2007 Expo Mini-Workshops

Do You Leave a Lasting Impression?

| LifeStyle Options | Co-Founder, EntreTeam

Experience a paradigm shift in how and why you network.

This session will offer you new ways to connect with others by using simple listening skills and questions to help eliminate fear, build communication skills, and acquire profitable connections in multiple business settings.

You will also learn the advantages of having a “10 second spotlight” as well as the “60 second elevator speech” in your mental mailbox and when is the appropriate time to use them.

Join us and learn ways to create your own innovative networking strategies that add to your bottom line as well as to others.

Bio

The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses

, CEO | Emerge Marketing

Is your marketing effort stuck in neutral? Are you looking for proven, battle-tested marketing tips from someone who knows what he’s talking about? Attend this information-packed session and you’ll walk away with loads of tips on how to improve your marketing…today. Come learn from the nationally acclaimed marketing expert Jay Lipe what to do (and what not to do) to ensure your marketing effort is a winner. Jay will also make his book The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses available for purchase right after the session.

Topics covered:

• Marketing’s Rule of 7 and why it’s so important
• The essential marketing tools all businesses must have these days
• Website tips that will attract more traffic…and close more sales
• 3 things you must have to be successful in marketing

Bio

What is an Inventor's Most Important Investment?

, Executive Director | Minnesota Inventors Congress

The most important investment an inventor can make is to become educated in the product development process; and know how to identify reliable resources and spot invention promotion scam companies. To make sure you spend your time and money wisely, you will learn the steps successful inventors take to get their marketable products into the marketplace.

Bio

Where to Begin? Legal Issues for the Emerging Entrepreneur

Small Business Attorney | Siegel, Brill, Greupner, Duffy & Foster, P.A.

This session will address one of the fundamental legal issues faced by the entrepreneur at the inception of their business – “Why, when and how to incorporate?” Topics covered will include: the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating, choosing the type of entity, technical requirements of incorporating and maintaining the entity existence.

Bio

Make Yourself Famous: A News Editor’s Perspective

, Publisher | The MicroEnterprise Journal

When you need to let potential customers know who you are and you don’t have a huge marketing budget, getting the press to write about you can be the dream marketing coup of all time. Learn how reporters and editors make news decisions, and how you can use that process to separate yourself from the press release crowd.

Bio

The Six Most Common Business Traps—and How to Avoid Them

| Day One Business Services

In your early years of business, no matter how careful or knowledgeable you are, you are bound to make some mistakes. Here are six common business traps that frequently snare small business owners along with some advice – about the signs to watch for, measures you can take to avoid these mistakes, and techniques for “freeing” yourself if you become ensnared.

Bio

Quick Cash Secrets – How To Generate $4,012 In the Next 11 Days

, President & Chancellor, American Institute of Small Business, Author

Have you ever needed more cash in your business, but don’t know how to get it? In this session, you will learn:

• What you MUST have to make the most money in your business
• 7 powerful methods to get your customers to come back like a Best Buy After-Thanksgiving Day Sale
• An amazingly simple technique that can make your business skyrocket during the slowest months of the year!

Bio

The Successful Entrepreneur 101

, Executive Director - PATH to Greatness | LifeSkills Center for Leadership

This highly energizing and interactive presentation will help you understand and embrace the top 2 characteristics of the Successful Entrepreneur – Choice and Influence. You will learn how to easily integrate the power of choice and influence to create a life that you feel is a success, both professionally and personally.

Bio

Ethics in Business: Why it’s Non-Negotiable

| Target Corporation

We operate in a business climate that has been riddled with consistent and egregious abuses of common sense ethical standards. A continuing dialogue regarding the practice of ethical discipline in business is beneficial for everyone, specifically as it relates to the development of your own code of ethics. This interactive discussion will cover topics related to conflicts of interest, personal code of ethics, representing in your business in a positive light and the establishment of guiding principles for long-term success.

Bio

Professional Presence: Maximizing Your Impact With Prospects and Clients

, Communication Specialist - , Performance Specialist
Sage Presenting

Pete Machalek and Dean Hyers of SAGE Presenting will speak about representing yourself, your ideas, projects and initiatives with increased power and influence. They will discuss the barriers and internal interference that can get in the way of effective self-representation, and will provide an invaluable process that you can immediately implement to erase that interference and skyrocket your personal presence and your ability to inspire decisive action in others.

Bios

Effective Business Communications

, President/CEO | DeYoung Consulting Services, LLC

Clients and potential clients often judge our competence as a product or service provider in part by the way in which we present ourselves, both in written and oral form. Effective presentation skills are “must have” for any business owner.

Best selling author, management guru, and successful speaker, Peter Drucker wisely forecasts, “As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken or written word.”

This workshop will provide you with basic skills for creating effective oral and written presentations – presentations that an help to move your business to the next level.

