon, choosing your account type, what you should not sell on Amazon, and how to operate an online business without filling your house full of inventory.

Speaker: Martin Brossman

Amazon.com is not just for books. Whether you are looking for a business to start or you are already in business and want to expand, Amazon is an opportunity you need to explore. In this training you will learn the basics of how to sell on Amazon. Topics will include: what you need to get started, how much it will cost to sell on Amazon, choosing your account type, what you should not sell on Amazon, and how to operate an online business without filling your house full of inventory.

Speaker: Martin Brossman

LinkedIn is famous for connecting professionals all over the world. Many people associate it with finding new positions and advancing one’s career, but LinkedIn can also be a valuable space for expanding the network for many types of businesses. Chances are when people are looking to buy products/services, they might just stumble upon your profile. A good description of what kind of services/products you provide might just help you rope in few leads. In this seminar you will learn how to effectively use LinkedIn to market yourself and your business.

Speaker: Melanie Diehl

This seminar will provides skills and tools to help you balance the demands on your time, focus on your priorities, improve your work habits, boost your productivity, and gain a greater sense of control so you can accomplish the things tht matter most. Attention will also be given to dealing with time robbers - interruptions, procrastination, and organization strategies, as well as handling email and technology

Speaker: Paul Licary, Small Business Specialist - AVP, Woodforest National Bank

Everything that we experience and enjoy in current day began with a thought. No longer should you suppress your ideas due to unawareness of what to do next. Together we will review and discuss processes and areas that will guide your path and serve as an active blueprint to move your idea from thought to action. Learning Objectives: • Reflection on ideas and answering your why. • From head to journal. Exploring the effectiveness of putting pen to paper. • Following necessary steps and setting timeframes. • Remaining encouraged and celebrating small victories.

Speaker: Diana Graham

In this seminar, small business owners will learn 25 ways to increase sales and proftis, including a wide range of easy-to-implement exercises, methods, and strategies that will immediately increase customer traffic, sales volume, and profits. The seminar will offer tips that will help every business - in store, outside calls, online, prospecting, marketing, and forecasting. It will also discuss new, outside-the-box, guerilla marketing strategies for small business that deliver maximum results at the lowest cost.

Speaker: Steve Carver

This workshop for aspiring entrepreneurs offers an overview of financing for a new or existing business. Outside funding options, including commercial bank loans, SBA-backed loans, and sources of equity capital such as angel investors and venture capitalists, will be covered.

Speaker: Melissa Terrill - Women's Business Center of N.C.

Have you ever thought about opening your own home-Home-Based Business? One of the safest ways to start a new business is to start out working from home. Not only will your overhead be low, it will give you the opportunity to try out your idea before plunging in. This seminar is designed to help you determine if you are ready to start your own business, and if so, learn just what it is going to

Speaker: Steve Carver

Have you ever thought about opening your own home-Home-Based Business? One of the safest ways to start a new business is to start out working from home. Not only will your overhead be low, it will give you the opportunity to try out your idea before plunging in. This seminar is designed to help you determine if you are ready to start your own business, and if so, learn just what it is going to take.

Speaker: Steve Carver

A business plan can be the most important tool a small business owner has. Learn how to turn your ideas into a solid plan for financing and long-term success. This seminar teaches you the important components of a business plan and helps you lay the foundation for a winning plan. Find out how marketing, operations, and finance are interrelated. 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. This seminar is designed for new and established business owners.

Speaker: Jess McLamb

The art and strategies of NEGOTIATIONS are very important. Now more than ever strong negotiation skills can be the difference between a beneficial compromise and a loss. A recent study estimated over 9 million dollars per hour are lost due to poor negotiating skills. The seminar presenter, Steve Carver, is an owner of several businesses; has over 50 years face to face retail sales, contracts and Internet marketing negotiating experience. He said " There's a lot more to it than Buy Low and Sell High." Negotiations are a vital part of our lives, both at work and at home. Whether you are in discussions with an individual about personal matters or trying to close a huge contract for your company, negotiating skills are the keys to success in business and life. Learn to improve your ability to handle deals and clients with confidence and strength. Knowledge gained at this seminar will help you guard against losing another deal because of weak professional negotiating skills.

Speaker: Steve Carver

Digital marketing is changing thanks to widespread ownership of smartphones, ever-increasing data and video streaming, combined with a cultural desire for digestible and personalized content. Do you know which trends will impact YOUR organization in 2018? How can you jump on some of these trends to get an edge on your competition? You’re about to find out… By the end of this session, you’ll have a cutting edge on: • Marketing Automation • Content Marketing • Video • Mobile • Big Data

Building and understanding your business model is a critical first step in the business planning process. Learn how to design and analyze your business model. We present several business model concepts that you can then use to develop your individual business model(s). With your business model, you can develop your business plan more efficiently and effectively.

Speaker: Herbert Dittmar

Building and understanding your business model is a critical first step in the business planning process. Learn how to design and analyze your business model. We present several business model concepts that you can then use to develop your individual business model(s). With your business model, you can develop your business plan more efficiently and effectively.

Speaker: Herbert Dittmar

Is your business prepared to shake up the competition? Turn Customers into Promoters of your Brand. Whether you are a new or existing small business, a solid plan to manage the customer's journey from sales to service is essential. The practical insights in this session will assist you with: • Designing a plan. Understand the importance of laying the groundwork for exceeding customer expectations. Construct a plan with seven basic principles. • Assessing the process through the customer's lens. Learn the importance of all linkages in your customer's end-to-end journey, proactively identify potential issues, and increase the effectiveness of connections to your brand. • Creating a customer journey map. Develop a practical high level customer journey map. • Keeping promises and knowing the pain points. Increase the focus on measures that matter and understand what your customer really wants you to do. Evolve customers into promoters.

Speaker: Jamonica Hill