New TV Commercials
May 18th, 2012
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New Marketing Campaign – 30 second TV commercial
May 18th, 2012
Tags: SBDC, YouTube
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May 10th, 2012
The Rural Business-Cooperative Service of the USDA has announced a technical assistance grant opportunity with a maximum award of $175,000.
Proposals are requested from small, socially-disadvantaged agricultural producers in rural areas. Eligible applicants include cooperatives, groups of cooperatives, and Cooperative Development Centers. 2012 applications are due July 24.
For more information, please contact Naomi Lenz, Area Specialist-Rural Development, USDA, at naomi.lenz@mn.usda.gov or 507-437-8247.
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FDIC and SBA Team Up to Offer Financial Education and Mentoring Support to New and Aspiring Entrepreneurs
April 29th, 2012
WASHINGTON – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and U.S. Small Business Administration today announced new resources to support small businesses across the nation. Acting Chairman Gruenberg and SBAs Associate Administrator for Entrepreneurial Development Michael Chodos released Money Smart for Small Business, a training curriculum for new and aspiring business owners.
Developed in partnership between both agencies, this curriculum is the latest offering in the FDIC’s award-winning Money Smart program.
Money Smart for Small Business provides an introduction to day-to-day business organization and planning and is written for entrepreneurs with limited or no prior formal business training. It offers practical information that can be applied immediately, while also preparing participants for more advanced training. FDIC and SBA will form a Training Alliance for organizations that support small businesses through training, technical assistance or mentoring.
“We are excited to join the FDIC in its expansion of the Money Smart curriculum for small business,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “The FDIC is a vital ally in our efforts to help small business owners start, grow and create jobs. Money Smart for Small Business will help to put more information on the business basics of financial management at entrepreneurs’ fingertips and make it easier for them to build their knowledge and skill set.”
Gruenberg and Chodos were joined by Training Alliance partners at the launch of Money Smart for Small Business, hosted by the District of Columbia’s Affinity Lab, a small business incubator. “We are proud to launch Money Smart for Small Business,” said Gruenberg. “We value our partnerships – with SBA and the Money Smart Alliance members – and recognize their importance to our work. Small businesses play a vital role in supporting a vibrant economy.”
Each of the 10 instructor-led modules in Money Smart for Small Business provides financial and business management for business owners and includes a scripted instructor guide, participant guide and overhead slides. The FDIC will host an online “town hall” for potential Training Alliance partners in the months ahead.
More than 10 years after the original release of the award-winning Money Smart adult curriculum, Money Smart for Small Business builds on the proven results in finance management for those who complete the curriculum. The Money Smart for Small Business curriculum is free and available at http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/moneysmart/index.html.
Tags: FDIC, Online Training, SBA
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Finding Her Niche
April 3rd, 2012
When Bridget Blaido saw a need in the community that matched her interests, she made the leap that turned her skills and experience into a thriving business.
By Joe Tougas
Until she opened 4 The Team in St. Peter in 2011, owner Bridget Blaido did two things part-time: worked as an engraver and played hockey.
The 1978 St. Peter High School graduate had for a decade operated a small business, ID Services, out of her home. ID Services provided engraving, Braille signage and clothing labels. It was steady but small-scale, and definitely not full-time.
That is where hockey came in. Blaido is in her third year of playing on a women’s hockey team, first with Babes on Blades—a Mankato team—but now back with her home team of the River Valley Vixens. Players range from serious to those who might be just learning to skate. They compete against similar teams in surrounding towns, often for fund-raisers. The median age, Blaido says, is 39 and a half.
And Blaido can thank these fellow bladers for the success of 4 The Team, an athletic apparel and awards store that does embroidery, screen printing and engraving all in a shop she operates in St. Peter. Blaido opened the store in April 2011 with hopes that have since been surpassed.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bridget Blaido, embroidery, hockey, silkscreening, spirit wear
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Keeping Pace with Change
April 2nd, 2012
Even after 31 years of successfully running his business, Mike Tatage has found there is always more to learn.
By Joe Tougas
When asked at work if he has time to talk, Mike Tatage chuckles. As proprietor of The Market for more than 30 years, Tatage always has something going on. It might be remodeling, cooking, installing new freezers … there’s always something more to be done besides serving the steady stream of customers who drop in on this convenience mart on a major highway in Madison Lake.
