A little help for the budding entrepreneur...

My fall semester of college is getting ready to end (only two finals left and I am free for a month!!), and one of my favorite things to do each week is to grab a copy of our school paper, the East Tennessean. And I bet you can imagine my excitement when I read that the TSBDC is offering training classes for small businesses!

Wait... what is the TSBDC?
It is the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, which is associated with my university AND the SBA! They offer courses and counseling for people who run, or want to run, small businesses. They are also associated with ETSU's college and business and technology!

Well, I called and immediately signed up for two of their courses (I cant take the others because of my silly finals! Dang!). I attended my first of two yesterday, called "So you want to start a small business." I was so pleasently suprised by the class! It was a small class (I was one of 9... and I think I was the youngest there!), and our instructor was friendly and encouraged an open forum... The open forum was fabulous! I was able to ask about getting my sole proprietorship in Tennessee, even though the majority of my sales are out of state.

We also got some cool swag!

We were able to keep the small business workbook, which came with invaluable information, such as local phone numbers, steps to filing paperwork, and help with attempting to get small business loans from banks!
My swag also included a yearly calendar (this is going to be great for tracking my mileage!), a magazine about computers (an interesting read if you are looking to upgrade your devices), and a pamphlet from Google on how to best use Google to your advantage!

So, for all of my budding entrepreneur friends out there, looking to start up their own small businesses, make sure to check out your local SBA branch for classes! My two classes were free to attend, and I gained some very valuable information, as well as getting an opportunity to network!

My second class is next Wednesday, and we will be covering social media... So remember, you can like me on facebook, as well as follow me on twitter! ;o)