Mercer County’s Office of Economic Development is offering a “Business Survival Series” of weekly free webinars designed to help the business community recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The workshops are held in partnership with the UCEDC, a nonprofit economic development corporation that provides business loans, government contracting assistance, and training workshops. Register for the webinars at www.ucedc.com.
The first session in the series takes place Wednesday, August 5, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on the topic of “Business Reassessment.” The workshop will emphasize enhancing customer experience and customer-focused strategies as well as ways to refresh a business plan for sustainability.
The second workshop, on Wednesday, August 12, is focused on marketing strategy. The webinar includes a review of the basic principles of marketing strategy and the “4Ps of marketing” (product, price, place, promotion), SWOT analysis, and target marketing. Materials will also include advice on making good local advertising choices, including social media and effective digital marketing.
The third session, on Wednesday, August 19, is titled “Basic Financial Statements & Profitability.” It is critical for business owners to understand their finances in order to maintain profitability and realize when adjustments need to be made. Key tools that will be discussed in this workshop are the balance sheet, profit & loss statement, and cash flow statement.
The final webinar, on Wednesday, August 26, focuses on projecting financial results. Topics of discussion include sales projections, expense projections, and responsibly projecting cash flow.
Each webinar concludes with a Q&A session with Alejandro Cruz, a training and mentoring officer at UCEDC.
