ISU/EDC Business Incubator

presents

So You Want to Start Your Own Business? Seminar

A free community seminar for understanding the process of starting a business

Thursday, September 23rd, 7:00–8:30 P.M.
Uptown Normal Heartland Bank Community Room (4th floor)

Have you dreamed of being your own boss? Do you have a passion that could be turned into a business? Owning a business is the dream of many people – for some people this is an exciting and rewarding adventure, but for others, starting and running their own venture is a bad choice. The reality is that most businesses will be out of business in less than five years after they get started- and most of these because they failed. The sad truth of the matter is that most of these business failures can be avoided.

Kelly Mathy, owner of Kelly’s Bakery and Cafe in Bloomington, and Andy Scott, owner of Energistics: High Performance Energy Efficient Home Solutions, will discuss their experiences of starting and operating small businesses and provide insight and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Space is limited: Register in advance by contacting Brooke Weishaupt at (309) 452-8437 or brooke@bnbiz.org.

The Business Incubator is a joint initiative of Illinois State University and the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area. The concept of the incubator is to encourage local economic development by assisting a wide variety of early-stage companies in their growth and maturity through direct assistance, consultation, mentoring/coaching and educational services.

Please join us to celebrate Central Illinois at a REGIONAL COLLABORATION SUMMIT on Friday, October 8th from 8-11:00 a.m. at the Marriott Bloomington-Normal Hotel and Conference Center (201 Broadway, Normal).

 

Hear from:

• Dr. Allen Goben, President of Heartland Community College
• Dr. Janet Krejci, Dean, Illinois State University’s Mennonite College of Nursing
• Mike Baker, Planning Manager, Illinois Dept. of Commerce & Economic Opportunity
• Rex Duncan, Director of Community Development & Outreach, Southern Illinois University

and learn more about CIRCLE!

 

Please RSVP by Sept. 24th to Cheryl Harvey at (309) 452-8437 or cheryl@bnbiz.org.
There is no charge to attend; however, registration is required as seating is limited. Buffet breakfast included.

Click here for more information about CIRCLE.

 

This event is sponsored by: 
Illinois Dept. of Commerce & Economic Opportunity
Grand Victoria Foundation
Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area

The 2010 Community Leaders Breakfast will take place Thursday, November 4th at 7:30 a.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel & Conference Center in Bloomington. Our keynote speaker will be Ted C. Fishman, bestselling author of China, Inc. and Shock of Gray.

Sponsoring the event is an excellent way to show support for our community and to get your company’s name in front of several key community leaders. This event typically attracts over 600 attendees!

 

Sponsorship Levels:

PLATINUM- $2,500
As a platinum sponsor your company or organization will receive the following:

• A table for 10 people
• Recognition in the event program (large logo)
• Recognition both before and after the program on two large meeting screens
• You will have a Premium location in all print advertisements

 

GOLD- $1,200
As a gold sponsor your company or organization will receive the following:

• A table for 10 people
• Recognition in the event program (small logo)
• Recognition both before and after the program on two large meeting screens

 

SILVER- $600
As a silver sponsor your company or organization will receive the following:

• A table for 10 people
• Recognition in the event program (name only)

To become a sponsor, contact Cathy Milligan at cathy@bnbiz.org or by calling (309) 452-8437.

To download a registration form, click here. You can also pay by Visa, MC or Discover by calling Cathy Milligan at (309) 452-8437.

 

About the Speaker:
Ted C. Fishman is a veteran journalist and former commodities trader who has emerged as a leading expert on the People’s Republic of China and its development as a world power. In his writing, Fishman is noted for taking seemingly complex topics – particularly how global economic trends influence people’s everyday experiences – and making them understandable and meaningful for a general audience. In his bestselling book, China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World, Fishman describes the effects of China’s recent emergence as a world power on the lives and businesses of people across the globe. In addition to success of China, Inc. in America, the book has been translated into 25 languages and is an international bestseller.

Fishman’s latest book, Shock of Gray: The Aging of the World’s Population and How it Pits Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival, and Nation Against Nation, will be launched as one of the lead titles from Scribner Books in the fall of 2010. The book, which will also be published in several foreign language editions, discusses how the aging of the world’s population drives globalization. It looks at how age demographics inform the exchanges between the U.S., Europe, Japan and growing China. In an early review, Kirkus Reviews calls Shock of Gray “a timely wake-up call.”

Ted C. Fishman has been featured on ABC, CNN, Fox, the BBC, CNBC, PBS, NPR, Public Radio International, and Sky News (UK), among many others. Fishman also frequently consults local, state and federal leaders concerned about how to navigate China’s economic rise. A former floor trader and member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he ran his own trading firm until 1992. He has been a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity and a faculty director and lecturer with programs for global executives through Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

Fishman’s essays and reports appear in many of the world’s most prominent journals, including The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Money, Harper’s, Worth, INC, Esquire, USA Today, GQ, The Sunday Times (London) and Chicago Magazine, and his commentaries have been featured on Public Radio International’s Marketplace.

