Set a strong foundation by working with SBDC to help guide you through the start-up process. SBDC is here to help you start your business and holds a start-up cohort series of classes designed with the working person in mind.
The Start Up cohort classes repeat and are held every other month allowing you to take one, as you can, one at at time or allows folks who know they are ready to take action now to take them all.
2025 classes will be held in Jan, March, May, July, Sept, Nov.
Class 1: Formation:
This class will help you understand the different aspects of what it takes to start your business.
- Steps needed to form your business.
- Formation types (Sole Proprietor, LLC, and Corp)
- Forms needed including business license and permits
- Functional areas of business
- SBDC support services and the entrepreneur eco-system as a whole
Class 2: Business Plans
The next class in this business start-up series is ‘Business Plans’ and will ensure your business idea has greater success long-term, by helping you to start and finish a lean canvas business plan, which is the simplest easiest.
- Business Plan basics
- Types of business plans you should use and why
- Considering the various life-cycle stages
- Applying the functional areas of business to planning your business
Class 3: Business Projections
Register today to learn how to plan the financial aspects of running your business. A lot of entrepreneurs skip the easiest step of all – getting it wrong on paper or seeing how their plan works, long before they’ve spent money and time on the business, where they may discover a misstep and false assumption has occurred about costs, the sales cycle (the time it takes to market to a client and get them to buy your product), and / or the true cost of running a business, including paying yourself.
This class will help you prepare a simple document that allows you to understand the timing and timeline of your growth, along with helping you to quantify start-up costs.
Class topics:
- Fixed costs
- Variable Costs
- Sales forecasting
- Break even analysis
- Analyze who you will need on the team and how much it will cost to support having employees
Class 4: Making Your First Dollar
This class is the final of four classes designed to help you go from idea to making your first dollar. We’ll take a look at how easy it can be to attract your first clients and help you gain confidence with the presenting yourself and your product to your first customers (early adopters)
Class topics:
- Sources of new clients
- Understanding sales
- Basic elements of marketing
- Elevator Pitch
The Sonoma SBDC welcomes all entrepreneurs and business owners. Our events and services are open to anyone interested in small business development.
