The Astella Development Corporation and Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) are partnering to present a six-week course, Start a Successful Business: What You Need to Know, beginning February 15 in Coney Island.
The series of entrepreneur training workshops will be held every Wednesday evening from 6:30-9:30 p.m. through March 22 at You Gotta Believe!, 1728 Mermaid Avenue at West 19th Street, side entrance.
The fee is $149, with $49 required at registration and the balance required on or before the first night of class.
“This six-week course is designed to give people the tools they need to start a small business,” said Judi Orlando, executive director of the Astella Development Corporation, based in Coney Island. “Our organization has offered entrepreneur training classes in the past, but this is the first time we've partnered with BEDC and tapped into BEDC's training curriculum and expertise.”
“BEDC is delighted to be collaborating with Astella on this workshop and to be presenting it on Mermaid Avenue, which will make it more convenient for people living in Brooklyn's southern neighborhoods such as Coney Island, Canarsie, Bensonhurst, and Brighton Beach,” said Joan Bartolomeo, president of BEDC. “For the last 14 years more than 800 individuals have participated in BEDC's intensive entrepreneur training classes and I'm pleased to report that many have gone on to start successful businesses.”
The course will be taught by Sydney Wayman, an entrepreneur, frequent instructor for BEDC's entrepreneur training classes, and winner of the 2nd Annual PowerUP! Business Plan Competition presented in 2005 by the Brooklyn Public Library's Business Library.
“Generally I'm finding through my classes that more people want to become self-employed today than in the past, including women and slightly older and younger individuals,” Wayman said. “Participants are looking at entrepreneurship as a way to achieve financial independence or supplement their income, and I'm happy to help them learn how to reach their goals.”
The curriculum will include the following business start-up essentials and steps that participants must take to realize their entrepreneurial dreams:
· Defining the business concept.
Assessing the business concept's market opportunity.
Creating an effective and efficient marketing plan.
Determining what it will cost to open the doors.
Determining what it will cost to keep the doors open.
Setting up and maintaining an effective record keeping system.
Assessing the competition and competitive advantage.
Understanding financing options.
Putting it all together into an effective business plan.
Start a Successful Business: What You Need to Know is being co-sponsored by You Gotta Believe!, the Coney Island Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, Councilman Domenic Recchia, Assemblywoman Adele Cohen, and State Senator Diane Savino, and funded in part by a grant from the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation.
To register, contact Georganna Deas of the Astella Development Corporation at 718-266-4653.
