Central Arkansas Area

ASBDC Lead Center

To register for any of the following programs, contact the ASBDC Lead Center at 1-800-862-2040 or 501-683-7700 or click on the Register Now button to register online.

Seminar Highlights: With the beginner in mind, this hands-on workshop will help you master the basics of Microsoft Excel. Topics to be discussed include creating a simple spreadsheet, opening and saving files, working with workbooks and spreadsheets, entering data, selecting cells, editing data, and the tools to make your spreadsheets stand out above the rest.

Speaker: ASBDC Representative

Seminar Highlights: Introduction to QuickBooks introduces this popular accounting software program to small business owners with little or no experience using it. Topics include: setting up a new company, chart of accounts overview, working with lists, and how to view transactions records and find information in your company file. **Please note that seating is limited so advance payment is required for seat reservations.**

Speaker: Paul Bax, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Cosponsor: Bax and Associates

Seminar Highlights: Intermediate QuickBooks offers instruction in recording transactions and maintaining your company's accounting information using this software package. Topics include: purchases, inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable, classes, and reports. Instructions will be provided on fixing common errors and preparing reconciliations. **Please note that seating is limited, so advance payment is required for seat reservations.**

Speaker: Paul Bax, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Cosponsor: Bax and Associates

Seminar Highlights: Effectively managing the books is vital to small businesses. This seminar will focus on the maintenance of items, lists, inventory, purchases, job costs, and classes. **Please note that seating is limited, so advance payment is required for seat reservation.**

Speaker: Paul Bax, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Cosponsor: Bax and Associates

Seminar Highlights: Payroll provides instruction on setting up the necessary information to use the payroll features in QuickBooks. Topics include: payroll set-up, tracking employee time, issuing paychecks, paying liabilities, and producing required payroll reports. **Please note that seating is limited, so advance payment is required for seat reservation.**

Speaker: Paul Bax, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Cosponsor: Bax and Associates

Seminar Highlights: This seminar focuses on marketing to businesses, including: * similarities and differences from consumer marketing * the importance of product development, packaging and positioning * how emerging technologies can help in marketing to businesses * different promotion strategies for marketing to businesses * the importance of target market selection in business marketing Attendees will be able to discuss th challenges of marketing to businesses and receive insight for increased success from business marketing programs.

Speaker: Mark Fortune

Seminar Highlights: This seminar prepares you for the intensive business planning process, identifies major steps crucial to starting a business, discusses key issues that affect the success of your business, and discusses start-up requirements and common pitfalls that you will face as an entrepreneur. Free New Venture Guide and Feasibility Workbook!

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Metropolitan National Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Metropolitan National Bank

Seminar Highlights: The U.S. Small Business Administration's loan program has helped thousands of small companies get started, expand, and prosper. Learn about business financing opportunities, credit requirements, and other services provided by the SBA.

Speaker: Johnna Bach, SBA Representative

Cosponsor: Community Bank

Seminar Highlights: Life becomes increasingly hectic for women who must balance the demands of business and family. Fortunately, there are strategies to help! This fun-filled interactive seminar will include tips on how to delegate (at work and at home), prioritize your tasks, manage your schedule, communicate more effectively, put more fun in your day and even be in two places at once (just kidding)! You will leave this seminar with a new awareness on how to balance your life for less stress at work, the ability to increase your productivity, more efficiency at home and more time for you!

Speaker: Kim Hodous, Owner of Balanced Working Mom

Cosponsor: Balanced Working Mom

Seminar Highlights: Great customer service is not only a cost-free marketing technique, but it can set your business apart from your larger competitors. In this seminar, participants will learn what inhibits good customer service and how to prevent it, how to transform an unhappy customer into a loyal one, and how to reward good customer service in your business.

Speaker: ASBDC Representative

Cosponsor: Phillips Community College - DeWitt

Seminar Highlights: This seminar prepares you for the intensive business planning process, identifies major steps crucial to starting a business, discusses key issues that affect the success of your business, and discusses start-up requirements and common pitfalls that you will face as an entrepreneur. Free New Business Guide and Feasibility Workbook! **Ask about our "Smart Start" option where you attend this seminar and "How to Write a Business Plan" and receive a discount, plus a boxed lunch.**

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and First State Bank Representative

Cosponsor: First State Bank

Seminar Highlights: No matter how large or small, all businesses must have a business plan! A business plan will help you define your concept, evaluate your competition, determine risks, and estimate your costs. This seminar will explain and illustrate the business plan format. **Attend this seminar and "Starting a Business in Arkansas" on the same day and receive a discount, plus a boxed lunch.**

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and First State Bank Representative

Cosponsor: First State Bank

Seminar Highlights: This seminar prepares you for the intensive business planning process, identifies major steps crucial to starting a business, discusses key issues that affect the success of your business, and discusses start-up requirements and common pitfalls that you will face as an entrepreneur. Free New Business Guide and Feasibility Workbook!

