Workshops on how to start a small business

Press Release from the City:

CITY, SMALL-BUSINESS ADVOCATES OFFER FREE WORKSHOP ON HOW TO START A BUSINESS
First in year-long series for how to start, grow, sustain small businesses

The City of Fort Wayne in cooperation with the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Administration, SCORE, Community Development Corp. and the Indiana Small Business Development Center will offer a free forum on how to start a business and self-employment Thursday, Feb. 19.

The workshop, which will be 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Omni Room on the second floor of the City-County Building, will cover the following topics:

• City of Fort Wayne’s resources for small businesses
• Legal business structure
• Business planning
• Financial tools and cash flow
• Banking
• Funding sources and strategies

The topics are designed for people who are thinking about starting a business or have recently launched a new venture and have questions.

“In an economic downturn, people often consider ‘becoming their own boss’ through self-employment or starting a side business for extra income. The City of Fort Wayne looks to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of our residents by partnering with these organizations to offer free business workshops that will help them understand the legal and financial structure needed to be successful,” Mayor Tom Henry said.

The workshop will also include a panel discussion of Denise Porter-Ross of the City of Fort Wayne; attorney Joshua Burkhardt of Beer, Mallers, Backs and Salin; Shirley Busack of Women’s Enterprise – A Program of the Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau; Bill Causey with SCORE; Cheryl Schuster of the Community Development Corp. and Ken McCory of the Indiana Small Business Development Center.

The other workshops planned for 2009 are:

• Managing your business in a recession, March 19
• Market analysis resources, April 16
• New business start-up in a recession, May 21
• Pricing, June 18
• Small business showcase (tentative), July 16
• Taxes and record-keeping, Aug. 20
• New business start-up in a recession, Sept. 17
• Procurement, Oct. 15
• Patents, trademarks and copyright, Nov. 19

All workshops, except the July showcase, will be 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Omni Room of the City-County Building.