FastTrac Growth Venture Entrepreneur Education Program offered

FASTRAC GROWTH: The Small Business Development Center will present FastTrac Growth Venture Entrepreneur Education Program from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 15 through March 18, at the offices of Jackson Kelly PLLC, 1600 Laidley Tower, 500 Lee St. in Charleston.

The 10-week training program is intended to help entrepreneurs strengthen their ability to make critical decisions and improve business performance. Training sessions will feature guest speakers who are experts in that week’s topics, which include Sizing Up Your Business; Exploring Growth Opportunities; Making Strategic Decisions; Using Financial Tools; Strengthening the Product or Service; Seizing the Market and others.

Entrepreneurs may be eligible to apply for a Small Business Work Force grant from the West Virginia Small Business Development Center to cover 75 percent of the training costs. Contact Lisa Gasper or Liz Coffman at (888) 982-7232 for more information or to register, visit www.sbdcwv.org and click on training and workshop calendar.

SIX-WEEK START-UP: BIZA$SIST, a program of Unlimited Future Inc., will offer “Six-Week Start-Up,” a text-book course based on a book by Rhonda Abrams, founder of The Planning Shop (www.planningshop.com). Abrams writes a weekly newspaper column about entrepreneurship that reaches more than 20 million readers through 130 newspapers. “Six-Week Start Up” is filled with checklists, lists of important questions to ask, worksheets, Internet resource guides and more. One of its main focuses is how to acquire funding to get a business started the right way. Qualified students who complete the course can apply for a West Virginia State Micro-loan for amounts between $1,000 and $15,000 to help with start-up expenses.

The class is 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays beginning Jan. 28 at Unlimited Future, 1650 8th Ave. The course will run six Mondays, ending on March 3. Tuition is based on a sliding scale according to income. The lowest income levels pay only $75 for the entire six-week course.

Call (304) 697-3007 or enroll online at www.unlimitedfuture.org/courses.php.

If your organization has a seminar or training class you would like listed in this column, please send it to Jean Tarbett Hardiman. Reach her by e-mail at jeant@herald-dispatch.com, send faxes to (304) 526-2857 or send mail to The Herald-Dispatch, P.O. Box 2017, Huntington, WV 25701.