Agenda

Arrival, Registration and Networking

Check in and get ready for a fun and educational experience! Start the day by having a quick bit of nourishment at the Continental Breakfast bar and enjoy networking prior to the event.

8:20 - 8:30 

Welcome and Kickoff

This day is about finding that one thing or relationship you have been looking for to take your business to the next phase. It could be a marketing tip, what you learn about business finance or a new technology you might start to leverage. The people you are going to hear from on stage are national and local experts in their fields and care about the success of the small business community.

8:30 - 9:00

Keynote

Running a small business takes a commitment, sacrifice and discipline that most don’t have within them, yet more small businesses start up every year. Since small businesses are the engine to our economy we need to use business events like The Small Business Tour to provide business resources and knowledge to decrease the failure rate of small business reported by the Small Business Administration. This is having a big impact on the economy. 

 9:00-
11:30

Morning Sessions & Labs

Get educated on the critical technologies of today and hands on experience with one of the most important topics, managing your expenses.

Speaker #1: 5 Ways the Evolution of Communication Is Driving Small Business 

Effective communication is a foundational piece of how businesses make sales, manage, respond to issues and connect with new and existing customers. You can take business courses on effective communication, but we also are able to stay connected anywhere at any time. The impact of this on business to business marketing is tremendous. Learn how the new ways to stay connected are helping effective and timely communication.

Speaker #2: 3 Ways to Manage for Making Better Business Decisions  

A shrinking percentage of small business owners know how to read a balance sheet and income statement and why this is critical to strategic and operational decision making. There is now finance software and business advisors to help with this, but this does not replace the need for today’s small business owners to understand how to use these business services to guide their companies to grow and thrive.

Panel Discussion:  Is Emerging Technology Getting in The Way of Running a Small Business?

We hear a lot in the technology news about the latest devices, software or apps – listen to this panel explore how these technologies are helping or hurting small businesses and their ability and capabilities to operate their businesses.

11:30-
12:30

Lunch Discussions

Box lunches served while you learn about new trends in mobility and staying connected:

Relationship Marketing Lab

Building strong business relationships is based on the concept of giving.  Learn practical advice about what this means and how it can dramatically impact your ability to create strong relationships when networking at events, using social media and which future technologies you can use to make your relationships stronger when marketing for small business.

12:40-
4:00

Afternoon Sessions & Labs

Work while you learn about critical areas of your business from experts

Speaker #3: Getting Beyond Referral Marketing & Sales

There are many pieces to marketing small business owners are making decisions about. In the end growing the marketing capabilities beyond referral based marketing is how companies experience that next level of growth. Learn how to create a system for social media, email marketing, your web site and optimizing local search to drive more opportunities for sales.

Speaker #4: 7 Steps to Better Billing and Customer Management

Record keeping should be easy and fast. Every customer should think of your business as someone that is easy and timely to work with. You'll learn that keeping track of billing can be easy and why it’s important to make a great impression with your customers.

Panel Discussion: Competitive Analysis, Industry Benchmarks: How to Map, Gauge, and Manage Your Growth

The numbers tell the tale and they never lie.  Listen in as these panelists discuss how to wrap your arms around the numbers, how to discover the benchmarks for your industry; how to measure your business statistics and align them with your desired financial growth.

Speaker #5: Why More Business Owners Are Trusting and Moving to The Cloud

Just like online banking, it isn’t a matter of if, but when your business will  leverage some piece of ‘The Cloud’ for your business. Learn why improvements in security, applications and services are moving more small business owners to internet-based technologies and how you should be looking at this for your business.

Main Street Meet-Up

Join us on Main Street! After a day of hearing from the experts on stage you get a chance to network with them and the local business owners who are sponsoring the event. This is not your typical local networking event and marketing opportunity – we make it fun and action-packed with networking games and more prizes. In some cities we’ll have after hour socials too!

Networking & Prizes!

*Must be present to be awarded prizes. 
Sponsors, speakers or organizers are not eligible to win.