Do you want to grow your existing business or have questions as an aspiring entrepreneur?
The Aurora-South Metro Small Business Development Center (SBDC) can help.
The SBDC offers free and confidential virtual consulting by appointment, free and low-cost training, and can connect you with a variety of small business resources and appropriate current funding options.
Serving Arapahoe and Douglas Counties
The Aurora-South Metro SBDC is part of the Colorado SBDC Network, a nationally accredited program, and has a mission to help existing and new small businesses grow and prosper. The city of Aurora is host to the SBDC and serves small businesses not only in Aurora, but throughout Arapahoe, Douglas and south Jefferson counties.
If launching a new business, your first step is to become knowledgeable about the basics of running your own business.
The SBDC offers the FREE webinar "Fired Up: I Want to Start a Business!". It is offered one or two times a month and is required prior to one-on-one virtual consulting. Please pre-register at www.Aurora-SouthMetroSBDC.com/training.
Consulting with Aurora-SouthMetro SBDC can address such topics as:
* Strategic Business Planning * Funding Options
* Cash Flow Analysis and Sales Projections * Operations
* Manufacturing * Creation of a Marketing Plan
* Social Media Presence * Branding
* Certification and Government Contracting * Bidding on Government Contracts
* Pricing of Products and Services * Buy/Sell Analysis and Acquisition Due Diligence
* Brick-and-Mortar or Home-Based Assistance * Child Care Businesses
* Cooperatives * Cultural and Policy Strategies
* Import/Export Compliance * International Trade Research and Strategies
* Training on and Review of Business Plans And much more!
Our consulting services are conducted by a team of entrepreneurs and industry experts, and best of all, consulting is FREE.
Sign up as a client of the SBDC at no charge: www.Aurora-SouthMetroSBDC.com/consulting.
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Before Trunk even had a name, we met with Aurora-South Metro SBDC to review our finances to make sure that we were liquid enough to open this new venture...
The SBDC helped us trim and tuck, with reserves in place for growth. -- Stephanie Shearer and Chris Bacorn, Owners, Trunk Nouveau
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For up-to-date services and training programs, please sign up for the SBDC's monthly e-newsletter either from the
SBDC home page or the Contact Us page (scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email). You may opt out at any time.
Eager to learn more? With the help of the Aurora-South Metro SBDC, your goal to grow your business or your dream of owning a business can become a reality. In the meantime, there are additional helpful resources:
- Browse the Colorado Business Resource Book by topic, everything from choosing a business entity to learning about copyright, trademarks and patents.
- The SBDC is partially funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, a federal agency. Many small business tips may be found at www.sba.gov.
- There are many more resources listed here.
The Business Plan
- The SBDC offers training and consulting related to creating your rough draft plan. The series:
"Start-Up Essentials" defines the basics of a business plan, including operations, marketing, cash flow projections and evaluating your overall business model. Consultants will review each aspect of your draft plan to help refine it at no charge.
Register for the four-part series here.
- Explore various business planning tools at www.bplan.com.
- Link to the SBDC's
three-page business plan outline here.
Taxes
- Find federal tax information for businesses at the
IRS website.
- The Colorado Department of Revenue offers free business tax classes, covering compliance topics and essential tax processes and tools.
- For local tax, contact the municipality in which you do business. For
Aurora businesses, contact the
Tax & Licensing Office.