Browse > Home / Archive: January 2010

Do you want to BYOB?

January 26, 2010 by Tammy 

Or in other words, do you want to Be Your Own Boss?  If you are thinking about starting your own business, our workshop on February  3rd is just for you.  Attend the first workshop in the Yakima Valley Entrepreneur Network’s ‘Working Lunch Series’, presented in partnership with SCORE.   If you want to start a business, attend one or all of the sessions to learn what you need to get going.  This class is perfect for you if you want to start a business, but are not sure where to start.  It also includes a brief self-assessment to evaluate your readiness for starting a business.  Workshops are taught by professionals with real-world business experience.

  • Thinking about starting a business?  Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
  • Business Plan Basics, Wednesday, February 17th, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
  • Financing your Business, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
  • Marketing your Business, Wednesday, March 17, 2010.  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Held at the Central Washington Business Resource Center, 10 North 9th Street, Yakima 98901.  Classes are $10.00 each if you pre-register or $15.00 at the door and includes the price of lunch.

Register online or for more information, call Tammy Everts, Business Development Director at 509.575.1140 or email tammy@ycda.com.

Penny for your (original) thoughts

January 20, 2010 by Tammy 

Do you think you’ve got the next great original idea or invention?  This is more difficult than one thinks.  If you think it’s easy, just try to come up with a unique name for a business or website.  Chances are, if you have thought of the next best product, website, retail idea or invention, someone else has too.  I’ve thought I’ve had some one-of-a-kind ideas and talked to people that also have, only to find out upon further research that there is sometimes the exact name or identical product already out there.

It can really be discouraging to the potential business owner to find out another person had their great business name, idea or product that he or she was going to make or sell and become a household name.  The good news is that there are some free tools you can use to search patents, trademarks, business names and more.

These links are just a starting point when it comes to innovation and business assistance.  What are your favorite websites for business resources?

One of our Entrepreneur Network strategies for 2010 is to identify and assist Yakima Valley entrepreneurs, inventors and emerging businesses.  We realize that we can’t recruit a large 500-employer company to the region every year and are making a concentrated effort to ‘grow our own’ companies.  If we can assist ten emerging companies that will grow to 10, 20 or 100+ employees, it will only help to diversify and stabilize our economy.

Stay tuned for more on assisting inventors and entrepreneurs and for more exciting news on our first business plan competition this fall – we’ll have details soon.

Skin in the Game

January 13, 2010 by Tammy 

College basketball season is here and for some reason when teams have similar colors it makes me think back to my junior high days when the boy’s basketball team would scrimmage and teams would be divided up into ‘shirts’ and ‘skins’.  The more I learn about bootstrap financing, the more I’ve heard about  ‘skin in the game’.  This expression is now a business term attributed to the well known investor Warren Buffett referring to a situation in which high-ranking insiders use their own money to buy stock in the company they are running.

If you have started your own business, chances are that you contributed a significant amount of your own ‘skin’ or money into starting your business.  If an owner doesn’t have something invested, there really isn’t much risk at failing.  Bootstrap financing is another buzzword referring to the same concept – as the owner or entreprenuer you need to tap into other resources such as personal savings, family and friends for start-up capital.  The average entrepreneur invests $30,000 of his or her personal funds.  If you’ve tried to get a loan recently, you are well aware that lending regulations have tightened up!

In Washington State, there are some small business loan programs, microloan programs and grants available for start-ups, but these still require an investment  on the part of the business owner.  Also, you will most likely also need a business plan, financial statements and financial projections for any grant or loan application.  There are extremely limited grants available for the average business venture and unless you have some revolutionary product or are working on a high-tech or technology product, grants are even fewer and farther between.

What is your best advice for someone looking for start-up?  Save what you need? Perfect your pitch to try and access venture capital?  Borrow from mom & dad? Max out credit cards?  We’d love to hear what has worked for you and/or important lessons learned.

EDA Grant to Support Entrepreneurship

January 8, 2010 by Tammy 

We were recently notified that we secured a $100,000 federal grant to support our entrepreneur initiative.  The United States Economic Development Agency (EDA) grant will help us take the Yakima Valley Entrepreneur Network to the next level.  We plan to organize an initiative for inventors and stage two business plan competitions in 2010-2011.  The funds will also allow us to offer special business seminars and help ensure that the initiative works throughout Yakima County.  Our team is quite pleased with how much has been accomplished in our first year and now we have significant new resources to sustain our emerging business initiative.  Stay tuned for more news and updates about New Vision’s entrepreneur network and for contest details.  Check out the video "Help for Entrepreneurs" on KAPP TV’s website. 

If you have any questions or suggestions surrounding this initiative please contact me at 509-575-1140 or Tammy@ycda.com.