Business Building Seminar Series I - Winter 2016

Join Paul Proffitt of SunDown RunDown as he hosts a series of six seminars designed to give you a primer on the things you need to consider when venturing out to start your own business or thinking about commercializing a new product or service idea.  

The courses are structured in a lecture and workshop format; giving you not just the theory, but real world scenarios.  Each class is 1.5 hours long and meets on Mondays at 6:30pm at The Columbus Idea Foundry.

• Session 1: Do you want to build a business?  It doesn’t have to be a business.  February 1st, 6:30pm
  
  Session 1 is all about the basics.  We will talk about what kinds of businesses can you form and why you would choose one type over the other, what goes into creating a business, and paths to becoming a full-time entrepreneur and small business owner.

• Session 2: Ideas Just Don’t Grow on Trees.  February 8th, 6:30pm
  
  Believe it or not Innovation and Creativity is a process.  You actually have to work at it to come up with ideas.  Very rarely does lightning just strike your brain, unless your idea is a lightning rod directly attached to your skull, but I digress.  This session will walk you through some of the strategies and activities you can do to come up with ideas for your next great product or service and evaluate that idea to see if there are actually customers willing to buy.

• Session 3: Your Product is more than the Thing You Make.
  February 22nd, 6:30pm
  
  We are going to cover what your total product offering is, how much you should charge for it, and things to consider on branding your product and your company.  Apple is a prime example of a company that has nailed it for the total product, setting the right price, and creating a brand around slick design and technology that just works.  Learn what goes into making all of that happen.

• Session 4: If You Build It and Do Nothing, They Won’t Come.
  February 29, 6:30pm
  
  Selling your product or service is hard.  You have to build a marketing plan on how you can get your stuff into the hands of your customers.  How do you do that?  What do you need to do?  This session will walk you through the marketing planning steps so you can answer the right questions.
   
• Session 5: This Entrepreneur Went to Market.  March 7th, 6:30pm
  
  This session will cover distribution and selling channels for your product or service.  There are multiple ways to get your product to market – direct selling, using syndicates, B2B, B2C and others.  This session will help you figure out the best channel for your product or service.
  
  
• Session 6: Accounting is Fun!  March 14th, 6:30pm
  
  Well, not really, but accounting is one of those things that you just need to learn at a very basic level to be able to make sure you company is running well, has cash to pay its bills, and detect any problems or identify areas of opportunity.  This session will walk you through some of the core accounting documents and how to use them in the management of your business.