Preparing for cyber incidents is pivotal for small businesses to mitigate potential damages and ensure continuity in the face of cyber threats.
This training is designed to assist small business owners and decision-makers in developing robust cyber incident response plans. “Cyber Incident Response Planning: Building Resilience for Small Businesses” offers a comprehensive understanding of incident response frameworks, strategies, and best practices tailored to the specific needs and resources of small businesses.
Speaker: Quiana Gainey, Virginia SBDC Cyber Industry Expert
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.
Ensure your business appears on Google Search and Maps and boost your online visibility by leveraging Google My Business, now known as Google Business Profile.
In this webinar, our expert presenter will show you how to build and manage your Google Business Profile, ensuring visibility and accuracy across Google Search and Google Maps. Take advantage of this opportunity to maximize your online presence and attract customers in your local community and beyond.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Understanding the basics of Google Business Profile
- Step-by-step guidance on creating and verifying your business profile
- How to build a profile without a brick-and-mortar
- How to optimize your business information
- How to manage your business profile to stay relevant
Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.
For entrepreneurs, time is money, so why settle for low-paying clients when, with the same amount of effort, you could attract high-paying clients like major corporations and potentially double your sales income?
In this valuable webinar, bestselling author and USA TODAY’s small business columnist Steve Strauss will show you how to find high-paying clients who will give you the highest return on your time and effort.
In this webinar, you will learn:
- Pitch to high-paying clients
- Convince them to say yes
- Land a high-paying client that will lead to more high-paying clients
Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.
Lender Match is a free online referral tool that connects small businesses with participating SBA-approved lenders.
In this webinar, you will learn:
- How it works
- How You Should Prepare
- Other Details You Need to Know
The following will be covered during this live webinar:
- Power of SEO and social media for attracting customers, including local SEO to precisely target your market.
- Website optimization for lead generation. How personas, message maps, and content calendars help to make your website and social media footprint more attractive when integrated.
- Social selling as an amplifier of your existing sales and marketing strategy. Learn to build an omni channel presence and customer journey for faster wins.
- What your digital channel strategy needs, to be effective in terms of content, technology and investment.
- How to effectively use paid media and advertising. Cost savings of optimizing your website and SEO to maximize paid media spend and ROI.Speaker: Hussain Shah, Subject Matter Expert – Digital Marketing, Mason SBDC & Timm Johnson – Director, Mason SBDC
Co-sponsor(s) & Partner(s): Prince William County Department of Economic Development & Prince William Chamber of Commerce
Cancellation Policy: Contact the Center regarding cancellation 24 business hours prior to the event. Kindly email – help@masonsbdc.org (preferred) or call 703-261-4105 to notify the team.
Special Instructions: This live webinar will be presented via Zoom. Webinar access details (Zoom invitation) will be provided after registration.
Overview of Live Webinar
Attention all small business owners! Biometrics are being used everywhere to “improve” the security of user logins and to help us authenticate our identity. However, if your biometrics are compromised, they are compromised forever. Join us for an engaging live webinar where we show you the latest tricks bad actors are using to steal your identity and what you can do to help protect yourself against this growing threat. In this session, you will:
- Gain a Deeper Understanding: Learn how MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) is being used for identification and authentication, and the role biometrics can play.
- Arm Yourself with Knowledge: Discover ways bad actors can steal your biometrics and use them to impersonate you when perpetrating their latest scams.
- Strengthen Your Defenses: Learn effective strategies to safeguard your company against identity theft.
Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your awareness and fortify your business’s security. Register now to stay steps ahead of the evolving cyber landscape!
The webinar will be presented by the following speakers:
Dr. Teresa Piliouras – CEO and Founder, Technical Consulting & Research, Inc., an IT company specializing in AI, cybersecurity, quality management, and data analytics. Dr. Piliouras is a consultant, educator, inventor, and author. She holds a BS from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Iona College, and a PhD from NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
Pui Lam (Raymond) Yu – Executive Vice President Engineering at Technical Consulting & Research, Inc., has over 20 years of industry experience in Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, and Systems Engineering. He received his BEEE and MSEE from Stevens Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively, and his MSCS from New York University Tandon School of Engineering.