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Metropolitan National Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Metropolitan National Bank

Seminar Highlights: Businesses with two or more full-time employees that have not offered health coverage for at least 12 months may qualify for affordable health insurance that provides immediate coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions. This is not a sales pitch, nor is this a welfare program. This information will benefit small businesses as well as rural hospitals and care providers.

Speaker: Eric Townsend, Professional Benefits Group, LLC

Cosponsor: ARHealthNet

Seminar Highlights: The US Department of Defense has initiated a program to privatize it's inventory of family homes to private companies who will undertake the management and ownership of these properties. Called the Residential Communities Initiative, DOD seeks private partners who will own and manage the family housing units and will develop and build new and improved homes for military families. Picerne Military Housing is one of several professional property management and development companies that are participating in this program. With current partnerships at Ft. Meade Maryland, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, Ft. Rucker Alabama, Ft. Polk Louisiana, Ft. Riley Kansas and in November of 2008 Ft. Sill Oklahoma, PMH currently owns over $1.5 Billion dollars of existing family housing units and will, over the next 10 years, spend over $1.5 Billion dollars in renovations and in new construction. To accomplish it's construction and renovation goals, PMH functions as a general contractor or construction management company and accomplishes all of it's construction trade work through the use of a carefully screened group of sub contractors. The purpose of this seminar is to acquaint prospective new subcontractors with PMH's program and with it's procedures to become a qualified PMH subcontractor.

Speaker: Gary Bertrand, Director of Small Business and Subcontractors

Cosponsor: Picerne Military Housing

Seminar Highlights: This seminar will provide you with successful techniques to market your product or service via the Internet. Learn to get a better response from e-mail, how to use conventional marketing for your web site, how to design banners to increase "hits," and much more. The results are in! Learn in just three hours the hard lessons that other businesses spend an entire year learning. Participants receive a 30-page workbook. *This seminar is free due to special funding from the U. S. Small Business Administration. Next time this is offered it will be at the Regular Registration Fee of $49 per person.*

Speaker: Timothy Lee, ASBDC Webmaster and Computer Training Specialist

Cosponsor: North Central Arkansas Regional Economic Development, University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension and First Service Bank

Seminar Highlights: Workers' Compensation issues can be complex and discouraging. If you feel you need to better understand the laws and processes, this seminar is for you. This seminar will cover: * the role of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission, * proper forms that must be filed with the Commission, * prehearings/hearings and the appeals' process, * medical treatment authorizations, * change of physicians and impairment ratings, * medical/idemnity benefits * temporary disability, * permanent disability * termination issues

Speaker: Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission Representative and Jimmy Cline of Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus, P.C.

Cosponsor: Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission Representative and Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus, P.C.

Seminar Highlights: Software is expensive, especially if you're a small business, but it doesn't have to be! Exciting new tools allow you to run your business from accounting and bookkeeping to collaboration and presentation software...without spending a small fortune. In this seminar, we'll explore some mature, free packages such as Open-Office and some emerging Google software. We'll look at software tools that help you manage day-to-day operations, as well as, inexpensive online services that help market your business to the masses.

Speaker: Patrick Laughlin and Lance Lemmond, Bozell

Cosponsor: Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and Bozell

Seminar Highlights: This seminar is designed to inform business owners of current sales tax laws, help them to prevent overpayment of sales tax, educate them about the increased audit risk that they all face due to increased compliance audits anticipated in the future, and show them how to protect themselves from failure to comply with the new regulations. The seminar will also discuss state of Arkansas incentives and tax credits that are available to many eligible businesses.

Speaker: Ted Walker, David Rickman and Jeff Simmons of Arkansas Tax Associates

Cosponsor: Arkansas Tax Associates

Seminar Highlights: Many business owners consider marketing to be just advertising and selling. They don't consider additional techniques that are available to them. In this presentation, the speaker shares approaches that are not only practical and low cost but also effective for any size business. Among the techniques to be covered are: developing a competitive edge, public relations, business cards, referrals, the value of a database, the power of a thank you note and gifts, the importance of following up, e-marketing and how and when to use a postcard.

Speaker: ASBDC Representative

Seminar Highlights: This seminar prepares you for the intensive business planning process, identifies major steps crucial to starting a business, discusses key issues that affect the success of your business, and discusses start-up requirements and common pitfalls that you will face as an entrepreneur. Free New Business Guide and Feasibility Workbook!

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Metropolitan National Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Metropolitan National Bank

Seminar Highlights: The US Postal Service will guide small business owners through the on-line postal system and the Click-N-Ship process. Small business owners will also learn how to request a free pick-up service, order supplies, buy stamps, and send postcards.

Speaker: United States Postal Service Representative

Cosponsor: United States Postal Service

Seminar Highlights: No matter how large or small, all businesses must have a business plan! A business plan will help you define your concept, evaluate your competition, determine risks, and estimate your costs. This seminar will explain and illustrate the business plan format.

