SCORE Austin #249

SCORE on Twitter

2009-08-26T10:37:00.002-05:00

Did you know that SCORE is on Twitter?

You can follow SCOREMentors for quick small business tips and updates.

Business Skills

2007-11-27T12:21:00.000-06:00

SCORE has added a business skills assessment tool to their on-line toolbox. It is a short survey of 15 questions that results in a customized list of links and recommended readings.

It is worth looking into. The links lead to on-line workshops that are context specific. Better than sifting through long lists of on-line presentations.

I've added the URL to the business links on the left, under SCORE Business Skills Center.

Workshops In November

2007-11-04T18:54:00.000-06:00

We have 3 workshops this November.

The Essentials of Starting A Business will be held twice. Saturday 11/17 and Wednesday 11/28. The 28th is a week later than usual because of Thanksgiving.

The Essentials of Writing A Business Plan will be on the usual Tuesday date, November 20th.

Online Classes

2007-10-08T12:42:00.000-05:00

SCORE has teamed up with The Small Business Center to offer some online classes. Two in particular caught my eye; Planning your advertising and Can you afford to start a business.

The courses have been geared to low speed intenet connections, like mine. Not a lot of flash animation and lots of text rather than graphics. And, they allow you to enter answers and thoughts, which are saved on-line for your later reference.

I took the Advertising course. No cost involved other than about 1 hour of my time.

The couse got me thinking about internet advertising. While I was looking at a local Austin ratecard I ran across the term CPM. In context CPM stands for Cost Per Mille (i.e. 1,000). Looking that up, I found an interesting site for reference and glossary called NET-ADS. I've added a link to our library in the left column.

Workshops In October

2007-10-04T14:26:00.000-05:00

Full plate this month.

We start off with the Marketing Workshop on October 13th, 9am to 1pm. Mike Dore will discuss approaches to developing a marketing strategy.

The third week of the month will have the Business Plan Workshop (Oct 16, 11:30-1:30pm) and the all day Essentials For Starting A Business (Oct 17, 9am to 4pm).

Then on the 25th (Thursday, 11:30-1:30pm) Barry Lewis will conduct the Alternative Sources of Capital Workshop. Barry discusses the advantages and disadvantages of Equity or Debt financing.

Busy Week Coming Up

2007-09-16T17:23:00.000-05:00

Third week of the month is always busy. We have two workshops this week.

On Tuesday (9/18) we have the Business Plan workshop. It's two hours right around lunch time (11:30 to 1:30).

Wednesday (9/19) is the all day Essentials Workshop.

Saturday Essential Class

2007-09-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

Beautiful day in Austin today, but 13 entrepreneurs chose to sit in on the all day workship for starting a business. Some interesting business ideas (I'm not going to give away the unique ideas), but here's a sample:

Nutrition Consulting
IT Consulting
Catering
Self Publishing
Credit Assistance
Graphic Design
Bath and Body Products
Fashion Accessories

The questions have been great. People learn more from the questions that others have than just the presentations themselves.

Marketing On The Internet

2007-09-09T19:52:00.000-05:00

Among the services offered by SCORE is the ability for email counseling. You can type in a few keywords, and a list of potential email counselors is displayed. Then you can type a more detailed question to the counselor of your choice.

I participate as a counselor. Since my profile has "eCommerce" in it, I tend to get internet site questions.

INC Publishing along with Verizon and SuperPages.com put out a guide for SCORE called "How To Really Market On The Internet." This is a very readable treatment of a number of topics. It is worth your time to download and read.

SuperPages.com just looks like a yellow pages directory. The trick is to go a level deeper into the brocure URL; www.superpages.com/ilt is the Internet Learning Tutor. There is a further section that presents information for business on Marketing on the Internet.

Texas Music

2007-09-08T15:19:00.000-05:00

I realize this sounds like a strange topic for a business site. But music is big in Austin, and many clients are interested in entertainment related businesses.

I was looking for a friend. As I Googled his name I ran across a business resource I wasn't aware of (he was registered as a musician). The governor's office maintains a Texas Talent Register for musicians.

The registry is a small part of a larger site, The Texas Music Office. This is a portal with a gold mine of services and state information about music. Including a section called "Business Guides." These cover a variety of topics such as booking tours, copywrites, and license requirements (to name just a few topics).

Bootstrap "Social" Networks

2007-09-06T15:31:00.000-05:00

I've received an invitation to have an Austin SCORE presence on the Bootstrap Online Social Network. I am only vaguely familiar with Facebook etc, though I understand the concept. And, for small business marketing, I certainly understand the value of networks of people.

I'm not conversant, yet, with all the Bootstrap terminology. They have their own model for business trajectory and skill sets. I registered SCORE #249 as a "mentor." That may be a misnomer, since we often are looking for more traditional business plans and funding.

The price was right, however, FREE!

I've added a new links category on the left side for small business networks and groups in the 5 county area which is our prime source of clients. The small business links are for more national and general sites.

Update: I found a site that has a number of networking hints and articles.

September Specials

2007-09-04T03:11:00.000-05:00

In addition to the Saturday Version of the Essentials Workshop, this is also the month we run a more specialized workshop.

This month is a workshop on the Business Valuation Workshop. It will happen on the 27th of September, from 11:30 to 1:30.

Carl Monnin has extensive experience as a business broker. In this workshop he shares a number of ways to evaluate a business's "value."

One key is to recognize that both sides of a business purchase have to negotiate the realization of their goals. Those goals/needs may be monetary or activity. So, while the analytic component is key, other factors may actually seal the deal!

PSA's

2007-09-03T16:23:00.000-05:00

The chapter recorded some public service announcements (PSAs), with the help of KLBJ production facilities. There are three versions, one plain and two with music.