Adithya Rajendran – Cybersecurity Analyst at Technical Consulting & Research, Inc. He received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Baskin Engineering at UCSC, and has a strong foundation in programming, data structures, algorithms, and software engineering.
Curtis Rowe II – Cybersecurity Analyst Intern, Technical Consulting and Research, Inc., received his BS in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego.
Join us for a discussion about what all entrepreneurs, small businesses, and start-ups should know about trademarks. We’ll discuss what trademarks are, the benefits of federal trademark registration, and the basics of the registration process. We’ll also talk about why it’s so important for any new business to select a trademark that is both federally registrable and legally protectable.
We’ll direct you to free resources from the USPTO and close out the discussion with a question-and-answer session.
Speaker: Mariessa Terrell, Attorney Advisor, Trademarks Customer Outreach, 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.
A sales funnel is a marketing term describing where your customers are in their purchasing journey and what marketing tools you can use to guide potential customers from interest to purchase.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use sales funnels to grow your business, automate your marketing tasks, create a complete customer journey map and determine your business KPIs so you can easily track what’s working and what’s not.
You’ll learn:
- What is a sales funnel and how to use it in your business
- How to create a complete customer journey map from discovery to purchase
- Automation tools you can use to streamline marketing processes
- How to establish and measure KPIs
Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.
Promotional Video HERE
Overview of This Live Webinar
The following essential steps for government contracting will be covered:
- The government customer
- Readiness to be a government contractor
- Marketing to the customer
- Government jargon
- Steps to get started
- Small business set-asides
- Targeting the government customer
- What the buyer wants to know
- What should go into a capability statement
Speakers: Timm Johnson – Director, Mason SBDC
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.
Grab your lunch and join us the first Thursday of each month to learn more about SBA programs and network with other small business owners.
Topic: Service Disable Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)
The federal government aims to award at least 3% of all federal contracting dollars to Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) each year. Joining the SDVOSB program makes your business eligible to compete for the program’s set-aside contracts. You can still compete for contract awards under other socio-economic programs you qualify for.
Key Takeaways:
- What is a SDVOSB?
- Who is eligible for the program?
- What to expect with the recent changes to the program?
Speaker(s): Joey Pocan, Economic Development Specialist Mr. Pocan assists in the design and implementation of economic development strategies and programs related to Start-ups, business attraction, business expansion, and retention. He conducts research, presents training, project management, data collection and analysis, visits with local businesses and agencies to facilitate business opportunities.
Once registered, an automated email with the Zoom link will be sent to you. If you need further assistance or have a question, please contact us at (540) 654-1383
Businesses need to understand the basics of digital marketing now more than ever, because digital marketing creates growth.
Learn about the basics of digital marketing, including:
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- Paid Ads
- SEO
- Affiliate Marketing
- How to use analytics to measure your success
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.
Instructor: Cameron Nelson, Technology Advisor, VA SBDC
Mr. Nelson has over 19 years experience in technology, and as a senior tech consultant in Silicon Valley helping Fortune 500 companies improve their digital marketing and eCommerce. At the same time he founded several tech companies, including a SaaS website for tree preservation and a blockchain platform for nonprofits. Cameron is accomplished in language, culture, has an MBA and MA and believes new technology products have the ability to help shape our world for the better.
If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve heard about QuickBooks. That’s because QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software on the market.
In this webinar, our expert presenter will walk you through the basic features of QuickBooks and explain how to use it to streamline your financial management. Whether you’re new to QuickBooks or looking to enhance your existing skills, this webinar provided practical strategies to manage your business finances with QuickBooks effectively.
Learning objectives:
- How to get started with QuickBooks
- How to track your sales and expenses
- How to pull reports
- How to create invoices
Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.
This course will help you gain an understanding of why proposals do or do not win, and show you how to make an educated decision to bid or not to bid, analyze and “shred” the RFP, and develop a proposal schedule to deliver the proposal on time. This module provides an overview of the proposal development process and key tasks that a proposal manager in charge of the government proposal needs to accomplish.
