Let your inner entrepreneur shine with these business courses and training programs.
The Small Business Training Network (SBTN) is a virtual campus providing quality and targeted online training to meet the information needs of prospective and existing small business owners.
SCORE helps you in mentoring advice, find an office,low-cost workshops, “How to" articles and business templates, & Online workshops and learning.
Business Week Online (bwcourses.com) offers training in topics ranging from technology to business. All courses are led by experts in their fields, and offer you the opportunity to interact with the instructors and other students online.
About University (u.about.com/) offers free email business courses on everything from public speaking to increasing business success.
My Own Business (myownbusiness.org) offers course that teaches you what the common mistakes one make in the beginning and how to avoid them.
School for Champions (school-for-champions.com) offers free online lessons to give you a start at improving your business skills.
Learn That (learnthat.com/business/) offers free business tutorials and courses in a variety of subjects including career and job tutorials, small business instruction, and free management courses. Learn how to manage your business, marketing, career, and employees in these free business tutorials.
Trump University offers courses designed to give aspiring business owners hands-on experience in the real world and to turn the school into a resource for business leaders.
The Sloan School of Management provides access to hundreds of free business courses online.
The Entrepreneurship and Business Planning Course taught at Carnegie Mellon is a great course for new entrepreneurs.
The U.S. Small Business Administration offers several courses on starting a small business.
The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of Kutztown University has one of the largest collections of free business entrepreneurship courses on the web.
SmallBizBee(www.smallbizbee.com) - presents review of 85 absolutely free online business classes in Business.
SmallBizU (http://www.smallbizu.org) is an online university offers a range of courses across all functional areas of small business specially for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Regional Help Centres:
The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center (ASBTDC) is a University-based economic development program which provides assistance to entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout Arkansas.
The Small Business Center mission is to increase the success rate and number of profitable small businesses in New Hanover and Pender Counties. They provide Seminars/classes to prospective and existing small business owners.
Chamber of Commerce in your region.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Exhibitions & Trade Fairs - Opportunity? or Networking?
Exhibitions give a unique opportunity to network, transact business & build brands. It is a platform of social networking where one can transact business. Exhibitors & visitors see exhibitions as a tool to come together & talk business. Trade fairs and B2B shows are easy & highly cost effective medium for business promotion.
MSMEs can get better Return on Investment (RoI) of their trade fair participation expenses by clearly defining their goals. Decide exactly what you want to achieve from participation - set yourself objectives that are ambitious but achievable. The goals should be effective and realistic. A well formulated promotional strategy and marketing plan is must. This planning can be started 3 to 6 months ahead of the fair.
At the place of exhibition the first and foremost goal should be to present a professional image. Making eye contact with the visitors is very rewarding. While an effective eye contact compels the visitors to visit the booth, a friendly appearance encourages people to stop and talk. Appoint best people to represent your company.
Set up and decoration of the booth is also very important, so all efforts should be made to make the booth attractive and interesting. Ensure that your booth should not give a cluttered look and Logo or brand should be highlighted prominently in your booth. Graphics and visuals can play a very important role in making the booths attractive and interesting. Nobody is going to remember the textual information, only graphics will stay in the minds of the visitors. Some kind of demo or learn shop should also be arranged. A good speaker needs to be placed at demo or learn shop.
Since purchase decisions are mostly not made at fair venue so try to collect as many leads as possible and then have a proper follow up. First follow up should be promptly after the fair and the requested literature should also be sent immediately. Second follow up can be after 2- 6 months.
MSMEs can get better Return on Investment (RoI) of their trade fair participation expenses by clearly defining their goals. Decide exactly what you want to achieve from participation - set yourself objectives that are ambitious but achievable. The goals should be effective and realistic. A well formulated promotional strategy and marketing plan is must. This planning can be started 3 to 6 months ahead of the fair.
At the place of exhibition the first and foremost goal should be to present a professional image. Making eye contact with the visitors is very rewarding. While an effective eye contact compels the visitors to visit the booth, a friendly appearance encourages people to stop and talk. Appoint best people to represent your company.
Set up and decoration of the booth is also very important, so all efforts should be made to make the booth attractive and interesting. Ensure that your booth should not give a cluttered look and Logo or brand should be highlighted prominently in your booth. Graphics and visuals can play a very important role in making the booths attractive and interesting. Nobody is going to remember the textual information, only graphics will stay in the minds of the visitors. Some kind of demo or learn shop should also be arranged. A good speaker needs to be placed at demo or learn shop.
Since purchase decisions are mostly not made at fair venue so try to collect as many leads as possible and then have a proper follow up. First follow up should be promptly after the fair and the requested literature should also be sent immediately. Second follow up can be after 2- 6 months.
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