The Ohio Growth Summit is almost here. Everything about the Ohio Growth Summit is designed to provide you with the tools to make you better able to do what you do. Live interaction with experts is the “secret sauce” that sets this event apart. Whether you run a business, work in a business or work with businesses you will get specific action oriented techniques that will set you apart. This collection of speakers and will not come together again so don’t miss your opportunity to see them live.

What To Expect ~ What You Can Expect Out Of Business Financing and Financing Matchmaking:

If there is one thing that the Ohio Small Business Development Center at Columbus State (SBDC) has down cold is how to get you financing. Last year the SBDC helped local businesses access over $5.8 million in funding during the worst credit crunch since the Great Depression. The amazing thing is that this was accomplished without the SBDC having any of their own money to lend out. How did they accomplish this? By being experts in the lending and funding process. Understanding what banks are looking for when they look at a request makes a huge difference. Being properly prepared and presenting a plan that is clear and speaks for you makes it easy for the bank or investors to say yes.

Another key to successfully getting funded is knowing who to go to. Not every bank is interested in every credit and this changes all the time. The SBDC team has developed relationships with numerous funding sources so they know who is playing and who is on the sidelines. We build relationships that you can leverage allowing you to skip the runaround at the branch and go straight to the right person for what you are looking for to make your business successful.

If you don’t think that what you are doing lends itself well to banks we have you covered there too. Investors are much different than banks in that they are focused on growth capital and they they are writing checks out of their own account. It is critical that you know how to find investors, help them understand the business and the plan but most important you need to cut a deal that makes it worth their time to listen and eventually invest. The Ohio SBDC at Columbus State has an expertise in dealing with investment ready company not usually found in an SBDC. Plus we have brought in our partners from TechColumbus to provide a one, two punch to help you get funded.

At the Ohio Growth Summit we will be bring it altogether for you. We will feature an interactive session lead by David Rivers of the Ohio SBDC and Rick Coplin of TechColumbus designed to get you information directly from the people that are writing checks. We will feature two round table discussions. First up will be the bankers. Representatives from Huntington, TelHio Credit Union, the SBA and others will discuss what they look for in a credit and how to best work with them to get you loan approved. Next will be the investors. Angel investors and representatives from other seed investment entities will discuss the secrets you need to know to get their money. These sessions will be very interactive and hands on with the experts.

What is the Matchmaking part of the session all about? We will provide time for you to sit down, one on one, with the experts and discuss your opportunity. Not catching someone on the side or at lunch we have built this into the agenda and you will be able to discuss your specific needs with the money people.

So sign up now to take advantage of this opportunity to get direct insights on how to make your business more successful direct from the experts live and in person right here in Columbus on May 24.

The Ohio Growth Summit is almost here. Everything about the Ohio Growth Summit is designed to provide you with the tools to make you better able to do what you do. Live interaction with experts is the “secret sauce” that sets this event apart. Whether you run a business, work in a business or work with businesses you will get specific action oriented techniques that will set you apart. This collection of speakers and will not come together again so don’t miss your opportunity to see them live.

What To Expect ~ Beyond Social Media; Strategy and Placement To Get Your Message Heard:

Do you have a Facebok page? Are you on Twitter for you business, you have to be on Twitter right? What about Pinterest and what is the deal with Google+? You have a website and a social presence, now what. Many small business owners are being overwhelmed by social media, with typical frustrations including having too many different social networking sites to manage, information overload, not wanting to share everything, no way to manage negative commentary and staff shortages preventing them from realizing the full potential of these platforms.

Enter Mike Whaling, Founder of 30 Lines and Matthew Russo, founder of ChatterJet to help you make sense of it all. Not only make sense of it but make it work for you. In this session you will work to develop your overall communications mix. You will determine how you should develop your on-line strategy so you achieve the best results without forcing you to be on-line all of the time and making you insane. You will learn how to best utilize your website, email, and you social media profiles to get found. You will develop simple and affordable systems that will allow you reach the customers you want to do business with.

So sign up now to take advantage of this opportunity to get direct insights on how to make your business more successful direct from the experts live and in person right here in Columbus on May 24.

The Ohio Growth Summit is almost here. Everything about the Ohio Growth Summit is designed to provide you with the tools to make you better able to do what you do. Live interaction with experts is the “secret sauce” that sets this event apart. Whether you run a business, work in a business or work with businesses you will get specific action oriented techniques that will set you apart. This collection of speakers and will not come together again so don’t miss your opportunity to see them live.

What To Expect ~ Strengthening your organization & growing your business:

“Growth” that is the focus of this session. Keith Speers, former CEO, serial entreprneur and business consultant, will lead an interactive workshop designed to help you move your business to the next level of growth. Successful entrepreneurial companies are typically started by visionary, strong willed people that see a path for their company and single mindedly push to move toward the desired future-state. They are passionate and committed. The challenge is that there is a chasm that they need to cross to take their business to the next level. What is the next level? The next level, or what is know as the second stage business, is the difference between a company with $500,000 in annual revenue and one with $10 million in revenue; between a a company with employees and systems in place to secure customers efficiently and effectively consistently over time; it is the difference between the founder focusing on management and focusing on leadership.

In this session Keith will help you to understand how to use the mission of your company to really guide the growth of your organization. How to look at what customers need and expect and how you can make sure your company is meeting those expectations. Whether your business is product or service focused you will learn how to put the customer at the center of your business model and make their desired outcomes the outcomes you deliver. This session is for people that are interested in rolling up their sleeves and working on their business. There will be a collaborative conversation among small business owners to help them think about what they can do when they leave the session and put to work immediately in their business to improve it. A lot of brainstorming and making sure they are asking the tough questions and the right questions to move their businesses forward. Attendees should expect to gain new tools and templates to help them in their business. Best of all they will get a lot of opportunity to engage with other people and to think critically about their issues and what they need to do to take the next steps toward business growth.

So sign up now to take advantage of this opportunity to get direct insights on how to make your business more successful direct from the experts live and in person right here in Columbus on May 24.