Topics Covered:
- Walking through the proposal process, including Pink Team, Red Team, and Gold Team reviews
- Understanding how RFP structure and form differs significantly across agencies
- How to read a Government RFP
- Understanding which RFP sections are important for the proposal
- A system for making a bid-no-bid decision
- How to dissect requirements – the basics to outlining your proposal and understanding what is really being asked for
- How to change requirements into an annotated outline
- How to develop a compliant proposal outline and structure
- How to create a compliant outline/status tracking matrix in a table
- Being able to tell a story while remaining compliant – the art of developing great proposals
- Naming and numbering your sections for easy evaluation
- Developing and using a compliance matrix
- Developing and using a compliance checklist
- Developing your proposal plan
- How to build a proposal schedule
- Sample 30-day proposal calendar
- Creating a proposal organization chart with roles and responsibilities
- Conducting a great proposal kickoff
David Huff is the CEO of OST Global Solutions, Inc. (www.ostglobalsolutions.com – home of the GovCon Incubator and Bid & Proposal Academy). He has more than 19 years of Government Business Development and military experience. He is a dynamic leader who develops pipelines and implements growth strategies for OST’s client companies. He is a skilled facilitator and has captured, managed, and written proposals up to $1.5B in value. He is an instructor at OST’s Bid & Proposal Academy, teaching thousands of attendees from businesses and Government organizations, such as General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) EXCEL Training Program, NASA Langley Research Center, and the Department of Treasury. He has presented at the National Contracts Management Association (NCMA) World Congress, the National 8(a) Association, and the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP). David is an army veteran who served with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division during two tours to Afghanistan.
Webinar information will be sent to registrants prior to the class and will be conducted via GoToWebinar. After registration is complete, your email confirmation will contain the link. You MUST register your name and email and receive the login information and calendar invite before you can join the webinar. You may attend without downloading the software, but please understand your webinar functions may be limited.
By registering for this training event, you consent to having your name and contact information, along with your registration and attendance status shared with the instructor. Instructors do not have access to other confidential client information and often simply use it to send follow-up class materials. As in-kind donors, each instructor has agreed not to use information in any way contrary to the interests of Virginia APEX Accelerator, its sponsors, grantors, or clients (you), including but not limited to unauthorized marketing and sales. If you have questions or concerns, please email apex@gmu.edu to discuss with the host of this training or do not register for this session.
The Federal Government buys over $600 billion per year on goods and services, 5% of that spend is allocated for Small Disadvantaged(8(A) firms. This is a huge opportunity for small firms, who qualify, to grow their business and become part of the challenging world of Government Contracting through set-aside opportunities. In this presentation you will learn: • Eligibility requirements for 8(a) certification • Understanding the Application Process • Understanding how to prepare before applying • Staying Certified
Speaker(s): Lisa Powell worked for the U.S. Small Business Administration at the Connecticut District Office from 1998 to 2019 as an Economic Development Specialist monitoring the HUBZone and 8(a) portfolios for the local office before joining the Virginia PTAC as a Procurement Counselor in January 2021. During her time at the SBA, Lisa worked closely with all of SBA’s resource partners to facilitate procurement workshops held at local Community Colleges, Chambers of Commerce and libraries. As a Business Opportunity Specialist, she was involved with the Government Contracting programs that the SBA provides and worked very closely with the purchasing agents for the Federal and State Agencies as well as the larger prime contractors while organizing SBA Matchmakers and assisting small business.
If you need further assistance or have a question, please contact us at (540) 654-1383
Experiencing an increase in demand during the summer can be exciting for small business owners, but finding the right hire to meet that demand can be challenging.
In this webinar, we’ll dive into the fundamentals of hiring a seasonal worker and the strategies you can use to hire the right employee fast while staying compliant with regulations. From posting job listings to on the job training, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the hiring process.
Learning objectives:
- How and where to put your job postings
- What new hire paperwork do you need
- What to consider when determining Wages
- The different types of employee classification
- What to consider when training your employee
Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording