Introductory Entrepreneurship Workshops
These workshops, provided by SCORE, are tremendous resources that explain the fundamentals of entrepreneurship in a very easy-to-follow manner.
Listed below are ten introductory workshops, provided by SCORE, which detail fundamental areas of entrepreneurship. (Please note that you will need to register with SCORE to access these free workshops. Registration is quick, easy, and does not cost anything.)
Many of these resources are also available in Spanish.
1) Assessing Your Organization's Financial Needs: A critical key to entrepreneurial success lies in the ability to obtain and secure financing for your business. This workshop outlines the sources that many entrepreneurs pursue, highlights the importance of self-assessment as part of this selection process, and helps explain how entrepreneurs can make the right choice – and avoid some common mistakes.
2) Partners and Investors: As an organization grows and expands, it will be forced to decide whether to take on additional partners and investors. This workshop explores some of the pros and cons of that decision, some of the equity structures that are a part of the decision making process, and how to attract potential investors.
3) Developing a Business Plan: This is a very helpful overview for anyone that wants to know everything that should be included in a comprehensive business plan. This two-part series covers the main sections of a business plan, which include the Executive Summary; Products and Services; the Market; Marketing Strategy; the Competition; Operations; the Management Team; Personnel; Financial Data; and Supporting Documentation.
4) Creating a Strategic Plan: Every organization needs a strategic plan to serve as a roadmap toward its goals, and this workshop demonstrates how to create such a plan. It explains the importance of a drafting a mission statement, outlining goals and objectives, planning various scenarios, and lastly, designing an action plan to help you achieve the organization’s overall mission.
5) Building a Website: Viewers of this workshop will be taught about the fundamentals of what makes a professional and effective website that can help them attract and retain customers. Topics include navigation, design, content, e-commerce, customer service, personalization strategies, and available methods of driving traffic to your site.
6) Conducting a Market Analysis: Every entrepreneur should know the marketplace in which his or her organization will operate. This workshop illustrates how to perform an in-depth assessment of the potential target market. It stresses that a successful entrepreneur will know not only the market, but also the industry and its various competitors. Other areas covered include a helpful case study, an opportunity to test what you’ve learned, and instructions about how to construct a survey or questionnaire.
7) Determining Your Business Legal Structure: A critical step in the entrepreneurial process is choosing what sort of legal structure you would like your organization to be: a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, or a limited liability company. All four of these structures are explained and reviewed, as are the considerations that go into selecting one of them. The workshop also highlights additional tax planning and protective measures every entrepreneur must consider.
8) Promoting Your Business: There are a variety of ways to promote your organization once it gets up and running, and this workshop explores many of them, including grassroots marketing, public relations efforts, promotions, cross-promotions, and trade shows. While the workshop won’t tell you which one is the best, it will provide you with helpful strategies to help guide your selection process.
9) Advertising Your Business: This workshop explains the importance of advertising, and details a variety of methods that are available, including magazines, the yellow pages, newspapers, online directories, card decks, the radio, web banner ads, and cable television. After going over these various options, it identifies how an entrepreneur should go about planning for this critical part of the process.