Tatage and his wife Donna created The Market in 1980, purchasing what was then the small-town grocery store, Brinkman’s, on Main Street. Brinkman’s had everything you’d expect from a small-town grocery, Mike recalls, including a family member—Donna’s mother—working there.
At first, the only real change was the name. Brinkman’s was where many people in the town of just less than 600 would go for their fresh meats and other groceries, and for a few years The Market served the same role. But shortly after taking over the store, the Tatages saw an opportunity to diversify in a way that would change the shop’s character to better fit the changing times.
The owner of the gas station that stood between The Market and Highway 60 retired and sold his gas station to the Tatages, who then added gas to the products they offered. And they eventually phased out fresh meats as well, due to changing competition in the grocery business. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: grocery store, Madison Lake, Tatage, The Market
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Self-Taught Success
April 1st, 2012
Toni King has learned everything she needs to know to run her business from on-the-job experience and the resources she found in the SBDC.
By Joe Tougas
Toni King joined Sun Up Construction around age 12 as a shop helper. Today she runs the business.
She started working for the small landscaping firm in the early 1990s, when her father took over the business from his dad. At that time, Sun Up operated out of the St. Peter/Kasota area and specialized in restoration landscaping. When public or commercial was excavated for underground utility work, Sun Up would put it all back together.
Her duties as shop helper were literally hands-on: a lot of cleaning, unloading and loading trucks, equipment maintenance … anything that could be done in the shop. But after a few years, she started going along on the jobs, which typically involved sodding and other restorative work. Clients were either governmental or commercial, such as Centerpoint Energy or Northern Natural Gas.
It was around that time that the business, now based in Madison Lake, made a shift toward what it is today. King’s father started to provide fencing services as part of the work; now fencing has become the centerpiece of what Sun Up Construction does. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: construction, fencing, minority business owner, woman business owner
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Balancing Act
March 31st, 2012
When Gabrielle Essay and Katie Olson turned their experiences as gymnasts and teachers into a business venture, they turned to the Small Business Development Center to help them understand everything they needed to know.
By Joe Tougas
When Gabrielle Essay and Katie Olson were high school students in the early 1990s, they competed against each other in gymnastics. Now the sport has them running a business together.
The two run K & G Gymnastics in Mankato, a gymnastics training ground for kids ranging from toddlers through high schoolers. Their goal is for K & G to become a place where kids develop a connection with gymnastics and continue it year after year, through school and even into college.
Both say they noticed a drop-off in the kind of camaraderie and commitment that was part of their high school gymnastics experience. “The (gymnastics) club girls all kind of stuck together and they moved onto the high school team,” Essay says. “And they stopped doing that over the years.”
One possible explanation, she added, was how gymnastics clubs became more temporary in their approach. Gymnastics became “more of a recreational, do-it-for-a-month kind of thing,” she says, as opposed to a sport that athletes commit to and stay involved in for multiple years. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Gabrielle Essay, gymnastics, Katie Olson, running a business
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Profit Mastery
December 28th, 2011
We will be hosting another Profit Mastery workshop series.
This practical, hands-on seminar deals with action steps for improving profitability and efficiency to keep your business strong and competitive. The Profit Mastery tools will provide you clear, proven techniques that you can use right now in your business to increase your financial performance. The seminar will help answer questions such as:
- How can I get more useful information out of my financial statements?
- How can I use my financial statements to manage more effectively?
- How can I manage growth?
- How can I survive bad times?
This course starts February 12th from 3pm-7pm Monday and Wednesday nights for two weeks.
Go from profit mystery to Profit Mastery. This nationally-acclaimed course deals with action steps for improving profitability and efficiency to keep your business strong and competitive. It will cover: Overcoming common business problems; Understanding your financial position; Using tools to take active control; Making effective pricing decisions; Evaluating cost patterns; Making your business bankable; Avoiding cash crunches; Planning for transition; putting it all together.
This course qualifies for 16 hours of CPE credits for CPAs.
For more information, call Julie at 507-389-8875.
No charge for the second person from the same company, partial scholarships are available.
Tags: Education, Profit Mastery, Training
Posted in Blog, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Minnesota Angel Network
October 10th, 2011
Five new Minnesota Angel Network-Certified Opportunities are available to Registered Investors now, through their secure web portal:
- Biotechnology
- Electronics/Instrumentation
- Medical Devices & Equipment
- Internet/Web Service
- Clean Technology
To register as an investor, at no cost, and receive confidential access to these and other deal opportunities, click here to JOIN NOW.
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