For New or Startup Businesses:
If you have enthusiasm but not experience, if you’d like to be a huge success but fear being less than stellar, if you’re full of ideas but accounting makes you queasy, if it’s all new to you or maybe you need just a little help….
The LSBDC can help you--through one-on-one counseling, training sessions, and other informative resources. Here are some of the topics you may find useful:Counseling for Small Businesses
Nuts and Bolts Training
Writing a Business Plan
Forms of Organization
Management
Financial Analysis
Employees
|
Counseling for Small Businesses |
 |
The Louisiana SBDC, at no cost to potential business owners and managers, provides one-on-one counseling and business management assistance to Louisiana's small business community. Our Business Counselors are qualified professionals with diverse educational and business experience. Many hold MBAs and/or have owned and operated their own businesses. They bring diverse corporate experience to bear on solutions for small business problems, especially in the areas of marketing, management, and operations. Besides their previous experience, the counselors are required to attend 24 hours of professional development training.
You can easily arrange counseling appointments by contacting the Louisiana SBDC Service Center nearest you. Often, before even meeting you, LSBDC staff may ask some preliminary questions to ascertain your business stage, suggest preliminary training and/or reading, and send you various materials applicable to your situation.
All the Louisiana SBDC Service Centers provide a range of management advice and technical assistance. Some of the services you can expect are as follows:
- business plan development
- accounting
- export assistance
- marketing
- financial planning
- cost-analysis
- training programs
- organizational structures
- construction management
Nuts and Bolts Training |
What business basics do you need? LSBDC provides these introductory “nuts and bolts” sessions and more:
|
|
Writing a Business Plan |
Small business owners and corporate startups need to develop their business plans before ever opening. Ask any successful entrepreneurs: they will tell you that preparing and following their business plans was key to their success.
Of course, a generic business plan will not help you succeed. You need a specific plan that demonstrates a sound business model, a thorough knowledge of the corporate market, professional financial projections, and a coherent marketing strategy. The management team should be able to show that all possible challenges have been planned for and solutions mapped out in advance.
Your local SBDC will be happy to help you write this crucial document that will get your business off to a good start.
Forms of Organization |
Choosing a legal structure for your small business is integral to its development.
The LSBDC will help you get the information you need to help you decide on the best legal structure for your small or home-based business.
LSBDC will help you decide which of the following categories fits your situation best:
- Sole Proprietorship
- Partnership
- Limited Liability Corporation (LLC)
- Corporation
- S-Corporation
Some of the topics you may find useful are as follows:
- Choosing Your Legal Structure
- Evaluating Your Selected Legal Structure
- A Small Business Legal Checklist
- Incorporating Your Business
- Choosing an LLC Structure for Your Business
- LLCs vs. C Corporations
- S Corp. vs. LLC: Which Structure is Right for Your Business
Management |
Managing your business can be a full-time job in itself. You have to manage your employees, your customers, your public, your business operations, yourself! The Louisiana SBDC offers the following training topics, among others:
- Using Contracts for Your Home Business
- Tools for Managing Your Small Business
- Knowing How Your Business Is Doing
- Organizing Your Home Business Operations
- Leasing
- How to Select the Right Professional Help for Your Home Business
- Employees
- Small Business Technology
- Managing Customers
Financial Analysis |
Find useful information, tips and know-how on starting your own business.
- Start-up Expenses
- Getting Financing
- Managing Business Finances
- Accounting & Record Keeping
- Cash Flow Management
- Finance Tools
- Controlling Your Taxes
- Insurance & Your Business
|
Employees |
 |
Employees are your firm's major resource. Hiring the right people--and training them well--can often mean the difference between scratching out the barest of livelihoods and steady business growth.
It's really easy for the large Fortune 500 businesses to hire and fire thousands--with their massive personnel departments, with reference-checking interns, with online systems to process millions of resumes from faceless degree holders. But what about you and your small business? How do you get and keep the employees that make your business work?
LSBDC offers the following training topics:
- How You Can Find and Keep Employees
- Understanding Senior Management
- Is Your Home Business Ready for Employees?
- The Importance of Delegation for a Small Business
- A "Cyber" Staffing Solution for Small Businesses
- 10 Tips for Taking Yourself Seriously so Your Employee Does Too
- Want to Keep Your Good People?
- Hiring and Retaining Good Employees