2014 Build Your American Dream Challenge - Session 8, The Guppy Tank

THE BUILD YOUR AMERICAN DREAM CHALLENGE - 2014
                                                                                                 
October 7 - Session 1 “Does your idea have legs?” – Dorothy Lane of Wilkes University SBDC will guide participants through the process of vetting their business idea including market research in Demographics for Dummies.  Participants will be given a homework assignment to take an online personality test to see if they are entrepreneur material.   
 
October 9 - Session 2 – “Are You Wired to be a Business Owner?” – A panel of local business owners will answer questions and speak about their experiences in starting and running a business. 
 
October 14 – Session 3 - “Steps for a Business Plan” - Dorothy Lane of Wilkes University SBDC will be back to conduct this class and help the participants set up a business plan, a strategic plan and a vision for their fledgling business.  Participants will be given a homework assignment of creating their own business plan and emailing the plan to Dorothy for her review.  Deadline for review is October 27.  The business plan will be required to be submitted with other documents to the Guppy Tank participants.   
 
October 21 – Session 4 - “The Legality of it all” – Jane Sebelin, Esq. will present on what kind of company should you set up; LLC, S Corp.?  Should you have a succession plan, what happens if you need to leave the business? Should you have life insurance in case of an emergency?  Atty. Sebelin will take you through the quagmire of understanding what will work for you.
 
October 23 - Session 5 “QuickBooks and You” – This class will meet at the LCCC computer lab in Jim Thorpe.  Participants will be given a USB drive and taught how to set up their bookkeeping system and after it’s completed, take it home and start to use it. 
 
October 28 - Session 6 “The Ins and Outs of Marketing-Social and Otherwise” – Participants will be taught the different ins and outs of social media and how to use it to its utmost advantage in marketing their business as well as other avenues of marketing their business.  Participants will also create a 30 second “elevator speech” and take a look a “Crowdfunding”
 
November 4 - Session 7 “Putting It All Together” – Participants will put together a presentation to pitch to lenders/investors for financing for their business and practice in front of the class before heading into the presentation.  The class will then pick the top 5 ideas to go into “The Guppy Tank”.  Those who are chosen will be required to fill out Applications and other paperwork for the lenders to review prior to The Guppy Tank presentations. 
 
November 13 - Session 8 “The Guppy Tank” – This will be the culmination of the entire program where participants pitch their idea to lenders or investors in the “Guppy Tank” and either obtain or qualify for further review the funding and support to open their business in Carbon County. Each entrepreneur will have 15 minutes to make their pitch to the lenders and the lenders will have the opportunity to question each one.