CURRICULUM 

The goal of 10,000 Small Businesses at LaGuardia Community College is to help business owners gain practical skills and ideas to help their businesses grow and create jobs in their communities.  The classes will enable business owners to recognize new opportunities and embrace practices that will increase business success.

10,000 Small Businesses will run from June 22, 2012 through October 6, 2012 and will launch and conclude with learning sessions held over Fridays and Saturdays. Sessions will meet from 8:30 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.  There will be a three week period in between Friday  and Saturday sessions. All classes will be held at LaGuardia Community College’s campus.

Classroom activities will be complemented by an integrated portfolio of business services that will help business owners translate newly acquired knowledge into management practice. Business services will include one-on-one business advising, professional services reviews.

A detailed overview of the curriculum is available as a PDF and includes:

Module 1 A&B: You and Your Business. Our opening module will orient participants to the 10,000 Small Businesses program and allow faculty, business owners, and business service providers to connect with each other while learning more about entrepreneurial skill sets and the entrepreneurial economy of the region. We will discuss the outcomes of participant's business assessments and dig into the ideas behind how to create and act upon a growth plan. As part of our first session we will hear from a panel of entrepreneurs on their approach to growing businesses, their use of local business assistance resources, and the relationship between their business and family lives.

Module 2: Growth & Opportunities. During our second module we will explore different strategies for growing a successful small business. Participants will learn about the elements of a highly impactful growth plan and how the program's coursework and support services will enable them to complete and implement such a plan. We will work through a series of exercises on identifying and evaluating business opportunities and conclude with a clinic designed to strengthen participant's networking skills.

Module 3: Money and Metrics. Financial literacy is essential for growing your business. You must understand your company's financial statements, how they relate to each other, and how they can help you set goals, benchmark progress and grow your revenue and bottom line. In this module we review financial statement basics and then develop analyses and forecasting methods to plan and monitor your business growth.

Module 4: You are the Leader. Most small business owners are looking for a path to becoming a more strategic and effective leader for their business. In this module, participants take part in a simulation to better understand their personal leadership style and receive feedback on entrepreneurial approaches to different leadership styles. Participants then negotiate through a set of interactive business cases.

Module 5: It's the People. High-growth small businesses frequently attribute their success to the quality and dedication of their people. This module will help participants to hire, develop, and retain talented individuals who can help them grow their businesses. We use a number of exercises to explore the role of organizational culture and human capital management on jumpstarting business growth and then work with participants to incorporate new practices in the design and implementation of their business growth plans.

Module 6: Marketing & Selling. Sales, selling, and the management of the whole marketing system are critical aspects of business growth. This module focuses on how to understand the nature of customer relations, markets, and the competition. In partnership with local and national business service providers we recap the fundamentals of sales and marketing and then explore various international and governmental procurement opportunities. This module includes exercises that allow participants to improve their personal selling skills and a panel to discuss social media-based marketing.

Module 7: Being Bankable. In this module, we review the different types of financing available, discuss the steps to obtain financial capital through each, and help participants understand which funding sources are most appropriate for their businesses and how they can become more bankable. Fundamental business valuation techniques are also examined as a possible metric to assess a company's growth prospects. This module will be supported by a panel of local bankers and financial service providers.

Module 8: Strategic Growth Through Operations. Small business owners frequently lament that they do not know how to effectively implement their growth strategies because "everything needs to be done at once." The final modules of the 10,000 Small Businesses curriculum help participants to organize and sequence the various aspects of their growth plans to prepare for successful implementation. This module emphasizes operations, including work flows and logistics, to help participants better analyze what their business are, what they can be, and how to bridge that gap.

Module 9A: Pulling It All Together, Part I. Realizing that entrepreneurship does not have to be a lonely endeavor can be a freeing experience for small business owners. In this session we introduce the role of external business advisors (e.g. mentors, consultants, advisory boards) and explore best practices for accessing and implementing their advice. The module concludes with a panel of external advisors who will describe their services and interact with participants.

Module 9B: Pulling It All Together, Part II. During the final session of the 10,000 Small Businesses curriculum, participants will have the opportunity to present their growth plans and receive feedback from their business advisors and peers as they hone and prepare to implement their strategies. We also will discuss the role of small businesses in the regional economy and ways in which participants might assume leadership roles in strengthening the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem moving forward.