Acceleration Series
Business owners with one or more years in operation will benefit from this five-part series designed to help you take your business to the next level. Join LiftFund Women's Business Center in collaboration with the Next Level Alliance group to learn ideas and techniques for improving and growing in five distinct areas. Business owners may register for individual workshops ( each) or for all five at the discounted rate of . Students who complete all five courses will be awarded a certificate of completion. Part 1: Sales & Marketing: What's the difference? How can they work together to drive growth? Thursday, September 1, 2016 It is clear that many CEO's and Business Owners struggle with understanding the difference between Sales and Marketing, two key growth drivers for businesses. In this presentation, the two are expressed in a clear way as both very critical and very different disciplines for driving growth. Learn how to leverage both functions to build your business. Key takeaways: 1) Insight into the different components of Marketing as a discipline and how they translate into "Growth Gears" along with Sales. 2) The impact of the online world in regard to how your customers buy today and what that means for both Sales & Marketing functions. 3) Knowledge of how to leverage both functions in unison to grow your business. Presenter Bio: Mary Doize is a Partner and CMO with Chief Outsiders. Mary's 30+ year career has centered around the High Tech Industry in roles from development through general management & marketing. Her background includes work with startups and Fortune 500 firms like Dell and Sage Software. She currently provides Chief Marketing Officer consulting services through a fast-growing nationwide firm called Chief Outsiders. Chief Outsiders exists to help small to midsize businesses grow. Part 2: Crowdfunding for Established Businesses Thursday, September 8, 2016 Crowdfunding internet platforms have been around since the late 1990's. However, until 2012, they had been primarily used to make charitable donations or give out rewards to customers. Since the enactment of the JOBS Act in 2012, we have seen sites like KickStarter, IndieGoGo and GoFundMe begin to be used as platforms for equity crowdfunding a/k/a raising capital for a business in exchange for equity interests in or debt obligations of that business. On May 16th of this year, the SEC's rules for interstate equity crowdfunding went into effect, allowing companies to raise capital from across the nation through qualified internet portals. Although equity crowdfunding is generally thought of as a tool for new businesses, we are seeing more established businesses begin to use it in creative ways. During this workshop, you will learn about: 1. Engaging the consumer base of a business. This puts an entrepreneur on a conversational level with his customers and perhaps target demographics. 2. Using the consumer audience to air their thoughts about improving or better adapting products for particular uses and making that information available to production partners or other sources of equity capital. This makes consumers feel a part of the "business family" and thereby builds the "brand" of the business. It can also validate a business in the eyes of private equity investors or traditional lenders. 3. Taking out loans from peer to peer lending sites. These sites, such as Prosper and Lending Club, match individual investors with businesses that need capital. They provide a way around traditional banking and at interest rates or "costs of capital" lower than those available from credit cards or private equity lending. 4. Creating their own peer to peer secured loan pools. For businesses in capital intensive industries, taking out secured loans from individuals via the web provides a pool of capital with fewer strings attached than loans available from traditional banking. Creating their own secured lending program allows them to standardize the loans made to the business and can build customer engagement. Come learn about how crowdfunding might be creatively used in your business! Presenter Bio: Carol Bavousett Mattick has been practicing corporate and securities law for over 25 years, working almost exclusively with privately held companies. A substantial part of her practice involves working with company CEOs to put themselves in a position to harvest the value created in their businesses – whether through purchase of equity by key employees, a sale of the business to a third party or a strategic investment in the company by a larger company in the same or complimentary industry. Carol's assignments for clients have included acting as part-time in-house counsel for a medical device company; working with companies seeking private equity capital; representation of "angel" investors; representation of senior executives with respect to employment and incentive compensation packages as they go from pre- IPO to post-IPO and cashing out those incentive packages; representation of private companies up to million in annual revenues being acquired; working with companies developing intellectual property assets and/or engaged in product development with a "license out" business model; and other kinds of business transactions and contract drafting. Part 3: Using Metrics to Accelerate Sales Thursday, September 15, 2016 Provide business owners with a framework that will help them more effectively use metrics to drive sales and business performance. This seminar will help business owners identify and focus on the metrics that you can actually manage and that will have an impact on their revenue performance. This