In a down economy such as we’re experiencing, one of the best ways to get better control of your business is through constant marketing and sales. If your name is not in front of your customers, your competition’s may be, and then you lose.
Few problems are more daunting for small business owners than finding ways to effectively and consistently market their products or services. The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Fort Lewis College, with sponsorship support from the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce and Region 9, is pleased to offer again this spring the Marketing for Smarties™ Challenge, a unique business process that empowers entrepreneurs to do something about their chances for success.
 Straightforward, down-to-earth, and brief, the Marketing for Smarties Challenge helps business owners adopt a new, proven marketing and sales process. Marketing for Smarties guides you—step by step—through a simple, straightforward development program that includes four evening workshops, personal coaching, tasking, and peer exchange. Extremely user friendly, it provides you with all the hands-on tools you'll need.
One full scholarship is available from Region 9 for those who apply by tomorrow, March 18. Two half- scholarships are available to qualified candidates that finish the course—one from The Lindblad Group, and one from SHY RABBIT CONTEMPORARY ARTS specifically for a local artist. An added benefit is that completion of this Marketing for Smarties workshop qualifies participants for Town of Pagosa Springs economic stimulus tax credits.
Listen to what Ross Barrable of Spectrum Enterprises, LLC has to say about the Marketing for Smarties workshop he attended in spring 2009:
“As an artist/sculptor in my own small business for 15 years, I was pretty much going along each year trying something new to sell my artwork, with nothing really working the same twice in a row. My eyes finally opened to understanding the full spectrum and benefits of marketing. It’s not just sending out brochures and business cards. It’s a whole new mind set of perceiving my business through the eyes of my potential client and packaging my artwork in a way that they can relate to.
"Marketing for Smarties was instrumental in shifting my relationship with my business and also gave me the tools to put it into action.”
The Marketing for Smarties Challenge starts March 24 at the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce conference room and runs from 6:00 to 9:30pm. The subsequent sessions are scheduled on April 13, May 4, and May 26.
The fee for the course is $149, including book and all materials. Seating is limited, so early registration is advised.
Get better control of your business. Call Patsy Lindblad, your personal coach for the course, at (970)731-9074. |