You’re cordially invited to attend a reception honoring our 2010 Circles of Seven graduates on Thursday, June 10th from 5-7 p.m. at Central Station Cafe in Bloomington.

At the event, we will also be holding an informational session regarding the 2010-2011 C7 program. For more information about the next round, click here.

Congratulations to our 2010 C7 graduates:

Erik Barnlund – Mavidea Technology Group, LLC

Martha Burk – Main Gallery 404, Inc.

Jim Carroll – Churchill’s Formalwear

Hombre Darby – News & Views for the Young at Heart

Chuck Fisher – Fisher Driving School

Peg Hayden – Blooming Grove Academy

Cathy Heissler – Learning for Tomorrow, Inc.

Amy Hyunh – Le Bow Wow Club, Inc.

Chad Jones – CJ Photo

Brad Kalavitinos – Le Scent Studio

Maria Kemp – Decadence Bakery & Pastries

Paul Komar – American Business Solutions

Rosemary Komar – American Diversity Business Solutions

David McCloud – The Organic Cleaning Machine, Inc.

Chad Ritchie – Ritchie Law Office

 

From April 17th through April 23rd, classes will be held in a dozen different locations around Bloomington-Normal to promote financial literacy as part of a community-wide program called Money Smart Week®.   Money Smart Week offers classes to anyone from the public that has an interest in learning about money matters.   The best part about Money Smart Week is that these classes are free to the public.  How smart is that?

Money Smart Week was created by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank in order to promote personal financial literacy in the overall population.  While the program is just a decade old, it has already spread throughout the Midwest, and new cities are added every subsequent year.  Money Smart Week topics typically run the gamut from basic financial literacy all the way through complex investing strategies and retirement planning.

The EDC will be offering a series of three classes specifically focused on business financing on Friday, April 23rd in the community room on the 4th floor of the Heartland Bank building at 200 W. College Ave., Normal.  The first class, which starts at 2:00 PM, will cover topics related to financing a start-up.  The second class, which starts at 3:00 PM, will be devoted to financing business expansions.  The third, beginning at 4:00 PM, will be a general seminar on resources available to businesses in McLean County.  Representatives from the Illinois Small Business Development Center, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Central Illinois SCORE will also participate in these courses.

To see more details on these classes and the rest of the great MSW offerings for 2010, make sure you check out the MSW Web site at  www.moneysmartweek.org/illinois. Money Smart Week is a registered service mark of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

If you are unaware of the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area’s One Voice program, you may be missing out on a very important opportunity. One Voice is our government advocacy program in which we support local projects in their quests for federal funding. Each year, the One Voice task force (comprised of local government, business, education, labor and other community leaders) convenes several meetings where local municipalities/educational institutions/other community organizations present projects for which they are requesting federal appropriations. The One Voice task force chooses 4-6 projects to officially support for the year. Each March, the EDC and a group of 30+ community leaders travel together to Washington, D.C. in order to present these projects to our elected officials and advocate for their financial support.

One Voice, now entering its 5^th year, has become well-known by our congressional delegation and is often referred to as a “best practice” for seeking federal appropriations. To date, we have helped local entities secure over $2.5 million in federal funding (over $24.5 million with the recent TIGER grant allocated to the Town of Normal for the Multi-Modal Transportation Center).

Due to the rising popularity of this program, we are changing the way we manage the One Voice project submittal process. For the 2011 One Voice program and beyond, all applicant projects will need to go through a screening and development process in conjunction with the EDC. EDC staff will now be working with each entity submitting a project to develop a rigorous and objective “argument” for every project. This argument will include a full analysis of the project’s potential economic development impacts, its risks, feasibility and financial picture. The outcome will be a comparative report for each proposed project for the One Voice Task Force’s review. The EDC believes our new process will ultimately provide our elected officials with better-vetted projects with stronger arguments and objective metrics.

Because this process will be much more involved than in prior years, the deadline for project submission has been moved forward. The EDC highly recommends that all entities seeking to submit a project for the 2011 year attend an informational session to be held on Wednesday, April 14^th, 2010 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. in the Heartland Bank & Trust (formerly Bank of Illinois) Community Room (200 W. College Ave., Uptown Normal – Parking is available in the deck next to the building.) This session will detail the steps required by the new process and will give potential applicants a chance to ask questions of EDC staff. All potential One Voice projects must be submitted to the EDC by August 1, 2010 in order to be considered for the 2011 Washington, D.C. trip – NO EXCEPTIONS.

Please RSVP for the informational session to Brooke Weishaupt at brooke@bnbiz.org or 309-452-8437 by Monday, April 12^th.

EDC NAMES RICHARD EIKENBERG ONE VOICE SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT

The EDC recently awarded a local college student the opportunity to participate in its 2010 One Voice Washington, D.C. trip. Paige Maynard, a junior at Illinois Wesleyan University and originally from Granite City, is the 2010 Richard Eikenberg One Voice Scholarship recipient.

