About our Speakers:
Dennis Brown, Business Consultant. He works with people looking to start up their own business or grow the one that they have. He has a Business Degree from the University of Toledo, Ohio and ran his own manufacturing and distribution Company for over 20 years. He then went on to teach business with private non-profit SBA Intermediary and work directly with businesses for over 13 years until he opened his own business. He has worked with homeless shelters as both a volunteer and a Board Member for over 20 years. A Navy Veteran, he also has a non-profit that works with Veterans who are looking to own or start a business.
Art Mollengarden, Marketing Professor & Entrepreneur-in-Residence at University of Bridgeport, Vice-Chair of New Haven SCORE, Serial Entrepreneur.
Tom Mazzaferro, Seasoned accountant with over 30 years experience and is CMA certified. Tom was formally chief financial officer of a financial service organization and also held financial positions with an insurance company, an electrical distributor and a retail farm supply organization. His experience includes financial reporting, taxation, budgeting and capital management.
Lisa Powell, Economic Development Specialist and Business Opportunity Specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration since 1998. She came on board as the paralegal to the District Counsel. Through the years, she started to get more involved with business development and government contracting. As an Economic Development Specialist, she participates in educational forums, educating business owners on how to start and finance their business, working closely with all of SBA’s resource partners. As a Business Opportunity Specialist, Lisa is involved with the Government Contracting programs that the SBA provides. She facilitates the procurement workshops held at local Community Colleges, Chambers of Commerce and libraries. She is also very instrumental in the organizing of SBA Matchmakers, working very closely with the purchasing agents for the Federal and State Agencies as well as the larger prime contractors.
Vishu Rao, Currently working as a Director of Business Solutions for Grey Wall Software, a New Haven based company that designed an emergency management platform called Veoci. Prior to Veoci, he worked as a consultant for General Electric (GE) instrumental in designing solutions diverse industries such as Healthcare, Aviation, and Financial Services.
Marcia P. Blake is an experienced Connecticut Civil Attorney and Entrepreneur. Her civil practice focuses on Business Law; Personal Injury Law and Immigration Defense. In her Business Law practice she counsels and represents small business owners in the following areas: choosing the appropriate business entity; buying and selling a business; protecting financial operations; contract drafting and more.
Fall Evening Entrepreneur Series at the New Haven Free Public Library
Don't even THINK about starting a new business without attending our Fall Evening Entrepreneurs Seminar!
Fall Series Sessions:
August 8th: Business Planning with Dennis Brown
-How to and why we are writing a business plan
-Our key to risk management for ourselves
-Building a model for your business
-How do I get paid ?
-How can I foresee some of the problems with my business?
August 15th: Branding: How to Build a Competitive Advantage with Art Mollengarden
-Learn how to make your business become remarkable and stand out from the crowd
-Understand your customers' wants, needs, and demands... and how to satisfy them
-Research and analyze what your competition is doing... through the eyes of your customers
-Develop profitable pricing strategies
August 22nd: Legal Issues with Marcia Blake
-Business contracts and commercial transactions
-Buy/sell agreements
-Partnership agreements
-Operating agreements
-Business formation
-Selling or purchasing a business
-Compliance
August 29th: Money and Finance with Tom Mazzaferro
-Introduction to Financial Management
-Basics of record keeping
-Introduction to QuickBooks
September 5th: Online Marketing with Vishu Rao
Here’s the truth about marketing. Traditional print and media channels are not only expensive but also no longer effective. Google is the new Yellow pages and all your customers are hooked on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. You might have invested a lot of time and effort in your website but still not getting enough sales.
What you will get out of this session?
- A simple non-technical explanation of how to market your business on the web.
- An overview of how Google and other search engines work and strategies that you can follow to improve your web presence.
- Learn how to take advantage of the social media channels.
- Adopt new ways to be more productive and efficient in your day-to-day operations.
September 12th: Doing Business with the State and Federal Governments with Lisa Powell
-This seminar will cover where you need to be registered in order to do business with the State of Connecticut and the Federal Government
- You will be shown the websites for locating federal bids over $25,000 and the State’s bid portal where State and Municipal bids can be found.
- Also covered will be State and Federal Set-aside programs
All sessions run from 5:30 - 7:30PM