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AHANA SELF EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE AND BUSINESS TRAINING PROGRAM
The mission of AHANA is to improve the economic status and enhance the quality of life of AHANA communities through the development of business and employment opportunities. For the past 10 years, we have been providing small business training programs for the Spokane region’s new entrepreneurs: those who are serious about becoming self-employed and starting a new business.
Now, we are offering these services for the entire State of
Washington ! AHANA will assist members through workshops, one-on-one business counseling services, educating and creating access to information and resources.
We offer three options for business training.
First, live training and counseling are available. An AHANA representative can drive or fly to your location if there are at least 10-15 participants.
Second, one-on-one email or phone training and counseling are available.
Third, live, online video training and counseling are available using www.gotomeeting.com. In this case, it may be for an individual, or groups of up to 15 people on individual computers. A computer with a microphone and a good speaker is required.
SESSION 1 – EXPLORATION SESSION
This business start-up session consists of four 3-hour workshops, combined with one-on-one counseling sessions which continue until completion. Session 1 will take two to three weeks depending on the complexity of your business idea and other unforeseen issues.
Module 1: What Makes a Good Entrepreneur & What it Takes to Be a Successful Business Owner: This workshop will initiate discussion on your interest in starting your own business. You will become aware of what is expected of you as a self-employed person or as a business owner, such as the lifestyle, traits, and business savvy. During this session, you will complete a Personal Analysis Report, Business Skills Report and Lifestyle Analysis Report. Any weaknesses from these reports will be isolated and we will discuss ways of overcoming and improving them.
Module 2: The Feasibility of Your Business Idea: This workshop will cover different types of businesses in the market place and their requirements. We will discuss where your business idea fits in, followed by how to assess the feasibility of your business idea. This workshop will also teach you how to analyze and address the strengths and weaknesses of your idea. It will include a self evaluation feasibility worksheet.
Module 3: Understanding and Doing Your Business Financials: This session will cover the basic financial skills and documents that you will need to master in order to develop your new venture. In this workshop, you will start the process of doing your business financials, including start up costs, balance sheet, profit and loss statement, break-even analysis, and cash flow projection. These will also help to plan the feasibility of your business idea.
Module 4: How to do Market Research and Analysis: First, we will discuss how to do market analysis and research. Next, we will explore the resources available for your market research. Finally, we will analyze whether there is a market for you business, and how this affects the feasibility of your business idea.
Business Exploration Assistance (8 hour Business Counseling Session): During the one-on-one counseling sessions, the business counselor will work with you to complete your Personal Analysis, Lifestyle Analysis and Business Skills, and the Feasibility of Your Business Idea worksheets, including completion of the start-up cost of your business and your initial financial projection. At the end of the session, your business counselor will provide you with an evaluation report outlining your strengths and weaknesses and the feasibility of your business idea. The counselor will also recommend ways for you to improve. Then a final Business Evaluation Report will be submitted to your case manager for their decision to allow you to continue to the next session.
SESSION 2 - BUSINESS PLANNING SESSION
Session 2 will be the most time-consuming and labor intensive portion of this training. Each module (except Module 5) will involve one-on-one counseling and possible field trips to the library, the market place and other resource locations.
DEVELOPING THE BUSINESS PLAN- DOING THE ANALYSIS
Module 5: Business Planning: This beginning module discusses what a business plan is, its function, and its importance. In this session, each participant will be given a business plan questionnaire worksheet on which they can start writing down their business ideas as they are related to the elements of the business plan.
Module 6: How to do Your Marketing Plan: This workshop will help you gain an understanding of branding, positioning your business in the minds of your customers, and recruiting and retaining customers. You will start the process of developing a marketing strategy and action plan.
Module 7: Low-Cost, High-Impact Marketing: During this workshop, you will explore out-of-the-box marketing strategies and tactics to help you succeed in the down economy. You will learn a set of marketing principles that compose a “tool kit” which you can utilize for your new venture.
Module 8: Financing Your Business: In this workshop, you will learn about the different ways of financing your business venture. This includes loans and equity, publicly and privately funded agencies, such as the government funded Small Business Association (SBA) guaranteed loans, micro loans, purchase order financing, and factoring. We will also discuss the requirements for these different types of financing.
