New Book
Available...
by Dr. Gary W. Lawson
CEO, Lawson & Associates
"The Entrepreneur's
Marketing Guide" ($20)
On-Going Class Schedule
Developing a business plan - $375
Every Saturday Morning 9:30 a.m.
- Noon
New group starts first Saturday of each month.
Total Class = 4 Saturday Mornings
Pre-sign Up Enrollment Required
A written business plan helps you control your business rather than letting it control you. Attend this workshop to learn the business planning process and start writing your plan. Discover how to target your market, analyze competitors, and examine your strengths and weaknesses. Learn how to set goals and develop financial projections. At the end of the four sessions, you should have a first draft of your plan, and you will make a sales presentation to the class.
Who will benefit
Entrepreneurs, business owners, and potential business owners who are planning to go into business, or have been in business less than three years but have never written a business plan, this workshop is for you.
How you will benefit
In this workshop, learn step-by-step how to write your business plan. Discover how to find the information you need, how to target your market, and how to develop financial projections. By the end of the workshop you should have a first draft of your business plan. But most importantly, create a business plan to build your business right and enhance your likelihood of success.
What you will learn
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The components of a business plan
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Uses for a business plan
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Business description
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Preparation for environmental analysis
Competitive Analysis
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Who are your competitors?
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What products/services do they provide?
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What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Customer Analysis
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Who are your key customers and prospects?
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What products/services do they purchase?
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How much do they buy?
Internal Analysis
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What are the strengths of your company?
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What are the weaknesses of your company?
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Key management profiles
Goals and Strategies
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Marketing and operational goals
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Marketing/company strategies
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Action plans/timetables
Financial Assumptions
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Balance sheet assumptions
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Income statement assumptions
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Sales and revenue assumptions
Executive Summary
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What it is used for
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What to include
Entrepreneurial Training Program - $375
Every Saturday
Afternoon 1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
New group starts first Saturday of each month.
Total Class = 4 Saturday Afternoons
Pre-sign Up Enrollment Required
This is a comprehensive combination of courses, individual coaching and business plan development that is designed to help entrepreneurs develop business skills and attract financing. This program is available for start-up ventures or business expansion. The goal is for you to complete a business plan for your business start-up or expansion so you can obtain financing and have a plan to help guide your success. At the end of the four sessions, you should have a first draft of your plan, and you will make a sales presentation to the class.
Program components
- Small business: the fundamentals
- Becoming an entrepreneur
- Leadership
- Visualization
- Goal Setting
- Mission statement - mantra
- Developing a business plan
- Small group coaching to help you through the business planning process
- Completion of a written business plan
Miscellaneous Additional Classes
Scheduled as requested by 10 or more participants
SUPERVISORY - LEADERSHIP & COMMUNICATION
Supervision is a key factor to the success of any business that has employees. Often, people have not learned how to supervise and lead in an effective manner because they just learned from experience versus having training and skill development in supervision. This series is designed to offer core supervisory leadership skills development with a minimum time commitment.
This class provides insight into aspects of effective leadership, the roles and responsibilities of a successful leader, the strategies needed for dealing with a change in roles and different supervisory styles. Performance coaching is a necessary element in fostering this advantage. This module will enable you to become a more effective mentor and coach. You will learn:
- The importance of performance management as a process
- How to give great advice and meaningful feedback
- How to deal with problem performers
- How to allow employees to make their own decisions
Whether you are communicating with your employees, customers, or suppliers your ability to express yourself well and understand is a major factor of your success. You will get feedback on your behavioral and communication style. You will leave the class with a personal plan for improving your communication skills. Effectively delegating important decisions and actions to others is a fundamental skill that enables you to grow your business. During this class, you will learn the foundations of what you need to do to enable your employees to willingly take more responsibility for performance and use their expanded authority well.
Conflict Management ? All leaders deal with conflict in one form or another. Learn how to turn conflict into collaborations and reach win-win resolutions. You will realize that conflict management can build trust, self esteem, and constructive communication. Conflict can ultimately clarify roles, relationships, and heighten creativity. Learning how to reach beyond the impasse and find solutions that work is one of the best tools that leaders can use.
HUMAN RESOURCE - LEGAL INFORMATION CLASS
Subcategory 1 - Employment:
hiring and firing
Learn how to use employment references to your advantage. Avoid the pain and
potential liability of terminating employees by learning how to evaluate risks,
prepare proper documentation, plan termination meetings and conduct exit
interviews. Also, review some common mistakes made in managing human resources
that may cause problems and legal exposure.
One of the toughest decisions a small business owner has to make is knowing who to hire and who to pass over when it comes to bringing new employees into the business. From asking the right questions in the interview to reducing your risk of litigation from alleged discrimination, making great hiring decisions often seems more a roll of the dice than a scientific process. Help is on the way! This engaging and interactive seminar helps you chart a clear path from the need to hire to welcoming your new employee on board. We’ll help you make great hiring decisions by covering such topics as:
- Defining your vision for great performance in the new position
- Identifying the key knowledge, skills, and abilities that your new hire should have at the point of hire
- Locating and recruiting qualified candidates
- Effectively screening your candidates to ensure they are qualified
- Sorting out the most qualified candidates
- Asking great interview questions
- Minimizing your risks for being sued for discrimination
- Conducting meaningful reference checks
Your goal in every hiring decision should be to build your business and strengthen your team. Attend this session and you will learn the secrets of how to make the hiring process work for you and your company. Instead of being intimated by the process and being afraid of making costly mistakes, you will leave this session with a much clearer idea of what you must do to make great hires.
Subcategory 2 - Writing your
employee handbook
Effective personnel policies lead to the consistent treatment of employees,
reduce discrimination, and enhance productivity and morale. Personnel issues are
becoming more complex each year; avoid common pitfalls and learn how to
understand the legal status of employee handbooks, write your handbook, perform
a policy analysis for your business, and review your handbook and introduce it
to your employees.
Subcategory 3 - Top 10 most
common HR mistakes and hot topics - conflict management
Learn about the most common legal mistakes that are made regarding human
resource management. Awareness of these issues can reduce your risk of legal
action and avoid unnecessary costs. Also, this session will review the most
current changes in human resource law and in the workplace.
Conflict Management ? All leaders deal with conflict
in one form or another. Learn how to turn conflict into collaborations and
reach win-win resolutions. You will realize that conflict management can build
trust, self esteem, and constructive communication. Conflict can ultimately
clarify roles, relationships, and heighten creativity. Learning how to reach
beyond the impasse and find solutions that work is one of the best tools that
leaders can use.
SUCCESSFUL SELLING - SALES MANAGEMENT
Selling is vital to the success of your business. Improve your selling productivity and learn how you can become a professional problem-solver for your customers. Discover the difference between customer opportunities and customer needs.
Learn how to:
- sell benefits--especially those that customers are interested in buying
- use probing techniques to discover real needs
- use skills to handle skepticism
- overcome objections
- close the sale
- develop long-term customer relationships
Sales Management is a multi-tasked function
requiring the assumption of many different roles. No matter how much sales
experience you have, managing the sales function to produce the required sales
volume and provide rewarding careers for the sales team requires new skills.
Learn how to:
- Recruit and retain sales people who can sell
- Create forecasts, set goals and analyze performances
- Develop compensation plans and incentive
programs
- Recognize problems in the team early
- Motivate and give good quality feedback
- Organize meetings, territories and tasks