Events for June 2021

Every store, restaurant and town in Virginia should plan a reopening celebration to welcome everyone back to shopping, dining and buying local.

Your reopening event can be part of a larger town celebration such as a summer festival or 4th of July party. Or it can be an event just for your store or Main Street.

Hosting any kind of event requires planning and organization. Chances are it’s been a while since you planned an in-person event and now you’ll need to consider extra details to ensure you follow social distancing, masking, and other COVID-19 safety measures.

Join Marc Willson of the Virginia SBDC to talk about planning and hosting a celebration event in Summer 2021.

Join us and learn how to create and/or better manage your WordPress website!

Are you looking for a simple, yet effective website to use for your business?

WordPress might be a good option! In this workshop, we’ll cover “the basics” on creating and updating a WordPress site, including:

· User management

· Page creation and editing

· Image and video uploads

· Plugin management

· Linking to social media

Cyber Awareness training for small businesses is vital! Businesses are encouraged to invite members of their team to learn about the basics of cyber awareness and training. This webinar is presented twice. Please register for the session that best works with your schedule. The information covered is identical in both sessions.

Join us if you’re interested in pivoting more of your efforts to ONLINE SALES.

This session will cover:

· The variety of websites available, the possibilities for upgrading yours to better accommodate online sales and the estimated costs to accomplish this!

· The various e-commerce platforms available and how to select the best based on your specific business needs.

· How to setup and manage your online storefront or service portal and how to use data and marketing to maximize returns.

Join Kathy O'Keefe and Chris Van Orden, along with the Alexandria SBDC and Virginia SBDC Network, in this session on the supply chain.

For many, bare toilet paper shelves and “one per customer” restrictions on eggs in 2020 shone a spotlight on supply chains for the first time. Less visible were the disruptions in non-consumer sectors and the impacts on a variety of other businesses. Relatedly, there has been ongoing conversations about reshoring in the wake of the pandemic.

What does all of this mean for small businesses that are looking for ways to future-proof their supply chains? In this session, participants will consider what they can do to make their businesses more resilient to future disruptions.