Business News for October 22, 2021 |
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Today's message includes the following news, best practices, and online courses:
- SEC Launches Capital-Raising Educational Tools
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SBA and DOL Webinar: Choosing a Retirement Solution for Your Small Business
- 5 Social Media Tips for B2B Businesses that Cost Nothing
Client Spotlight: Traci Rauner Design
Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities
- Navigating Difficult Conversations
- Outreach for Introverts
- Building Financial Confidence in Your Business
- Digital Marketing & Social Media Conference
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Business News, Updates, and Best Practices |
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SEC Launches Capital-Raising Educational Tools
suite of tools evens the playing field for entrepreneurs raising capital
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In response to requests for support, the SEC is launching new educational content. Currently, this content includes the Cutting Through the Jargon glossary, which demystifies many common terms used in capital raising, and the Capital Raising Navigator, an interactive digital tool that helps entrepreneurs narrow their options for raising capital based on their needs and how much money they plan to raise. These tools are part of an increasing suite of resources.
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SBA and DOL Webinar
Choosing a Retirement Solution for Your Small Business
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Are you interested in establishing or sponsoring a retirement plan for you and your employees but are not sure which plan fits your needs? Choosing a Retirement Solution for Your Small Business will help you decide. This presentation will provide a summary of the many options available to you as a small business owner, including IRA-based plans, 401(k) plans, profit-sharing plans, as well as traditional pension plans. Join SBA’s Wisconsin office and Scott Miller, a Senior Benefits Advisor in the Chicago Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).
Two upcoming dates:
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5 Social Media Tips for B2B Businesses that Cost Nothing
from the ASBDC blog
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By Autumn Sullivan, Mobilization Funding
Many B2B business owners skip social media in favor of outbound email campaigns and traditional advertising. The reasons for opting out of social are usually something like, “Our customers aren’t on social media or don’t care about it.” Yes, they are and yes, they do. Almost the entire planet (3.6 billion people) is on at least one social media platform, and they spend a LOT of time there (145 minutes per day).
Focus on P2P, not B2B. When you are on social media you need to interact as a Human first and a company second. That means identifying a social media voice that is true to your company but resonates with customers. If you haven’t undergone a brand personality exercise yet, this is a good place to start.
On LinkedIn, personal profiles rule. If you are a B2B business owner, you are most likely also your company’s most influential sales representative. LinkedIn is a great place for you to meet and build relationships with prospects and partners.
Make sure to optimize your LinkedIn personal profile. That means a good headshot, a background photo, a headline that is more than just a title, and an About section that is more about You than your company.
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Traci Rauner Design
Creating Unique, Customized Spaces
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From the time she began filling little notebooks with drawings of floor plans in fourth grade and rearranging the furniture in her childhood bedroom, Traci Rauner has been passionate about design. She studied business in college for two years before attending a small design school in Iowa for a year. When the design program was cancelled after her first year, Rauner decided to launch her own freelance design business, confident that she had the skills and knowledge to be successful.
Rauner launched her own business, Traci Rauner Design, in 2008, from her home in Prairie du Sac. Rauner had enough strong clients that she weathered that year’s less-than-ideal economic conditions and has seen consistent growth year after year. As her business grew, she held offices in small buildings in Prairie du Sac and Sauk City, and in 2017 she landed in her current showroom: in an 1840 building in Prairie du Sac.
“It’s the oldest building in downtown Prairie du Sac, and I fixed it up,” she says. “I knew I wanted more of a boutique showroom, rather than a strip mall location. I purchased the building last year, so I’m here to stay.”
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Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities |
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Navigating Difficult Conversations
starts TUESDAY!
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Whether you need to say “no” to your boss, give constructive feedback to a co-worker, deal with an upset customer, respond to a workplace bully, or conduct or receive a performance review, you will experience a conflict in the workplace. In this course, you will learn powerful models, tools, and techniques for approaching difficult conversations with confidence and composure. Navigating these conversations may never be easy, but we can make them more effective. |
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Outreach for Introverts
November 2
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Being a successful business manager or owner so often involves connecting with others in your community. Yet networking is so often a mental and emotional barrier when there is already so much else to be done.
Yet it doesn't have to be this way. By the end of this hands-on action class, you will have created a seamless, repeatable process to connect with people who actually want to talk to you without ever making a single outbound call!
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Building Financial Confidence in Your Business
in-person financial management series starts November 3
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This four-week series provides you with in-depth instruction to help you build confidence in your accounting knowledge so you can make clear, data-driven decisions about your business.
- Week 1: Basics of Financial Management
- Week 2: Analyzing & Interpreting Financial Statements
- Week 3: Budgeting & Profit Planning
- Week 4: Managing Cash Flow
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Digital Marketing & Social Media Conference
FOUR presenters! December 8, 2021
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In this all-day conference, you will learn how to engage your customers and prospects online through your website and social media and track your activities so that you know what is working and what needs to be adjusted.
This semester's presenters include:
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How to Determine Your Social Media Mix – Sarah Best
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Tools, Tips & Tactics to Implement Lucrative SEO Key Word Strategies – Candy Phelps
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I need a Marketing Professional! – Sarah Hurley
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How & Why to Jump to the top of Google with Google Ads –Eagan Heath
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Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or 608-263-2221 to request accommodations.
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