Bio

Hot Trends in Internet Marketing

, CEO | eye4image

The hot Internet buzz for the last few years has revolved around pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization. Did you know that these are the tip of the iceberg? Within a few years these areas will be surpassed for many businesses by new opportunities. Learn what the cutting edge crowd is doing to connect with their audience and succeed online.

Bio

Design for ROI: Creating Powerful Communications for Business

| Natoli Design Company

Your business needs to communicate. Further, your business needs to be understood. How do you know if your designed communications will be effective? You won’t unless you start off with a well thought out Creative Brief. Learn how this easy to use tool will position your business to succeed with achievable marketing, design and brand goals. Take steps to hold your design team accountable. Set realistic budgets. Build measurable goals into your next communication campaign. Control the design process from start to finish so your next communication project can be strategically focused, conceptually enlightened and yield measurable results.

Bio

Make Yourself Famous: Self-Publishing for Microbusiness Professionals

, Publisher | The MicroEnterprise Journal

Books are rapidly becoming as common as business cards for many independent professionals and, in the era of on-demand publishing, being a published author has never been easier. But easy self-publishing presents its own challenges, from writing a book that says something new to using that book to the greatest advantage. Learn strategies to meet those challenges and get the most from your self-publishing venture.

Bio

The Secrets to Marketing Your Services

, President | Bottom Line Business Advisors, Inc.

Not sure how to best market your unique services and service business?

Learn how to effectively and efficiently market your services and your service business.

If you're searching for the best ways to win customers and build sales for your service business, here are the important tips you do not want to overlook.

This session will reveal insightful marketing tips for building and strengthening your unique business with current clients, as well as attracting great new clients.

Bio

Common Issues for Operating Small Businesses

, Esq. | Siegel, Brill, Greupner, Duffy & Foster, P.A.

Business owners are routinely faced with a variety of legal issues, some obvious and some not so obvious. Questions arise about when to seek professional advice. Sherri Rohlf, Esq. will discuss a variety of legal topics, including those most often encountered in her work with closely held businesses, as well as those which may present pitfalls for the unwary business owner/operator.

Topics include:

1. Protecting intellectual property, trademarks and copyrights;
2. Co-shareholder/partner issues;
3. Employment and independent contractor issues; and
4. Legal issues relating to raising capital

Bio

Stand Out from the Crowd

, CEO | Emerge Marketing

Why is your company brand so important? What are the most important elements of your small business brand and how do you develop them?

Your company’s brand is far more than just letterhead, logo and business cards. It requires an effective approach with verbal, written and visual messages that appeal to your audience, and ensure consistency throughout your marketing efforts. Come learn from the nationally acclaimed marketing expert Jay Lipe the steps you should take to produce a brand that earns respect (and revenues) for your company. Jay will also make his book Stand out from the Crowd; Secrets to Crafting a Winning Company Identity available for purchase right after the session.

Topics covered:

• What you need to do in order to make your company brand stand out from the crowd
• How to craft an elevator speech that grabs a buyer’s attention
• Creating written key messages that motivate your buyers to take action…now.
• The 3 places your brand is experienced most frequently (the answer will surprise you)

Bio

Small Business Leadership: Personal, Professional and Entrepreneurial

, APR-President | Sopra Voce Communications

How are you a leader as an entrepreneur and how does that contribute to the success of your business? How can you improve your leadership and professional skills while bootstrapping a new business - and why should you? How can you improve your business, and those of others, by changing the entrepreneurial environment?

This session will answer these questions and show you how your courage and commitment to entrepreneurship can be applied to improving your bottom line and increase your visibility to potential clients and partners. You might even learn how you can apply your leadership to change the world, or at least your corner of it.

Bio

Navigating Through the Media Filter: How To Make Your Story Newsworthy

, Owner | Paul David Productions, LLC

You have an innovative new product, offer a unique service, or are developing an exciting concept and you want the media to be all over it. So how do you get your story picked up? It's simple – you have to think like them. If you give the media what they want and offer key story elements, chances are good, they’ll eat it up. You just have to know how to package your pitch. Paul will take you through the steps: identifying what’s a good story; developing it; pitching it; handling the media when they bite on your idea.

Paul read thousands of news releases as a television newsroom manager and only a few made it on the air. So, why is that? Find out how to get past the newsroom gatekeeper from a person who spent a decade as the gatekeeper.

Bio

Charting a Course to Financial Success

, Financial Coach | Powerful Strategies to Grow & Protect Wealth

Do you want to learn how to achieve financial success? Are you interested in a practical tool to help you make sound financial decisions? Do you want to chart a course to financial success?

At the Small Business Expo, you will learn a new definition of financial success. I will teach you a practical tool to measure if your plans, strategies and tactics are bringing you closer to reaching your dreams or farther away. Using my unique approach and tools, you may learn that some of the most popular tax strategies may not be all they’re cracked up to be.

Please join me to get a start charting a course to financial success, health and wellness.

Bio