Market Research Assistance: The Industry, Your Market, Your Customer and Their Needs, and Your Competition (15 hour counseling Session): After Module 7, the business counselor will assist you in the research work of how to analyze your industry’s trends, identify and develop your customer profiles, analyze your market needs and define your competition. You will begin making your customer profile report, become aware of your niche market and start an analysis of your competitors. You will also learn where to find the available resources in the community. This will become the first major analysis for the business plan template. During this session, each participant will develop their own research strategy and action plan.
Customer Survey Assistance (5 hour Counseling Session): This will help the participant design an effective survey format and questions for the target customers. This counseling service includes 1 hour of data analysis after the survey.
Marketing Strategy Assistance (10 hour Counseling Session): After the Market Research Assistance counseling session, each participant will be assisted by a business counselor who will help them develop a marketing strategy and action plan, which are necessary to plan a successful business.
Business Financials Assistance: (10 hour counseling Session): The business counselor will help you prepare your financial statements for your business plan during this session.
Business Planning Assistance: (10 hours counseling Session): After doing the financials, the business counselor will assist the participant in putting all the elements of the business plan together in the business plan template.
Additional hours might be necessary for complex business such as developing the business model and operations.
SESSION 3- RAIN-MAKING SESSION
ADVANCED TRAINING
Session 3 consists of two 3-hour workshops and a 4-6 hour counseling session to assist in setting up your business in order to be on the government radar system, which will enable contracting opportunities. This will include application help for Disadvantage Business Enterprises and the minority/women/disabled veteran certification process.
Module 9: Service Excellence—The Heart of the Matter: This workshop will take you back to what really makes your business special: a personal service relationship with your customers. We will discuss the benefits of knowing your customers well, and having exceptional customer service. Go back to the days of the milkman, who knew all his customers by name! This will not only give greater social value to your company, it will be a great competitive advantage as well.
Module 10: Relationship Marketing: This workshop will go into how to excel in customer services and turn your customers into your business ambassadors in order to expand your business.
Module 11: Procurement and Contracting: This workshop will cover everything from how to do business to business marketing and exploring the opportunities of working with government entities as a protected class of business owners. This will include registering as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprises and as minorities, women and disabled veterans.
Rain-Making Assistance (4-6 hour Business Counseling Session) available.
FOR THE DATES AND TIMES, PLEASE CALL BEN CABILDO AT (509) 209-2634 OR EMAIL HIM AT:
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2010 Unity in the Community |
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A Note on Diversity
Get On Board!
2010 UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY
SPONSORSHIP
OPPORTUNITY
The 2010 Unity In The Community celebration is once again upon us. This eagerly anticipated biggest multi-ethnic cultural event in the Inland Northwest will be held in August, at our beautiful
Riverfront
Park .
Now in its 16th year, this event has been very successful and garnered the support of the entire community. Last year, it drew over 10,000 people from our diverse population. We are once again asking you to join us to ensure further success and expansion. Your financial sponsorship is key our success:
Here are your sponsorship opportunities:
Platinum Corporate Sponsor level for $1500.00. As a Platinum Corporate Sponsor, you company will receive a complimentary booth, recognition in all promotional releases, a stage presence (Banners, brief statement of support)
Gold Corporate Sponsor level for $1000.00. As a Gold Corporate Sponsor, you company will receive a complimentary booth and recognition in all promotional releases and stage recognition.
Corporate Sponsor level for $500.00. As a Corporate Sponsor, you company will receive a complimentary booth and recognition in all promotional releases.
As you know, Unity In the Community is a special day for our children and their families to honor and enjoy the rich heritages that make our community great. This is a special day where children can hear dozens of different languages, and meet other children and adults who've come here from ethnic/cultural and racial communities all over the world. This is a day of playing games, learning from one another, and an opportunity for sharing different cultures.
This wonderful festival at the
Riverfront
Park will feature diverse entertainment, cultural village displays, games, arts, food, and many other activities for children and adults, including a job/Career fair, health screening and more.
As always, most of our proceeds go to worthy causes providing school supplies, safety helmets to our kids and scholarship dollars to support and encourage our students of color to stay to the path of education.
The operational budget for the Unity In the Community Project is $14,000+. Most of these funds are generated from the generous sponsorships and donations of our community members and businesses.
Thank you so much for your consideration and support.
