Why you should sign up for next year’s class!
Last week I, along with a good-sized group of other entrepeneurs in the Middle Georgia area, finished the 5 week class put on by the SBDC in Macon on growing your business the Smart Way. Qbix was one of the sponsors of the class but I can tell you I got more out of it than anyone!
The Grow Smart Course ran every Friday for 5 weeks. I confess that I wasn’t sure what to expect from the class. I was delighted to see a good group of people who were in various stages of their businesses and were interested in taking their businesses to a new level. Lori Auten with the Focus Consulting Group taught the class and did an excellent job. It was really neat seeing people who want to grow their businesses and of course seeing and helping each other in finding ways to grow and improve their businesses. The basic outline of the class is below but you can see it starts with the basics of understanding how to create a business plan and ends with a short presentation of what your business plan is.
- Planning for Growth
- Marketing: Research, Planning and Implementation
- Leadership & Management
- Financial Analysis, Tools & Resources
- Operations & Implementing Your Plan
One of the best things in the class was the concept of a one page business plan. At the end of the course ours was two pages but that’s OK. This was a huge accomplishment for our firm. It also helped me to see how other businesses and nonprofits could benefit from a good business plan. It was also great to see a full day devoted to financial analysis and understanding the key business metrics for the business. I think everyone got a lot out of it.
The SBDC did a great job with this and kudos to Lori for a great job.
My top takeaways from the class were:
- The one page business plan
- Marketing issues and the need for more web marketing emphasis
- The importance of good job descriptions
- The need for good bookkeeping and understanding your financial statements (I already really knew this of course)
- Good systems are required to achieve healthy growth
If you would like to sign up for any of the SBDC’s services, go their website and contact them. They do a great job and you’re sure to be happy with them as a resource for your business.
If you’d like to know more about Qbix’s services click in the chat box and schedule your free consultation.
Also if you like this article, please share by clicking on the share buttons to the left of this post.
