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SBA's Emerging Leaders Program Offers Business Owners Knowledge and Skills to Grow Established Businesses

Applications Now Being Accepted!

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Emerging Leaders Program will be offered again this year to help increase growth opportunities for small businesses. This valuable initiative provides participants with knowledge, know-how, and subject matter expertise from peers, business leaders, and the financial community. The Emerging Leaders program is available to owners and executives of existing businesses, at no cost to them.

The goal of this program is to assist business owners in growing their businesses, creating jobs, and strengthening their communities. This initiative is an intense six-month course that offers approximately 100 hours of live training, providing the opportunity for small business owners to receive face-to-face instruction; and to work with experienced professionals at no cost.

SBA’s Emerging Leaders program is successful because of its strong relationships and collaborations with community partners and business champions throughout the state of Utah. SBA appreciates the work the small business community does, and would like to invite all to refer and help identify potential candidates for this year’s Emerging Leaders cohort. In addition to providing an outstanding training opportunity for those who participate, the Emerging Leaders initiative is an opportunity for them to connect with a diverse group of small businesses owners.

Eligible Applicants
• Have annual revenues of at least $250,000.
• Have been in business for at least 3 years.
• Have at least one employee other than self.

Participants must also demonstrate a high level of commitment to complete the course, and minimal absences are accepted.

How a business owner can register:
Register at: https://www.sba.gov/emergingleaders. Interested small business owners are invited to learn more about the initiative by contacting Program Manager, Ian Lorenzana, at ian.lorenzana@sba.gov.

Classes begin April 12, 2019 from 9:00am-12:00pm. This year, the classes will be meeting at the Weber State Farmington Station Campus, in Farmington, Utah. The Emerging Leaders classes will be held every other Friday through October.

The deadline to apply is April 5, 2019. Interviews are taking place now, so interested parties are encouraged to apply right away. Only 20 slots available.

How you can help:
• Help spread the word to small businesses
• Direct prospective participants to our project manager (via email) or have them register at: http://www.sba.gov/emergingleaders
• Include this information about Emerging Leaders in your printed publication, online publication, or social media outlets
• Forward this notification to any other organizations or people who have connections to local small business owners
 

 Register Now

 

 What 10,000 miles on the road has taught me

by Dan Nordberg, SBA Region VIII Administrator

When I became Regional Administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration, I never would have imagined the many positive experiences and challenges I’ve experienced during my visits across the Rocky Mountain Region. Twelve months, six states, and nearly 10,000 miles later, I have taken the road less travelled and learned that the small business vitality of our local communities is getting stronger each day thanks to pro-growth economic policies that have been implemented over the past year. The small business climate has changed for the better with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a reduction in red tape and government bureaucracy, and a new positive outlook that has infiltrated both big and small businesses across the nation.
This positive outlook was verified during Small Business Saturday, held on Nov. 24, which kicked off the holiday shopping season for small businesses with record levels of participation. Total reported spending among U.S. consumers who said they shopped at independent retailers and restaurants on that day reached a record high of $17.8 billion, according to data released from the 2018 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey from American Express and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). Based on this annual survey over the years, Small Business Saturday spending has now reached a reported estimate of $103 billion since the day began in 2010.
Even though retail sales continue to be a bright spot this holiday season, there still are pockets of the economy that continue to struggle and need help. Rural communities represent more than just vast farmlands and mountain towns, they are the fabric of our country. Unfortunately, main streets in small town America have struggled in recent years. Negative forces including demographic shifts, a lack of access to capital, and unreliable internet service have hampered many rural businesses’ ability to grow and expand. 
Moving into 2019, the SBA will focus its programs and services toward improving access to capital for small businesses in rural communities as well as a renewed attention to providing business training and access to federal contracts for businesses located in those same areas. To that end, the SBA recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to strategically align our investment, training, and support capabilities for rural markets. Ensuring that rural entrepreneurs have the same opportunities as their urban counterparts is a top priority for the Trump administration. I look forward to working with USDA, and all our federal partners, as we strive to create an environment conducive to growth and prosperity for rural America.
My mantra remains that small business is big business in Colorado. Colorado’s 611,000 small businesses continue to generate two of every three net new jobs and deliver essential goods and services to the state’s population. As the voice of our nation’s entrepreneurs, the U.S. Small Business Administration celebrates the United States’ 30 million small businesses that still ignite our local economies and enrich our communities throughout the year. I look forward to the challenges the next 12 months have in store for me here at the SBA. All of us at the SBA are ready and willing to do what’s necessary to help our rural neighbors prosper in 2019. For more information on SBA’s programs and services please visit www.sba.gov and remember to follow us on Twitter @SBARockymtn.

