Calendar

Diane McCarthy conducts office hours at the Lexington-Rockbridge Chamber of Commerce office on the second and every other fourth Tuesdays of each month. This drop-in event will provide business owners and entrepreneurs and opportunity to learn more about the SBDC resources available to them. To make an appointment, contact Diane via email or call 540.568.3227.

This webinar will cover the basic facts about patents. We will explore the different types of patents, including utility, design, and plant. We will define the difference and use of both provisional patent applications and non-provisional patent applications. Further, we will discuss the process of patent prosecution, the role of the U.S. patent examiner and what to expect when working with the USPTO.

Information regarding a number of patent prosecution programs and initiatives available to applicants will also be provided.

Speaker: Tong Guo, Patent Examiner, USPTO

Webinar presented in collaboration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

A confirmation email with the Zoom login information will be sent after registration – a day before before the event – please be on the lookout for it.

Business insurance is an important investment for any small business. Running a business requires you to plan for many day-to-day challenges, but have you planned and prepared for the unexpected?

In this webinar, our expert presenter will guide you through the various kinds of insurance, what you need and don’t need for your business, companies that provide business insurance and the general costs associated with business insurance.

Learning objectives:

• Understanding and managing the business risks
• Understand the different types of liability insurance
• How to protect your assets, income and personal cash or property
• Protect from injuries and damages received or inflicted

Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.

Webinar Learning Objective

Please join Senior Business Counselor, and Adjunct GMU Professor George Siragusa, as he guides you through a step-by-step process of building your Value Proposition Design which is invaluable to startups, early stage companies, growth, or even mature businesses!

The Value Proposition Design (VPD) is a framework that enables businesses to develop and solidify their foundational ideas for how they will create, communicate, deliver and then extract marketplace value for a differentiated product or service intended to solve a specific problem aligned with a specific customer need while delivering tangible benefits, for an intended potential customer segment in a domain space or industry sector. It lives inside something called the Business Model Canvas, another important foundational business framework.

The VPD is absolute “ground zero” thinking for:

• Entrepreneurs with ideas for a product or service business
• Early stage companies

The VPD is critical formative thinking for:

• New business ventures
• Growth businesses

The VPD is valuable for:

• Businesses considering a “pivot” in some aspect of their business
• Mature businesses looking to expand or grow their offerings or markets

The VPD will:

• help clients understand how they can create enduring personal value with your products
• lower your cost of customer acquisition and retention
• avoid wasting your scarce resources of time and money

Upon completion of this NO-COST webinar you should be able to:

• Become familiar with the definition of a Value Proposition Design and why it is considered such a “bedrock principle” for any business venture
• Understand 3 specific benefits VPD brings to your business
• See how it is one of the very first actions you should take to begin forming your ideas around a product or service you believe to be a viable business
• Understand the relevance of the Value Proposition Design (VPD) to your business
• Become familiar with the 8 steps to building / refining a VPD for your business
• See a list of 10 characteristics of a great Value Proposition Design
• Become familiar with the ways in which the VPD can impact and inform your communication tactics and strategy
• Follow a “use case” to help illustrate how the VPD can inform your marketing strategy
• Answer your specific questions about VPD along during the webinar

THERE IS NO COST to ATTEND; but REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

Speaker: George Siragusa – Senior Business Advisor, Mason SBDC, Adjunct Professor, George Mason University teaching Entrepreneurship for Engineers at the School of Engineering, and Senior Mentor for 3 area Startup Venture Accelerators

Co-sponsor(s) & Partner(s): Prince William County Department of Economic Development & Prince William Chamber of Commerce

Cancellation Policy: Contact the Center regarding cancellation earlier than 24 business hours prior to event. Kindly email – help@masonsbdc.org (preferred) or call 703-261-4105 to notify the team.

Special Instruction: This live webinar will be presented via Zoom. Webinar access details (Zoom invitation) will be provided after registration.

Please join Senior Business Counselor, and Adjunct GMU Professor George Siragusa, on Wed, November 16th, 2022, as he guides you through a step-by-step process of building a business performance dashboard, complete with relevant metrics, that is invaluable to meet your strategic and tactical goals and objectives. This webinar is extremely useful for early stage companies, growth, or even mature businesses! During this NO-COST webinar you should be able to: :

• See what business dashboards look like
• Understand why a “scorecard” is important
• Become familiar with the principles that guide your 1st dashboard draft
• Know how to get started and begin building a dashboard for your business
• Decide on a group of simple but important key metrics
• See what software is available, making scorecard development easier
• Learn how and when to use these new business metrics with your business team
• See how dashboard insights can make a positive impact on your business performance
• AND… hear answers to many of your business briefing questions in real time!