The scholarship, named in honor of past EDC chair Richard Eikenberg, is awarded each year to a college student from one of four EDC investor schools: Heartland Community College, Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University and Lincoln College – Normal. The EDC recently held a cocktail reception fundraiser which raised enough money to send one student on the trip, all expenses paid.

“We are very happy to be able to continue this scholarship program,” said Brooke Weishaupt, One Voice program manager. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a student to network with local leaders and discuss current issues in federal legislation with the decision-makers themselves.”

The selection process was based on applicants’ responses to essay questions regarding local economic development projects, volunteer/civic engagement experience and their personal interest in the trip opportunity. The top three finalists were then interviewed.

About One Voice:
One Voice, under the leadership of the EDC, is a pro-community campaign that has brought together leaders from the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, McLean County, rural municipalities, labor, local educational institutions and local private businesses. These groups form the One Voice Task Force. Each year, the One Voice Task Force chooses local projects to support in their quests for federal funding. In the spring, the Task Force travels to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Bloomington-Normal area’s congressional delegation and show them the community stands united in support of the projects. The goal of the campaign is to make McLean County a stronger economic force and a better place to live. The 2010 trip will take place March 9-11.

About the EDC:
The EDC is a private, not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to help businesses in McLean County grow and to attract new businesses to the community. The EDC is a leadership organization, investing the community’s assets to grow and improve its prosperity and quality of life.

COCKTAIL EVENT TO BENEFIT ONE VOICE SCHOLARSHIP

Each year, the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area gives one local college student the opportunity of a lifetime – a chance to travel to Washington, D.C. to network with local leaders and discuss current issues in federal government with the decision-makers themselves. The Richard Eikenberg One Voice Scholarship, created in 2008 and named after the EDC’s board chair at the time, is awarded to a college student from an EDC-investor school (Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Heartland Community College and Lincoln College-Normal). The scholarship covers all expenses of the trip, from flight and hotel to all meals and events.
On Wednesday, Feb. 10, the EDC will be hosting a cocktail reception to raise money for the Richard Eikenberg One Voice Scholarship Fund. The event will run from 5:00-7:30 p.m. at the Bank of Illinois in Uptown Normal (200 W. College Ave.).

Ticket Information:
Tickets are $50/person, $75/couple or $200/group of five. To purchase tickets or to make a donation, call the EDC at (309) 452-8437.

About One Voice:
One Voice, under the leadership of the EDC, is a pro-community campaign that has brought together leaders from the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, McLean County, labor, local educational institutions and local private businesses. These groups form the One Voice task force.  Each year, the One Voice task force chooses local projects to support in their quests for federal funding.  Each spring, the task force travels to Washington, D.C. to meet with our congressional delegation and show them our community stands united in support of the projects.  The goal of the campaign is to make McLean County a stronger economic force and a better place to live. This year’s trip will take place Mar. 9-11.

The Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area is a private, not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to help businesses in McLean County grow and to attract new businesses to the community. The EDC is a leadership organization, investing the community’s assets to grow and improve its prosperity and quality of life.

For more information about the EDC or its One Voice program, visit www.bnbiz.org.

Central Illinois SCORE and the Central Illinois Chapter of the Institute of Management Accounting (CICIMA) are presenting a course in Mastering QuickBooks. This series of three classes will be conducted by CICIMA. CPAs, using QuickBooks, will guide participants through all aspects of accouting transactions necessary to start and to keep a business running. By the end of the workshop, participants will be familiar with how an accounting software package can save time and help organize business finances. Time will be allowed to work on individual needs.

Where: Farm Bureau Building, 402 N. Hershey Rd., Bloomington

When: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. on Jan. 13, Jan. 27 and Feb. 10 (special follow-up/make-up class on Feb. 24)

Cost: $30 payable in advance covers all three sessions. Class limited to 30 attendees.

To register: Contact Dorothy Kennett at (309) 826-6771 or dkenne2@ilstu.edu

Note: Bringing a laptop with fully-charged battery and your copy of QuickBooks software is optional but will allow opportunity for personalized coaching.

Are your staff training and continuous improvement programs failing to meet your expectations? Do your supervisors, managers, and team leaders need improvement in their human resources skills? Is employee turnover plaguing your productivity? In today’s tough business environment, companies are being asked to produce more with fewer people. One proven approach to overcoming these challenges is to ensure that supervisors and team leaders – anyone who directs the activities of others – can drive standard work and get results more quickly.

Training Within Industry (TWI) is a standardized program that addresses the essential needs of leadership. It’s an employee development methodology that companies across the U.S. are utilizing to enable frontline personnel to help establish a culture for change, improve performance, and facilitate standardized work. With TWI, companies realize immediate changes in productivity, employee retention, waste reduction, and cost avoidance.

Executive Briefing
January 28, 2010
8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
PeoriaNEXT
801 W. Main St., Peoria

There is no cost to attend, and breakfast will be provided. Go to www.imec.org and click on the Events page or call IMEC at 888-806-4632. For more information, contact Donna Arras at 618-558-8095 or darras@imec.org.