2010 UIC Organizing Committee
Comments/Questions are welcome. Contact Ben Cabildo at www.nwunity.org , email
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or call at (509) 209-2634.
December 18, 2007
BUILDING COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMIES
AHANA & COMMUNITY-MINDED ENTERPRISES PARTNER
AHANA is pleased to announce a new partnership with Community-Minded Enterprises. In joining with
Community-Minded Enterprises, AHANA has teamed up with an organization who is committed to the same
vision and mission of improving the economic status and quality of life of those who are marginalized and
under-represented.
AHANA is a non-profit economic development organization focused on the mission to improve the economic
status and enhance the quality of life of the African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American
communities through the development of business and employment opportunities. For the past eight years,
AHANA has become the single most significant resource for addressing problems faced by minority businesses
and professionals in the Inland Northwest.
Community-Minded Enterprise is a community development organization focused on building sustainable
communities through economic development, diversity and equity, and health and wellness for all.
Community-Minded Enterprises has brought more than $25 million to the
Spokane region to fuel collaborative
community-based solutions to larger national and international issues.
“This partnership allows AHANA to be more effective at running its program. It opens up Ben Cabildo to spend
more timeworking on AHANA’s future,” says Allen Battle, President of AHANA.
Community-Minded Enterprises sees AHANA’s work of supporting minority-owned businesses of tremendous value to the future economic well being of the greater
Spokane area and believes that a vibrant economy includes a rich diversity of entrepreneurs and small business owners. “We need to mount a broader campaign to stimulate the grassroots economy, which means micro-enterprise, micro-lending, all forms of entrepreneur development at the neighborhood level. This partnership is a strong step in that direction,” says Dan Baumgarten, Executive Director at Community-Minded Enterprises.
Community-Minded Enterprises hopes to provide AHANA with greater access to financial and staffing resources and an established organizational infrastructure to allow for broader economic development activities. “We hope to enrich and expand AHANA, not change it,” says Baumgarten.
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A Glimpse of Our Future Economic Growth |
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Economists, national politicians, corporate marketers and others are seeing something that we in Spokane are failing to see.
iron & blood
The Center Emerging Market at the Milken Institute had this to say about the marketplace. "Driven by demographic trends, the U.S. marketplace is under-going dramatic change. America's population is expected to increase by 131 million by 2050, 90% of which will be among ethnic groups- in common parlance, "minorities". Minorities are thus key to the future economic health of the country, and its business community.
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Read more...
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AHANA partners with CME announcement |
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December 18, 2007
BUILDING COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMIES
AHANA & COMMUNITY-MINDED ENTERPRISES PARTNER
AHANA is pleased to announce a new partnership with Community-Minded Enterprises. In joining with
Community-Minded Enterprises, AHANA has teamed up with an organization who is committed to the same
vision and mission of improving the economic status and quality of life of those who are marginalized and
under-represented.
AHANA is a non-profit economic development organization focused on the mission to improve the economic
status and enhance the quality of life of the African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American
communities through the development of business and employment opportunities. For the past eight years,
AHANA has become the single most significant resource for addressing problems faced by minority businesses
and professionals in the Inland Northwest.
Community-Minded Enterprise is a community development organization focused on building sustainable
communities through economic development, diversity and equity, and health and wellness for all.
Community-Minded Enterprises has brought more than $25 million to the
Spokane region to fuel collaborative
community-based solutions to larger national and international issues.
“This partnership allows AHANA to be more effective at running its program. It opens up Ben Cabildo to spend
more timeworking on AHANA’s future,” says Allen Battle, President of AHANA.
Community-Minded Enterprises sees AHANA’s work of supporting minority-owned businesses of tremendous value to the future economic well being of the greater
Spokane area and believes that a vibrant economy includes a rich diversity of entrepreneurs and small business owners. “We need to mount a broader campaign to stimulate the grassroots economy, which means micro-enterprise, micro-lending, all forms of entrepreneur development at the neighborhood level. This partnership is a strong step in that direction,” says Dan Baumgarten, Executive Director at Community-Minded Enterprises.
Community-Minded Enterprises hopes to provide AHANA with greater access to financial and staffing resources and an established organizational infrastructure to allow for broader economic development activities. “We hope to enrich and expand AHANA, not change it,” says Baumgarten.
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