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Metropolitan National Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Metropolitan National Bank

Seminar Highlights: This training session will include an overview of the 2 basic loan programs (7a and 504), how to determine eligibility, how to prepare and submit loan applications, and how to service the loan after closing. Lenders will learn how to use the electronic website to increase their SBA participation. We will discuss actual case studies to show you how SBA can help you serve your customer and increase bank income. We will show you how to market your bank%u2019s participation in SBA programs. You will learn the advantages of becoming SBA Express and Patriot Express lenders. Sessions held later in the year will highlight the Small/Rural Lender Initiative as it becomes available. Loan officers new to SBA lending or those wishing to update their knowledge should attend.

Speaker: Pat Walker, U.S. Small Business Administration

Cosponsor: ASBDC, ACCG

Seminar Highlights: This seminar will present a thorough discussion about trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and patents without the legalese. Discover how to create, build, maintain, and protect your intellectual property assets. Learn what to do when your business has been sued and about litigation strategies for protecting your intellectual property.

Speaker: Kevin Lemley, Allen Law Firm

Cosponsor: Allen Law Firm

Seminar Highlights: This seminar prepares you for the intensive business planning process, identifies major steps crucial to starting a business, discusses key issues that affect the success of your business, and discusses start-up requirements and common pitfalls that you will face as an entrepreneur. Free New Business Guide and Feasibility Workbook! **Attend this seminar and "How to Write a Business Plan" on the same day and receive a discount, plus a boxed lunch.**

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Metropolitan National Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Metropolitan National Bank

Seminar Highlights: No matter how large or small, all businesses must have a business plan! A business plan will help you define your concept, evaluate your competition, determine risks, and estimate your costs. This seminar will explain and illustrate the business plan format. **Attend this seminar and "Starting a Business in Arkansas" on the same day and receive a discount, plus a boxed lunch.**

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Metropolitan National Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Metropolitan National Bank

Seminar Highlights: Accept payments, manage inventory, manage customers. Learn how to use this hardware/software program to save time and energy with bookkeeping, inventory control, and maximizing service and sales to your best customers.

Speaker: Speaker: Timothy Lee, ASBDC Webmaster and Computer Training Specialist

Seminar Highlights: This seminar is designed to inform business owners of current sales tax laws, to help them to prevent overpayment of sales tax, to educate them about the increased audit risk that they all face due to increased compliance audits anticipated in the future, and to show them how to protect themselves from failure to comply with the new regulations. The seminar will also discuss state of Arkansas incentives and tax credits that are available to many eligible businesses.

Speaker: Jeff Simmons, David Rickman and Ted Walker

Cosponsor: Searcy Chamber of Commerce and Arkansas Tax Associates

Seminar Highlights: In The First Half... "Understanding Financial Statements" This seminar is for the small business owner or manager. The seminar takes an in-depth look at the numbers on your balance sheet and income statement and helps you better understand what is happening to your business. Topics include understanding the financial position of a business, understanding the presentation of the numbers, and how to use the numbers in evaluating business profitability. And Then... "Managing Cash Flow" Cash planning is often the key to business survival. Learn the concepts of short- and long-term cash budgeting. Do you know your cash needs for next year, next month, tomorrow? Don't gamble with your business' money. Learn to take control of your cash planning now!

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Twin City Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Twin City Bank and Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce

Seminar Highlights: Is your web site underperforming? Would you like to dramatically increase online visitors and sales? Come attend Search Engine Optimization and learn how to optimize each page on your web site to attract qualified customers seeking your product or service. You learn how to find highly sought for search terms and where to place those terms to create a Perfect Page. You'll also learn about free online tools for researching keywords and for tracking and analyzing your online customers. Don't miss this opportunity to fine tune your web site and turn it into the sales machine it was meant to be!

Speaker: Timothy Lee, ASBDC

Seminar Highlights: This seminar prepares you for the intensive business planning process, identifies major steps crucial to starting a business, discusses key issues that affect the success of your business, and discusses start-up requirements and common pitfalls that you will face as an entrepreneur. Free New Business Guide and Feasibility Workbook!

Speaker: ASBDC Representative and Metropolitan National Bank Representative

Cosponsor: Metropolitan National Bank

Seminar Highlights: This seminar will present an overview of how to form an Arkansas corporation. Discussion topics will include the advantages and responsibilities of joining the corporate world. A step-by-step explanation of the process will be presented with specific attention paid to name availability, on-line filing, and forms and fees. Participants will have the option to file their Articles of Incorporation online the day of the seminar with guidance from the presenter. Please note: Online filing during seminar requires a $50.00 filing fee payable by credit card.

Speaker: Steve Hollowell, Secretary of State's Office

Cosponsor: Secretary of State, Charlie Daniel's Office

Seminar Highlights: Do buzzwords like "new economy," "information highway," and "E-Commerce" leave you confused? This 3-hour seminar will teach you the basics of E-Commerce. Learn how to plan and develop an on-line business. You'll learn about web hosting, Internet marketing, shopping cart software, credit card processing, customer order fulfillment, and much more! A 30-page workbook is included in your registration fee.

Speaker: ASBDC Representative

Cosponsor: Phillips Community College - DeWitt