Session 2: Business Concept: The second workshop focuses on your business concept and step-by-step guidance in researching your idea, your market, and your competition. At the end of the Business Concept workshop, you are able to:

• Identify your target markets
• Describe your products and services
• Collect key competitive information to support your feasibility plan

Session 3: Marketing Plan: The third workshop provides you with an introduction to marketing communication methods and tools to maximize your customer reach. The discussion in the Marketing Plan workshop covers pricing strategies, positioning, the difference between features and benefits, and different marketing strategies. At the end of this session, you will know how to:

• Outline your marketing strategy
• Test your marketing message
• Choose the right sales channel
• Exercise your marketing strategy

Session 4: Financial Projections: The fourth workshop uses exercises to help you better understand financial concepts. This session reviews sales and prices, financial risks and rewards, true start-up costs, ongoing operating expenses, setting benchmarks for tracking progress and the organization of all your financial information. Using a hands-on approach, you learn how to:

• Use our financial model to forecast sales revenue
• Build solid pro-forma financial forecasts

Session 5: Funding Sources: The final workshop offers information on how to finance your small business. In this session, discussions include sources of funds, the six C's of credit, banking relations, ratio analysis, and monthly preparation and review of financial statements. A bank loan officer will give an inside view of how a banker assesses the merits of business plans and loan application. At the end of the series, you have all of the tools necessary to decide whether or not to launch your small business.

Sessions 2 thru 5 of the Simple Steps Series will be held on Wednesday evenings from 6-9pm at the SCORE Office, Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce Building, 125 North Superior Street, Appleton WI (parking available ramp adjacent to the Chamber)

Session 2 - Business Concept - September 30, 2015

Session 3 - Marketing Plan - October 7, 2015

Session 4 - Financial Projections - October 14, 2015

Session 5 - Funding Sources - October 21, 2015

**  Free, one-on-one mentoring is also part of the workshop process. Register below or call 920-734-7101 for information.

$100 per person for all four sessions

*check-in begins from 5:30 - 6:00 pm

*As noted on the Fox Cities SCORE web site, registration for individual sessions is also available.