THERE IS NO COST to ATTEND; but REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

Speaker: George Siragusa – Senior Business Advisor, Mason SBDC, Adjunct Professor, George Mason University teaching Entrepreneurship for Engineers at the School of Engineering, and Senior Mentor for 3 area Startup Venture Accelerators.

Co-sponsor(s) & Partner(s): Prince William County Department of Economic Development & Prince William Chamber of Commerce

Cancellation Policy: Please provide 24 business-hours notification prior to event. Kindly email – help@masonsbdc.org (preferred) or call 703-261-4105

Special Instruction: This live webinar will be presented on the Zoom platform. Webinar access details (Zoom invitation) will be provided after registration.

Speaker(s): Martin Short, Lead Economic Development Specialist & Public Information Officer

If you need further assistance or have a question, please contact us at (540) 654-1383

Whether you’re striving to pay off debt, start a business or just gain control of your finances, creating an effective budget is the cornerstone of financial success.

In this webinar, our expert speaker will show you how to build an effective and easy budget that you can use to plan, manage and save for your financial future.

What you’ll learn:

• Effective ways to Manage your money
• Easy to understand Budgets
• Understanding money, assets and creating passive income
• Money Saving Strategies
• Financial planning for the future

Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.

Diane McCarthy conducts office hours at the Lexington-Rockbridge Chamber of Commerce office on the second and every other fourth Tuesdays of each month. This drop-in event will provide business owners and entrepreneurs and opportunity to learn more about the SBDC resources available to them. To make an appointment, contact Diane via email or call 540.568.3227.

This session will present some common sense tips on how to write an effective state or federal contract proposal.

Topics covered include:

• Understand Uniform Contract Format – RFP
• Things to consider before writing
• Proposal writing tips
• Typical evaluation criteria
• Win Theme development
• Keys to proposal success
• Typical elements of successful proposals
• Why proposals lose points

Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration

Presented by Lisa Wood, Statewide Director, Virginia Apex Accelerator – sponsored by the Dept. of Defense

Duration:  1.5 Hours

COST: Virginia based companies/Va. University FREE; All Others $15

Social media can be a powerful tool for small business owners to market their products and services directly to their customers. However, social media can also be overwhelming. Which platform do you post on? How often should you post? What do you post and when?

In this webinar, marketing expert Patty Ross will teach you the basics every business owner should know about social media marketing and the latest trends you should follow.

You will learn:

• How to create a content calendar
• How to choose which platforms make sense for your business
• The right times to post on each platform and how often
• What type of content to post for the best engagement
• What are the best social media advertising options

Project Spectrum is a comprehensive, cost-effective platform that provides companies, institutions, and organizations with cybersecurity information, resources, tools, and training. It’s mission is to improve cybersecurity readiness, resiliency, and compliance for small/medium-sized businesses and the federal manufacturing supply chain.  This webinar will review the tools available and provide tips on how to use the program to help your business.

Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration

Presented by Lisa Wood, Statewide Director, Virginia Apex Accelerator — sponsored by the Dept. of Defense

Duration:  1.5 Hours

Congratulations, you’ve found a grant opportunity! However, the challenge doesn’t end there. Applying for a grant involves the art of “grant writing,” a task that can be just as challenging as finding the grant itself. In this webinar, we’ll teach you the grant writing skills you’ll need to craft compelling grant proposals to help increase your chances of securing funding.

Our expert presenter will explain the application process, what a grant proposal is and how it can help you apply for grants. Finally, our presenter will guide you through developing a standard grant proposal that can be utilized across multiple funding opportunities.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• What is a grant proposal and how can it help
• Learn to write a proposal that aligns with funding applications
• Discover common reasons why funding applications get denied
• Uncover valuable resources and sources for finding grants

Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.

These special sessions will provide an overview of grant funding for Virginia based companies and researchers who are developing early-stage technology. Featured will be discussions about the federal Small Business Innovation Research grant programs, also known as SBIR (11 agencies award over $4B annually in $200K-$2M grants), and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Commonwealth Commercialization Fund ($75K grants for small business and higher education technology development/commercialization).

Each session will be approximately 2 hours long and include coffee/bagels/pastries for the morning sessions and a light lunch for the lunch sessions. We’ll also have time to hear updates from the local ecosystem and our event hosts! Sessions are free, but advance registration is requested.

If you are thinking about developing new, innovative technology and/or you are currently in the process of doing so and you are seeking funding to finance the development, this session is for you! We’ll cover the basics of the programs, eligibility rules, funding amounts available, processes, timelines, and other support available to help.

Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration