Lori and Preston had fun designing a course curriculum tailored to students of The Nova Studio. Together they curated 8 amazing topics for you, from getting the gritty details squared away, to perfecting your social media pitch and making do without taking out expensive business loans.
Bringing Your Business to Life: The Nutz & Boltz
Preston will join you at the starting line by helping you devise your brand name and tagline. Then, he’ll outline all of the necessary paperwork and tasks (such as securing a business name and tax certificate) you’ll need to begin your business, as well as explain how to navigate it all.
Ready, Set, Sell: Rockin' the Retain World
Preston will provide you with all of the tools required to rock the retail world and start selling direct to consumers both in person as well as online. This class will take you from product research and development all the way to handing off a customer’s order.
Finding Your Niche & Filling It
Preston will teach you how he has leveraged sales, new and sustained customers, as well as fruitful business to business relationships, by establishing a niche: incorporating unique, locally sourced ingredients in his products.
Success With Social Media
Figuring out where and what to spend your time on with Social Media can be daunting for a new business owner. You need someone "in the know" to tell you the most profitable and valuable platforms to use to connect with your target market customers and make money. Preston will cover Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogging, and Newsletters. If you’re searching for an unconventional, yet affordable, social media marketing strategy, then Preston is your guy!
Fun with Finance: Accounting Without Aggravation
As the son of a Certified Public Accountant and teacher of finance, Preston was instilled with the value of understanding numbers and their relation to your financial well-being. He’ll discuss bookkeeping, budgeting, debt, profit, financial planning, funding, market analyses for our industry, income & expense reports, profit & loss statements, projections, and taxes.
Getting it Done with What You've Got
Topics for this course include discovering or refining your brand, designing labels and promotional materials, how to manage supplies & inventory, determining how many products to offer, scheduling + effective time management, business to business relationships, reaching out to press & media, equipment/tools, visual identity (photography), as well as outsourcing burdensome tasks.
Philosophy: The Ultimate Starting Point for Entrepreneurs
Preston will help you uncover the practical applications of philosophical concepts, including business ethics in the real world, personal and professional leadership, education in the workplace, management styles, company culture, caring for your customers, as well as leading a virtuous and happy life.
What I Wish I Would Have Known
In this truly unique workshop, Preston will discuss all of the things that he wishes he would have known in his first few years as a business owner, in order to help you maximize the success of your company. Topics include: brand building, developing business relationships, business structures, taxable entities, intellectual property, manufacturing practices, regulations, and more.
This is just the briefest summary of what each topic will cover - for so much more, see Preston's detailed description page on our website!
