Continuing Training and Education for your Business
The Pickens Small Business Resource Fair
On February 24, 2014, the City of Pickens and the PRA hosted its first annual Small Business Resource Fair. At this lunch-and-learn event in an available downtown commercial building, presentations were given by area professionals on business planning resources, risk management and insurance, local commercial real estate, finance, and marketing. This event will be held annually in Pickens and with the goal of growing and serving as much of the local business community as possible. For more information, contact the PRA.
Free and Low-Cost Business Training Workshops
The Clemson Area Small Business Development Center (SBDC) offers free and low cost training seminars on a regular basis. In close proximity to Pickens, these seminars cover a wide variety of both early stage and advanced level business topics. See the following SBDC webpage for the upcoming workshop schedule. Nearby Tri County Technical College (TCTC) also offers a wide variety of business courses and training. In fact, TCTC teams up with SBDC and SCORE on a monthly basis to provide a free workshop for business start-ups. Visittctc.edu/smallbusiness.
Free Webinars and On-Line Training through SBA.gov
Take advantage of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s free Learning Center. The Learning Center includes well over 100 on-line courses, videos, and archived “business chats” led by experts. Highly specific topics are covered under the headings of Starting a Business, Managing a Business, Financing, Marketing, and Government Contracting. Most of these outstanding, free training sessions can be completed in 30 minutes or so.
SCMEP is an outstanding private, non-profit resource for small to mid-size South Carolina businesses. It helps small to mid-size companies improve their competitiveness. It provides a great deal of hands-on consulting and training services, but the core of its business improvement services is the no cost, one-day “Competitiveness Review”.