Startup Smart Seminar Series

	04.13.17: Strategic Marketing
	04.20.17: Business Planning
	04.27.17: Financing Options: Access to Capital
	05.04.17: Digital Marketing
	05.11.17: Legal Issues and the Emerging Business
	05.18.17: Sales and the Selling Process
	05.25.17: Mindset for Success

See below for Seminar Descriptions.

Spring 2017 Seminar Schedule

April 13 - Strategic Marketing: You will learn the concepts behind developing a sound and cost effective marketing strategy for their business including Articulating what your business does through the eyes of your customers, completing a competitive analysis for the direct and indirect competitors of your business, identifying the key characteristics of your potential customers within the overall market, determining the actual marketing and advertising activities that your business will undertake, determining market share, potential, and trends and price-value-service matrix, and setting your marketing budget.

Presenter: Dr. Rosalyn Rufer, Professor of Strategic Marketing, Empire State College, School for Graduate Studies

April 20 – Business Planning 101: Entrepreneurship can be the key to owning your future. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and SCORE share their resources and expertise on the importance of why a business plan is critical to your success. Learn about SBA’s programs for veterans and members of the military community. You will learn the components of writing a Business Plan for internal or external use utilizing the model developed by SCORE and the SBA.

Presenters—SCORE mentors, Don Finney, MBA, Ken Moore, MS, Professor at University at Albany, and Dan Rickman, Albany Branch Manager, US Small Business Administration​

April 27- Financing Options: Access to Capital: While most potential entrepreneurs have the best intentions, many do not have the capital requirements to make their concept a reality. In this session, you will learn about different lending criteria and financing options. After this session, you will be better equipped to address your business’s financial need. Finance experts from the banking industry, accounting and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) will field your questions about accessing capital for your business venture.

Presenter—Small Business Development Center​

May 04 – Digital Marketing: Learn from a panel of top experts in Digital marketing to help you navigate the water of online and mobile communications. The panel will address strategic marketing opportunities that are available to businesses to utilize content, blogging, inbound marketing, local and mobile optimization and digital communications. Take part in a discussion on artificial intelligence & accelerated mobile sites.

Presenters— Rick Noel, Founder & CEO, eBiz ROI and Jenny Crawford, Owner, JC Sweet & Company​

May 11 – Legal Issues and the Emerging Business: Understanding the legal ramifications of decisions when starting a business can be overwhelming and expensive. In a discussion format, you will have the benefit of the expertise of a corporate attorney and CPA, to discuss some of the steps that every emerging Business Owner should take to protect themselves, their business and their ideas.

Presenter - Frank C Mayer, Esq., Bond, Schoeneck & King Attorneys

May 18 – Sales and the Selling Process: Learn from an expert who works with many start-up companies as a Sales Trainer and coach, helping businesses to put into place a systematic approach to business development. Often, sales is not the “reason” why the entrepreneur started the business, yet it is the lifeblood of the business. Without sales, there is no business. Gain insight into what start-ups that have moved beyond that state do—to bring business in from a selling plan and selling process standpoint.

Presenter—Sandler Training, Greater Capital Region of NY

May 25 – Mindset for Success: A person's mindset is one of the most important factors in determining his/her success in any endeavor. All the business strategies and systems in the world are not going to help you succeed in your business without a positive mindset. How we recognize and react, determines and affects everything we do. Join us for this interactive workshop and learn how to recognize your own negative mindsets. Adopt a more positive leadership mindset to keep you moving forward toward your goals and become a responsible leader and role model for your company and your community.

Presenter - Judy Brinkman, Owner, Life’s 2 Short