How to Design Million Dollar Growth!

Businesses with revenues of $1 million to $5 million have a survival rate five times higher than those below $1 million, and most entrepreneurs average 20 years to build a sustainable success. Some need only 2-5 years. What’s the difference? The Hot100Business process is based on research of the best practices of hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, and how to accelerate the growth and profitability of most any business. This two hour workshop will take you through the process of designing your business to achieve revenue growth of $1 million or more, for those that want to accelerate their growth and profitability. Go through these best practices during two sessions Friday Sept 16th with Corey Hansen.

Three things that will define the successful business in the post recession recovery:

1) You will have to be a "values based" business. You have to make something that people value enough to want to buy and that makes a difference in their lives. You will have to have a business that provides value to your customers, your employees and the owners and other funders.

2) You will have to embrace technology, innovation and reinvention. This will take the willingness to encourage creativity, think outside the box, study current trends, invent, reinvent and do it again. This can happen in any business of any size.

3) You have to be willing to have at least as much fun studying and practicing the business skills needed to make your business a success as the technical skills related to whatever product or service you produce and sell.

Hear more at Steve Burke’s talk on The New Cool at ThinkBiz 2011!

Asbury Lockett

With over 25 years of diversified business experience in manufacturing, process improvements, sales, and financial services. He has lectured extensively in the area of lean as applied not only to manufacturing processes but to administrative processes as well. Asbury was also the creator of the Governmental Agency Process Streamlining (GAPStm) program which applied lean techniques specifically to governmental processes.

For the past several years, Asbury operated his own executive coaching and training business to support executives and business owners in achieving their goals. Asbury has a degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford and an MBA from UC Berkeley. Hear him share on LEAN techniques for your business.

Mark Turner Providing Free Social Media Portraits at ThinkBiz

Mark Turner from Turner Photographics will be at ThinkBiz on the 15th  providing free social media portraits.  If your Linkedin or Facebook pictures is less than professional, than this is your chance to upgrade to a much better picture.

Mark also has a family portrait special benefiting the food bank that runs on September 17th & 18th.  Sittings are 1/2 price ($100) and he still has great locations and times left.  Contact Mark at 360.671.6851 or at mark@turnerphotographics.com for all the details.

A New Way to Evaluate the Conference

ThinkBiz is all about learning and trying new things.  We just partnered with Pinnion to tryout their new software for doing evaluations without using paper forms.

Using your smartphone (and a free downloadable app!), laptop or computer kiosk at the conference,  you will be able to evaluate the various sessions that you attend.

Not only does this make it easier for you to give good feedback on the conference and to share your ideas with us, it will help us build a better conference experience for you in the coming years.

You'll be able to say you tried this new technology first at ThinkBiz!

How To Locate and Negotiate Space For Your Business!

This class is intended to be a crash course in site selection and deal term negotiation for those looking to lease or buy retail, office, or industrial property for their business. Topics include how to search for commercial space, tips on negotiating the best lease or purchase contract, and the pitfalls to avoid whether your business hasn’t opened yet or you have various locations and you’re looking to expand.

Neal Swanson is a commercial real estate broker specializing in the leasing and sales of retail and office properties in the Puget Sound. Some of the companies Neal has assisted with site selection and/or lease negotiations in the past include Jack In The Box, Subway, Ace Hardware, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, and Nature’s Path.

Is that a good business you’re buying (or selling)?

How do experts analyze a business? This session is not about what price at which you buy (or sell). It’s a 50-minute look at how to find out how a company is performing. Using a case study, Zev Siegl shows us how to scan through basic financial information to find hidden gems of insight about the business. Even if you’re not quite ready to buy (or sell), this session gives you tools you can put to work immediately. Promises many ‘aha’ moments for the participants.

Try Our New Online Registration System!

Whatcom Community Education is rolling out a new online registration system that lets you register and pay for classes online. ThinkBiz 2011 is the first of our programs to be enabled!

Use the link below to register and pay for the conference (with VISA or Mastercard) at anytime 24 hours a day. As always, we are here to take your registration in person or by phone at 360.383.3205

Click here to register online