These workshops were initially developed as the educational component for participants of the YellowTruck Market retail incubator program focusing on honing skills entrepreneurs need to successfully launch a small business. From the inception ALL Washington County small businesses were invited to attend the free educational sessions.
Kim Davis, Owner of Krafty Inc and participant of the YellowTruck Market retail incubator program says, “The educational classes have provided lots of information about small business and running a business in general. Classes have been a relief to a business just starting out. Classes that otherwise would cost hundreds of dollars have been provided so that money invested could be spent elsewhere putting back into the business. It’s great to see the community investing into my business and wanting it to succeed.”
Due to the success of these workshops, the
Brenham|Washington County Economic Development team wants to encourage
participation from businesses county wide by emphasizing that sessions are open
to all. Therefore, future branding of the Small Business & Entrepreneur
Series will shift away from the YellowTruck logo, although participation in
the series remains a requirement for incubator participants.
Doug Peck, a local business owner, has attended numerous sessions. He mentioned, “I found the educational classes that I've attended to be very useful in my continuing education. The opportunity to meet on Tuesday evenings for a short session with a focused intent has been very effective.”
Over the past five sessions, a total of 83 participants attended, all representing small businesses in our community. Previous sessions covered ‘Digital Marketing Strategy and Business Growth’, ‘Business and Sales Tax, Legal Entities, Contracting Employees’, ‘Sales Tax Collection and Payment,” ‘Social Media 101 and Digital Marketing’, and an interactive two part series of ‘QuickBooks Online’.
Upcoming topics include – how to write a business plan, customer service, marketing strategy, merchandise photography to promote online sales, accessing financing, and more. Sessions are held on the second Tuesday of each month, unless otherwise noted.
“I’ve walked away from every education class with more tools added to my toolkit. I’m definitely excited that I went, and I can’t wait to attend more classes.” Quoted from Sabrina Cole, who is a member of the community and works at the Brenham Heritage Museum.
Brenham|Washington County Economic Development is excited to expand this Small Business & Entrepreneur Series through a partnership with the Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library (NCRML). Idalia Avenzuela joined NCRML earlier this year and while she is a highly credentialed librarian, Idalia is also an entrepreneur with a passion for supporting other small businesses! Future sessions will be held at the library.
"The retail Incubator is a wonderful initiative, and we are very excited to be able to provide a meeting space and assistance. I believe that small businesses are the backbone of the economy, and the library is committed to supporting small business initiatives by providing resources, meeting spaces, and technology to enable their growth. This partnership will reinforce the Incubator program, and the results will in the end help strengthen the Brenham economy," states Idalia Avezuela, Librarian at Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library.
The most recent session was held on Tuesday, March 8th from 6:30pm – 8pm. Our special guest speakers were Leigh Linden and Courtney Swanson of the Brand It Graphix marketing team. Leigh and Courtney discussed ways of exploring with our entrepreneurs how to define their business niche and giving a hands-on, step-by-step guide for setting up Google My Business accounts.
Read full press release here from the City here.
Our next session will be April 12th – dates are subject to change pending speaker availability.
Want to know about future sessions? You can follow our Facebook page @BrenhamWashCoEcoDev or webpage https://brenhamed.com/about-us/news for announcements!
Would you like to be added to our email blast about each session? Send an email to economicdev@cityofbrenham.org. We send out monthly emails announcing the next session.
For those interested in presenting future workshops or sponsoring a workshop please email Erica Warren at ewarren@cityofbrenham.org.