methodology will enable owners to diagnose problem areas more quickly and initiate corrective action immediately. Ultimately this will allow business owners and their sales force to spend their time more productively. Business owners will be able to understand the connection between sales activities, sales objectives and business results. By managing the correct sales activities relentlessly business owner's will meet their sales objectives and achieve the desired business results. Business owners will learn to improve these key sales activities: • Territory Management – how to maximize effort across the prospect base. • Call Management – how to make individual customer interactions more effective. • Account Management – how to achieve maximum long term value from each customer. • Opportunity Management – how to strategically navigate a multi-call sales cycle. Presenter Bio: Kevin Shaughnessy is the President of Sales Implementation LLC a consulting firm based in San Antonio, TX. He works with small and mid-size businesses to improve their sales strategy, process and execution. Prior to founding Sales Implementation, Kevin successfully owned and operated a multi-unit franchise business. He has 25 years of experience leading sales and marketing teams in both public and private firms. He successfully led sales teams ranging from 9 representatives in a start-up division to large sales units with more than 600 sales and support people. Part 4: How to Plan & Implement Next Level Growth Thursday, September 22, 2016 During this workshop, business owners will receive clear guidance for company growth preparation. We will begin by reviewing core principles and strategy to methodically undertake adjustments in your business, and will then by outline key steps for improving processes, which can create scalable systems and procedures for a stronger growth platform. Attendees will be given a best practices outline for reviewing and adjusting strategy in order to make sound changes to prepare for growth, including ways to revisit your core principles, review key performance indicators, perform updated market research, and identify and address process and talent gaps. In order to execute adjusted growth strategies, leadership must build a continuous improvement culture established on defining, standardizing, and improving all major company-wide processes. Major steps to be discussed include: 1) Build or update a process inventory and prioritize improvements based on key company metrics. 2) Establish project scope for processes most in need of improvement. 3) Map the process and calculate its costs in terms of process time and cycle time 4) Redesign the process applying proven improvement techniques and important metrics. 5) Test, rework, and implement the redesigned process. 6) Monitor to drive continuous improvement. Presenter Bio: Bruce Murchison is the President of Aperture Partners, LLC, a consulting firm based in San Antonio, TX. Bruce coaches owners of small- and mid-sized businesses in planning, process, and profit improvement. He has worked with businesses ranging in size from Fortune 50 to start-ups. His consulting and previous management experience has also given him deep insights into the development of financial and other metrics as well as IT-based process automation and data analysis. Bruce has worked for Deloitte Consulting and two regional consulting firms as well as in management for several professional firms and technology companies, spanning almost 40 years. He has a MBA from the University of Texas and certifications in Management Consulting and Lean Implementation. Part 5: Beginning with an Exit in Mind Thursday September 29, 2016 This workshop will focus on helping business owners understand the exit planning process and how having an exit strategy directly impacts their growth strategy. Join us to learn about: • The 3 types of exits • Why it is important to have an exit planning team of experts on your side and who should be on that team • 10 questions every exit plan should answer • Properly valuating a business Attendees will take away a better understanding of the exit planning process and why it is necessary to incorporate this planning early. Presenter Bios: Paula Vacek is an accomplished executive with over 15 years' experience consulting with lower middle market manufacturing companies. Ms. Vacek attended the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio where she graduated with an MBA specializing in International Business. Ms. Vacek went on to work in the manufacturing sector as a financial analyst for strategic acquisitions. It was during this time that she honed her skills in forensic accounting and deal negotiation. Ms. Vacek is highly skilled in financial trending, forensic accounting, and negotiation. She has extensive experience in representing both buyers and sellers. She is currently writing her dissertation to obtain her PhD in Finance. Justin Harris is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps with over 15 years' experience in business development. Having worked in a variety of industries over the years, Mr. Harris has developed skills for team building, strategic planning and marketing. Mr. Harris has extensive experience in growing a business from start-up to transition. He found his passion for M&A after being on the selling end of a transaction. During his lifetime, he has had considerable training in interpersonal relations and negotiating; skills that are a perfect fit for a career in mergers and acquisitions.
at Cafe Commerce
600 Soledad St
San Antonio, United States
Orignal From: Acceleration Series
No comments:
Post a Comment