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Hilltown CDC Business Workshops

SPRING 2010 SCHEDULE

 In Chesterfield, at Hilltown CDC; in Huntington, location to be announced.
Tuition waivers are available for low and moderate income Hilltown residents. 

All prices include training materials. 
Workshop fee is waived for low and moderate income attendees. 

 

March 24 – Get the Media to Tell Your Business Story – Chesterfield -- 6 to 9 PM, $35. Publicity is one of the most effective marketing tools available to any business owner. Getting your company and its products or services covered in a news story in print or broadcast media provides tremendous visibility and credibility, and it can be done for virtually no cost. In this workshop, Jeanne Yocum, a PR veteran with 30 years’ experience, will explain how you can interest the media in covering your story. Examples of tools you can use to generate media coverage will be provided along with tips on how to be a star in media interviews. 
  
March 25 – Introduction to Photoshop Elements – Chesterfield -- 6 to 9 PM, $35. Learn to manipulate photos for your emails or website. This workshop is designed for the beginner. You will learn about the basic workspace within Photoshop Elements and the various tools available to edit your photos. You will learn to edit and resize photos, reorient the photos, crop photos, improve the color of the photos, and work with various color palettes. Photoshop Elements includes many of the techniques available in Photoshop.  Taught by Debbe Dugan.

April 7, 14 and 21 -- Marketing Your Website – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $90 for three sessions. How to take an overall “guerrilla” approach to your website’s marketing, with a minimal commitment of time and on a shoestring budget. Learn to measure and evaluate website performance, read and interpret web traffic statistics, uncover your competitors’ website strategies, much more.
 
April 8 -- Word for Beginners – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.  
Create documents, set up margins and fonts, store documents, print documents, learn basic formatting of documents.

April 12 -- Beginning Excel – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35. 
Learn to use this versatile spreadsheet program which has many business uses. Navigating the basic spreadsheet; formatting cells, columns, and rows; creating formulas; displaying your data as charts.

 April 20 -- Intermediate Excel – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.  
Adding text boxes and images to a spreadsheet, creating charts from Excel data, linking Word and Excel. How to create Word tables from Excel files and convert Word tables to an Excel spreadsheet. Useful for anyone preparing a loan application.

 April 27 -- Advanced Excel – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.
Creating workbooks, worksheet setup, creating macros for repetitive operations.

 
April 29 and May 6 -- Financial Literacy for Businesses – Huntington, 6 to 9 PM, $60. 
How to know the health of your business. What numbers should you be keeping track of? What do your business’ numbers tell you about the past, and about the future? How do the bank and the IRS look at your numbers? Much more. Bring your own questions.

 
May 3 and 17 and June 7 and 21 – Accelerate Your Sales and Increase Your Profits – Huntington, 6:30 to 8 PM, $75.  A four-session sales and marketing coaching program designed to help you implement profit-boosting tactics. Plan your next sales and marketing activities at each session, and then report back on your progress at the next session. By the end of the four sessions you will have implemented a detailed action plan focused squarely on achieving the revenue goals you have set for your business. Limited to 6 businesses for maximum individual benefit.

 

May 4, 11 and 18 -- Creating your own business in QuickBooks – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $90 for three sessions.  Learn how to use QuickBooks.  Includes demo QuickBooks software. Work with your own information; you will actually begin setting up your own company in QuickBooks.

 

May 13 -- Off to Market -- Wholesale and Retail – Huntington, 6 to 9 PM, $35.
For craftspeople with a product line they are ready to take to market. 

 

May 19 -- Using Google Analytics to Improve Your Website – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.  You have a website, but who is seeing it and do you know if it is meeting its goals? If Google Analytics is not already playing a crucial role in your website marketing plan, life is about to change for the better!

 May 24 -- Marketing Your Business Using Social Media – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.  Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging. How to go where the customers are. Learn the benefits of each medium, and how to set up your own accounts and get started.

May 27 -- Opening the Gallery Door – Huntington, 6 to 9 PM, $35. For artists and craftspeople seeking specific information about working with for-profit galleries.
 
June 1 -- Introduction to Power Point – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.   Create basic PowerPoint slides; create handouts and speaker notes for the presentations; add graphics, charts, and graphs.

 June 3 -- Get the Media to Tell Your Business Story – Huntington, 6 to 9 PM, $35.  How to get your company and its products or services covered in a news story in print or on broadcast media. 

 June 8 -- Create Simple Marketing Materials with Microsoft Word – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.  Use Word to create marketing materials through the use of graphics, text boxes, line drawings, colors, and fonts. Create fliers, posters, simple brochures, and ads.
 
June 15 -- Using WordPress to Reach Your Audience – Chesterfield, 6 to 9 PM, $35.  For non-profits, businesses, artists, and anyone else with something to say. How to set up a free WordPress account and get your message out into the blogosphere. And how to get your message noticed by the people you want to reach. Taught by Sienna Wildfield of Hilltown Families

  

Tuition Waivers:

    Tuition waivers are available for income-eligible applicants from Ashfield, Chester, Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Huntington, Middlefield, Plainfield, Westhampton, Williamsburg, and Worthington.  If you qualify by town and your family earns a gross annual income that is less than 80% of the median income, complete the income certification form to receive a tuition waiver.

    Tuition waivers are made possible, and fees for the workshops are kept affordable, thanks to a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development Economic Development Fund.  Additional support has been provided by the Massachusetts Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, and by Berkshire Bank Foundation – Pioneer Valley.

 

For further information: Seth Isman, 413 296-4536 ext 12 or sethi@hilltowncdc.org.



Many of the workshops listed below are offered annually.  Please contact us about any workshop that you would like to attend, and include your name, phone number, email address, and mailing address.  We will contact you when a workshop on that subject is scheduled.  And please tell us what else you would like to learn that is not listed below.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE

  • Basic Computers
  • Introduction to Word
  • Intermediate Word
  • Creating Marketing Materials in Word
  • Introduction to Excel
  • Intermediate Excel
  • Integrating Word and Excel
  • Creating Your Business in Quickbooks
  • Introduction to Power Point
  • Introduction to Photoshop Elements
WEBSITES
  • Creating a Simple Website
  • Using the Internet to Help Your Business Succeed
  • 30 Ways to a Better Website
  • Marketing Your Website
MARKETING
  • Marketing Your Products & Services
  • How to Grow Your Small Business
  • Prospecting, Cold Calls & Sales
  • Introduction to Guerrilla Marketing
BUSINESS PLANNING
  • Tax & Legal Aspects of Small Business Ownership
  • Financial Planning for the Self-Employed
  • Year-End Tax Planning for Businesses
  • Learn About Your Market, Your Customers & Your Competition
  • Budgets and Financial Statements – Managing the Numbers
  • Managing Your Cash Flow – How to Avoid Running Out of Cash
  • Negotiating for What Your Business Needs
  • Managing a Growing Business
FOR ARTISTS & CRAFTSPEOPLE
  • Getting Going in Crafts
  • Pricing a Product Line
  • Wholesale & Retail Craft Selling
  • Securing Gallery Representation

Funding Support:  Funding for this program was provided by the Massachusetts Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Economic Development Fund program and the Massachusetts Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship's Small Business Technical Assistance (SBTA) grant program and the following banks:  Bank of America, Berkshire Bank Foundation, Citizens Bank Foundation, Easthampton Savings Bank, Florence Savings Bank, Legacy Banks Foundation, TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation, and United Bank Foundation.