 

 

SBDC SERVICES THAT WILL DRIVE GROWTH FOR YOUR BUSINESS

 

Many of you may know that the Logan SBDC offers free management consulting services. In providing these services, our main focus is to help both established and start-up businesses overcome major challenges to drive business growth. Many of you may not know, however, that the center provides a multitude of other low-cost services that will help your company accelerate its growth. These services include: employee training systems, market research, marketing system set-up, e-commerce development, and design services.

 

Market Research

Analysts at the SBDC regularly perform market research for established and start-up businesses. Competitor analyses, surveys, industry analyses, and SWOT analyses are a few examples of the many projects we have conducted. Our market research is customizable to the needs of your businesses, and we tailor each market research project to provide the exact information that you need for success.

 

E-Commerce Development

If you are looking to create an online store, you will need an e-commerce platform, which the Logan SBDC can help you choose and setup.

Shopify and BigCommerce are two fully functional, yet user friendly ecommerce platforms that we use often, although we can also set up many others. With comprehensive order management systems, they streamline order fulfillment, shipping label creation, and order tracking. They both integrate with many other services and sales channels (such as QuickBooks, Facebook, Pinterest, Google Shopping, Amazon, MailChimp, etc) and integrate with various point of sale (POS) systems to keep all inventory and purchases synced in one location.

The Logan SBDC will setup your store with either Shopify or BigCommerce, create you a customized theme, and train you on how to manage your store. As part of the store setup we link and configure Google Analytics, Google AdWords, and Google Merchant to facilitate online marketing.

 

Creative Services

Design and other creative services are an essential component of creating and maintaining your company. The Logan SBDC offers a variety of creative services that can help grow your business and build your brand trajectory.  Our graphic designer has experience in branding and brand strategy and can help develop a visual identity for your business that will most effectively communicate with your target market.

In addition to graphic design services, we offer branding/brand strategy, creative direction, logo design, print design (e.g. brochures, posters, catalogs), package design, and photography. 

 

Training Course Development

The Logan SBDC can help you streamline training or certification procedures with Moodle.

Moodle is an online learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a robust system to create personalized learning environments. From a few students to millions of users, Moodle can be scaled to support the needs of both small classes and large organizations.

Save time and money while increasing retention by creating comprehensive, online training or safety certifications courses with Moodle's robust course creation capabilities. The Logan SBDC will setup/configure your Moodle site, create a customized theme, and train you on how to administer your Moodle course. Because Moodle is an open source software it's free to maintain, and your course is yours forever. 

 

Marketing Services

Properly marketing your business through different channels is essential to success, although it can often be difficult to learn all of the systems. At the Logan SBDC we offer direction and implementation of several marketing platforms, including: Facebook and Instagram ads, LinkedIn ads, Click Funnels, Lead Pages, email automation, and others upon request.

Our marketing analyst can create and run ad sets on your social media pages or coach you how to create your own and interpret the results. Our analyst also has experience in creating Click Funnels, an automated sales tool that is popular in online sales and webinars that can be used as a lead magnet as well. By analyzing your business' needs, we can identify Shopify Apps or other methods to automate as much as your sales process and email marketing as possible.

 

For more information about these services, a quote, or to schedule an appointment, please call (435) 797-2277, or reach out to us at sbdc@usu.edu.