I have added the plain PSAs, in MP3 form, to the links on the left hand side of the blog. Now you can download to your IPOD, if you need a 30 second spot while jogging.

Austin Chapter

2007-09-02T21:19:00.000-05:00

Hello. I'm the FY2007 Workshop Chairman. This blog will be notes and announcements for workshops that we hold for entrepreneurs.

The intent, I'll freely admit, is to generate additional awareness on the internet. If people are searching for business classes, it would be nice if they would occasionaly find SCORE workshops.

The first one coming up on September the 15th is the Saturday edition of the
Essentials class. It's an all day workshop, 9am - 4pm. We cover a lot of topics.

Alternate Sources Of Capital

2007-09-02T21:09:00.001-05:00

There are two basic categories of capital, selling equity or getting a loan. Each category, however, can be obtained from many different sources. This workshop discusses the numerous options available to an entrepreneur, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each option.

We use SCORE counselors as instructors. Our workshops provide an opportunity for people to meet others trying to raise money for their small business.

SCORE is a national non-profit organization interested in helping small business start-ups and established business owners. We offer free face to face counseling on a wide range of business questions.

When: October 25, 2007.

Time/Location: 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. At the Austin SCORE offices, 3809 South Second Street, Bldg C, Suite 300.

Cost: - $30 – cash or check at the door. $15 for your other business associates that come with you. Counseling at SCORE is free, but we use these workshops to raise operating funds.

For more information or to reserve a seat please contact:

SCORE Austin Chapter 249 at 512-928-2425

or email to info =at= scoreaustin.org

www.scoreaustin.org

Business Valuation

2007-09-02T21:08:00.001-05:00

Our goal is to assist entrepreneurs in evaluating the purchase or sale of an existing business. The workshop uses an example to discuss the various ways to evaluating business assets, examining business liabilities, legal hurdles, documentation, and most importantly understanding the buyer’s and seller’s perspective.

We use SCORE counselors as instructors. Our instructor owned a successful Austin Business Broker company. Our workshops also provide an opportunity for people to meet others with business valuation questions.

When: September 27, 2007

Time/Location: 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. At the Austin SCORE offices, 3809 South Second Street, Bldg C, Suite 300.

Cost: - $30 – cash or check at the door. $15 for your other business associates that come with you. Counseling at SCORE is free, but we use these workshops to raise operating funds.

For more information or to reserve a seat please contact:

SCORE Austin Chapter 249 at 512-928-2425

or email to info =at= scoreaustin.org

www.scoreaustin.org

Marketing Strategies To Jumpstart Your Business

2007-09-02T20:50:00.000-05:00

Sometimes called Marketing 102. Usually held on Saturdays, roughly every other month.

Interested in developing a practical and effective marketing plan? This workshop discusses traditional marketing issues; defining your target market and position, price, delivering, and promoting your product or service. The workshop works through an example of a “Nanny Service,” but uses breakouts to have you discuss topics as they apply to your specific business idea.

We use SCORE counselors as instructors. Our workshops provide an opportunity for people to meet others trying to improve their marketing in a small business.

When: Selected Saturdays during 2007. Call for next scheduled date beyond this one.

Time/Location: 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. At the Austin SCORE offices, 3809 South Second Street, Bldg C, Suite 300.

Cost: - $30 – cash or check at the door. $15 for your other business associates that come with you. Counseling at SCORE is free, but we use these workshops to raise operating funds.

For more information or to reserve a seat please contact:

SCORE Austin Chapter 249 at 512-928-2425

or email to info =at= scoreaustin.org

www.scoreaustin.org

Essentials For Writing A Business Plan

2007-09-02T20:48:00.000-05:00

This is a monthly workshop, except December. Concentrating on the organization and content of a business plan.

This workshop provides general and individual guidance to help prepare and evaluate a business plan. We discusses the content of a business plan and why the sections are separated but linked. We also discuss ways and places to find the information needed to fill in the holes of the plan.

We use SCORE counselors as instructors, they’ve seen a variety of business ideas and plans. Our workshops provide an opportunity for people to meet others trying to start a business.

When: Third Tuesday of every month (except December) during 2007.

Time/Location: 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. At the Austin SCORE offices, 3809 South Second Street, Bldg C, Suite 300.

Cost: - $30 – cash or check at the door. $15 for your other business associates that come with you. Counseling at SCORE is free, but we use these workshops to raise operating funds.

For more information or to reserve a seat please contact:

SCORE Austin Chapter 249 at 512-928-2425

or email to info =at= scoreaustin.org

www.scoreaustin.org

Essentials For Starting A Small Business

2007-09-02T20:44:00.000-05:00

This is our flagship workshop.

Our aim is to help would be entrepreneurs to effectively evaluate the pros and cons of starting a small business and create a “road map” to small business success. This workshop discusses a wide range of subjects; financial considerations, planning, forms of business organization, financing alternatives, marketing, insurance, record keeping, and taxes. The workshop is ideal for people with ideas but still trying to figure out all the other things they need to consider about starting a business.

We use a combination of SCORE counselors and professionals from the Austin Business Community as instructors. Our workshops provide an opportunity for people to meet others trying to start a business.

When: Third Wednesday of every month (except December) plus February 17,May 12, September 15 and Nov. 17. during 2007.

Time/Location: 8:50 A.M. to 4 P.M. At the Austin SCORE offices, 3809 South Second Street, Bldg C, Suite 300.

Cost: - $45 – cash or check at the door. $20 for your other business associates that come with you. Counseling at SCORE is free, but we use these workshops to raise operating funds.

For more information or to reserve a seat please contact:

SCORE Austin Chapter 249 at 512-928-2425

or email to info =at= scoreaustin.org