StartUp Nation "Elevator Pitch" Contest
Winning businesses receive one-hour meeting with top-tier investors and a Toshiba Satellite Pro S300 laptop, plus a one-year GoToMeeting account.Deadline to apply: Video pitches by March 20Details: www.startupnation.com/elevator-pitch-2009
American Security Challenge
Six winners will present their business plans for national security technologies during the American Security Challenge event in Washington, D.C. Top prize is $100,000.Deadline: Executive summaries by March 30Details:
www.americansecuritychallenge.com
Inc. 500/5000
ListTop companies will be featured in Inc. magazine and the Inc.com Web site, and are invited to the Inc. 500/5000 conference in New York, among other opportunities.Deadline to apply: Applications by March 31.Details: www.inc.com/5000
How to build a powerful business network
Who cares how many people are in your LinkedIn network? What really matters is the strength of your bonds to people who can help you achieve your mission, writes executive coach Scott Eblin. To do that takes smart network management, which Eblin distills into five rules. Among them: Clearly declare your intentions and make your requests specific. The Next Level Blog
Do Your Employees Pass This “Easy” Etiquette Audit? by Jodi Smith
Believe it or not, the etiquette consulting field is a recessionary business. Think about it, when you have a choice between two restaurants, both in the same area, both in the same price range, both with solid menus, and one makes you feel like Norm walking into Cheers when you come through the door and the other can barely be bothered to take down your name as you wait for a table… The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
Campus Life….
Get the word out!
Incubator Clients, let us help promote your success! I am sure that many of you have seen the weekly articles in the Free Press featuring client companies. Well, that support is just one of many ways we can help get the word out about your business. We have a close working relationship with the Daily Sentinel and the local TV news stations as well. We have recently updated our website (www.gjincubator.org) and would love post videos, stories, pictures, snippets, or blurbs about your business. Please send any news you have to creddin@gjincubator.org.
Client Company Lunch
Topic: ‘da Economy
Speaker: Chris Reddin will share data from various recent presentations on the health of the economy
Date: Tuesday, March 17 at noon in the training room
Food: Catering by Decadence
What Matters Most: Values-Based Approach to Time and Life Management
Achieve what matters most and gain better control of your personal and professional life through values-based time and life management skills. What Matters Most is adapted from the work of Steven Covey, a recognized expert in time and life management. This class will help you focus on your personal values and priorities, then execute around those priorities. The principles and processes we’ll discuss can help set your course for a more successful and fulfilling life. Cost: $69.
When: Tuesday, April 7 from 8:30 AM - 12:00pm
Social Networking for Business: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more
Social networks are an increasingly important way to build customer relationships, expand your contact database and increase your company's visibility on the web. Understanding these new tools is especially valuable in a down economy. On Wednesday, April 15, from 6 to 9 p.m. at The Business Incubator Center, Andrew BE of Elegant Technologies Limited will lead a Social Networking workshop to demonstrate how these networks can be used as build your "brand".
At the workshop, you will learn how to use social networks to cultivate contacts, establish relationships with potential customers, build profiles to become more "findable," and hone search techniques and strategies. Cost: $35.
When: Thursday April 16 from 6:00 - 9:00pm
Join us on LinkedIn
Collaboration amongst peers is one of the most important benefits to being part of the Business Incubator Center community. To help enrich this aspect of the program, we would like to suggest that if you are not already a user of the social networking site LinkedIn, please consider joining! The Business Incubator Center now has a group on LinkedIn, and we would like to invite all of you to join us. The more people who are in the group, the more valuable a resource it will become to the Business Incubator Center community. As the community grows, you will be able to find colleagues who may be in similar industries or facing similar growth issues, and it will serve as just one more way that the community can help businesses grow and prosper.
The Business Incubator Centerhttp://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1554637/
To learn more about how to use LinkedIn to help grow your business go to: http://learn.linkedin.com/entrepreneurs/
TOASTMASTERS: Become the Speaker & Leader You Want to Be
Join us as the downtown Toastmasters meeting moves to the Incubator Campus! Toastmasters participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian. There is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved.
Good communicators tend to be good leaders. Incubator Clients are welcome! Attend a meeting or two to observe and participate as much as you like, but membership is required for additional participation.
When: Every Thursday at noon
Where: in the Training Room
The GYM is open!
The Business Incubator Center is excited to open a gym on campus that will provide all Incubator Client Companies and their Staff the opportunity to meet their fitness goals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more details or to get a guided tour of our 540 sf facility, contact Kjersti (khudson@gjincubator.org ) or Katie at the front desk. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2009!
Video Lab Training Session
Topic: Learn to use the new video lab…and make better use of your website.
When: Call Chris to schedule a time
Where: in the video lab on the second floor of the technology building
