Community First Fund offers one-on-one counseling to clients as well as numerous classes aimed at educating prospective and current entrepreneurs.
Classes Are Available Now. Register Below!
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CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
Power of Email Marketing
Join us for this free seminar so you can jumpstart your email marketing and discover how to get the results you desire. Presented by authorized Constant Contact local experts, Chuck Holder and Alice Buchman
Email is everywhere – you reach for your keyboard more then the phone anymore – which in most cases involves hitting the delete button 9 times in a row deleting unwanted emails that land in your inbox. Did you ever ask yourself why? Why did you get all of those emails in the first place? You didn’t sign up for them. And secondly, they are useless to you but how can your emails be a welcome sign when your contacts hear a “ding” upon your email’s arrival?
Constant Contact, the world’s leader in email marketing is going to show you why and what you can do about it. With so much noise being made about “open rates” we will demonstrate something much more important- Best Practices. Chuck Holder and Alice Buchman, local experts on Constant Contact’s Philadelphia Metro region team, will show you what no to do; include examples of what works – and why! This program is generic: it doesn’t matter what email program you currently use, Best Practices apply everywhere. In the for-profit and in the non-profit world, much is at stake in this economy. Come and learn how you can be productive, trusted, and grow your business.
TBD
Social Media Marketing Made Simple
Join us for this free seminar so you can jumpstart your social media marketing and discover hot to get the results you desire. Presented by authorized Constant Contact local experts, Chuck Holder and Alice Buchman.
In just a few short hours, this information-packed seminar will review the essential strategies and best practices a business or organization should understand to successfully get started with social media marketing.
This seminar will cover:
What social media marketing really is and why it’s important; Various social media networks and tools: how they interact, ways, to leverage their strengths, and how to evaluate them for best use for your business or organization How other businesses are using these low-cost tools to gain visibility, develop relationships, and drive sales and engagement; How to incorporate social media marketing into your business life without losing productivity
Participants will have plenty of time to ask questions, share experiences, and network with peers. And you will leave with real-world insights and knowledge that they can put to work immediately, to help their business or organization succeed.
TBD
The Basics of Doing Business with the Government
This workshop covers the first steps a small business needs to take to prepare for doing business with the Federal Government. It offers an overview of the threshold issues, codes and registrations, explanation of small business certifications, potential strategies small businesses can use when approaching this market, and tips for marketing your firm to federal and state agencies. It will touch on doing business with the state.
“The information was practical and their (presentation) styles were engaging. I learned a lot for free!” – Michelle McCall, course attendee
TBD
Marketing Your Business to the Government: Tips and Tactics
This workshop will offer companies a road map on how to market their business to the government. It will include how to use market research websites to locate your targets, how to create a good SBA Profile registration, tips for capability statements, and ideas for ways to create an online presence using social media that won’t break the bank.
Thursday, May 23rd – Lancaster 9:00am-12:00pm
Proposal Preparation and Submission
Learn how to respond to a federal government Request for Proposal (RFP). The workshop will cover how to dissect the solicitation, organize your effort and team and writing the proposal document. This workshop is designed for situations where the government issues a solicitation for qualified businesses to respond to a deteiled scope of work. The workshop will assist you in creating the documents from scratch to meet the RFP instructions.
Thursday, June 20th - Lancaster 9:00am-12:00pm
The Loan Approval Process: “Making a Winning Loan Presentation”
The Women’s Business Center at Community First Fund is offering an informative training event that teaches individuals the fundamentals of the loan approval process. This event focuses on basic banking practices in this credit culture and how financial institutions use the loan approval process to determine an individual’s creditworthiness. This training is designed for those interested in becoming a stronger loan candidates, are in need of capital to finance a project, or are simply interested in learning how to evaluate their own financial capacity.
TBD
Find Your Target Market: Market Research Database Training
This two hour training will cover different types of market research. It will also teach participants how to use specialized database and other resources provided by the Library System and teh Duke Street Business Center that small businesses can use to determine their best target markets. This would be for both bsuiness-to-business and business-to-consumer.
TBD
Biz 101: Are you ready for business ownership?
This hour and a half seminar sets the stage for understanding the fundamentals of what it takes to be an ideal entrepreneur. This seminar will help you: Weigh considerations in starting a business; Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses in starting a business; Understand and adapt your life experience (skills) to the business arena; Understand the need of developing the business idea through sound research and development. (Free)
TBD
Keys to Success: Tools for Business Planning
Your time is valuable, let the Women’s Business Center provide you expert training in 4 weeks time (one day a week).
This business planning course lasts four weeks and details each area of the Core Four Business Model:
1. Success Planning: trainees will take key steps to understanding and building a business plan, learn the importance of setting goals, seperating an individual from the business, and the characteristics of a successful business owner. 2. Market Planning: trainees will gain knowledge about their market place, needs/wants of the customer, distribution methods, learn more about competition and how to stand out, marketing and promotion.
3. Cash Flow Planning: trainer will take the fear out of constructing cashflow projections and help trainees plan the cash flow for their business and understanding financing, financial literacy.
4. Operations Planning: trainers will identify different legal forms of business, zoning and business licenses, and importance of operating a legal, legitimate business.
Upon completion The Women’s Business Center will hold a special graduation for the participants in recognition of their hard work.
“…the class was very informative. Great for a start up business to learn about how to start and where to start.” – Michael A. Key, course attendee
TBD
“Maximizing Strategic Partnerships and Relationships”
This two hour seminar focuses on subcontracting, joint venture agreements, mentor/protégé programs, channel sales, and the different types of certification programs.
TBD
