WSU Kansas SBDC Training
The WSU Kansas SBDC offers many opportunties to meet your training needs and interests, including workshops, a Business in Motion program, annual conferences, online training, customized training, and connections to area business events.
We offer over 100 workshops a year! Register online or call us at 316-978-3193.
View and print our WSU Kansas SBDC January-February Business Bulletin.
Winter Workshops
Startup Workshops
Meeting the 3Ms: Learning the Basics of Marketing, Management, and Money
If you want to start a new business, the three Ms are critical. This free workshop
offers essential information about Marketing, Management and Money that will help
you assess the feasibility of your business idea and start writing your business plan.
Learn where to get required licenses and permits, how to finance your business, business
plan development and more. Please attend this workshop prior to meeting with a Kansas
SBDC Advisor.
Quick Start Business Planning
Using a simple narrative template and a simple cash flow template, you will learn
how to develop the key elements of your business plan. You will be able to use the
business plan you develop with these templates as a basis for your final business
plan.
State Tax and Regulations Workshops
State Tax Workshop
As a small business owner, you know you need to pay taxes. But where do you start?
What do you really need to do? Experts from the Kansas Department of Revenue will
give you the basics in this workshop. Topics covered will include sales tax, withholding
tax, and record keeping. You will be shown what forms you need to file and how to
fill them out.
State Tax Workshop for Contractors
Do you provide plumbing, carpentry, electrical, roofing, heating/air conditioning,
or related services? This workshop is devoted exclusively to sales tax issues for
contractors, subcontractors and repairmen. Learn how sales tax applies to materials
and labor, Project Exemption Certificates, sales tax returns, billing, and related
issues.
Kansas Department of Labor: Understanding Regulations
KDOL will present an overview of unemployment tax requirements including: Unemployment
Insurance (UI) Tax Liabilities, Process to Apply for a UI Tax Account, Steps for Filing
Tax Returns, New Hire Information, State Information Data Exchange System, and clarification
of the difference in classifying a worker as an employee or independent contactor.
How to Start a Food Truck Business
If you are thinking about starting a food truck, this workshop will provide you with
information you need. Kansas SBDC Advisor Natalie Santonil will cover key considerations
and the basics of operations and financing. Jodi Buchanan, prior president of the
Wichita Food Truck Coalition, will join her to lend insight on licensing.
Marketing Workshops
LinkedIn for Beginners
Looking for business-to-business leads? Want to enhance your professional online presence?
LinkedIn is a social media platform worth exploring. This intro session offers a basic
overview of LinkedIn and its use. Please bring a laptop and prepare to explore with
us.
Introduction to Instagram
This intro session is designed to help novice users better understand how to use Instagram
features for business purposes. We'll explore ways to capture your company's products
and services while exploring how to better enhance your corporate brand through this
platform. To make the most of this session, bring your smartphones.
Disruptive Marketing for Liquor Store Owners
In April 2019, changes in Kansas regulations will impact alcohol retailers. This workshop
will give you marketing tips to better compete with the big box stores now allowed
in the strong beer market. Learn how to identify new demographics and new products,
to use social media and other low/no cost marketing to reach specific markets, to
use your Point of Sales system effectively to compile analytics of your customers
and products, and to use other tactics to increase sales.
Management Workshops
Millennials on Board
Learn tactics for managing multigenerational teams. Whitney Proctor will help you
understand the various generations present at work. Both the young and older worker
will have ideas and suggestions to offer, which will help the organization thrive
in the marketplace. Learning how to deal with the Generation Gaps at work will help
you become a better manager or co-worker.
Intellectual Property Workshops
Trademark Basics: Protect Your Business Name
Discover the difference between a trademark, service mark and registered mark. Then,
learn how to search for existing marks and logos and walk through the online trademark
application process. Sara Butts with the Kansas Patent and Trademark Resource Center
at WSU Libraries will present and respond to questions.
Business in Motion: Making Business Expansion Easier
Several of our workshops target business expansion. If you are interested in expanding through export, government contracts, franchise, new markets, new products, and the web, view our Business in Motion page. Testimonials from our customers will give you insight on expansions processes.
Annual Events
Business Transitions Conference
Over 70% of small to medium sized businesses in Kansas are owned by baby boomers nearing
retirement. The transition of these businesses offers major opportunities both to
those retiring and to younger entreperneurs.
Learning how to prepare a business to sell, develop a succession plan, value a business, find the right buyer, find the right business to buy, use a business broker, acquire financing, utilize employee stock option plans, and other key information can result in a more successful business transition from both the buyer and seller perspective.
Our annual fall conference offers insights from experienced business brokers, valuators, attorneys, investors, CPAs, and Kansas SBDC Advisors. The agenda includes both general sessions and a choice of breakout tracks.
Encountering Innovation Week
The Kansas Small Business Development Center Tech Innovation Center offers an annual Encountering Innovaton Week event to connect innovators with funders and support to accelerate technology commercialization. Innovators from across the Midwest are invited to pitch their ideas to technology scouts from the U.S. Department of Defense and other interested parties. Innovators are also invited to exhibit during a poster board event and to share their public "Bottom Line Up Front" information (BLUFs) on the Encountering Innovtion website.
Online Training
For those of you who love online learning, check out the 26 workshops we offer in English and Spanish through the Kansas SBDC Virtual Advisor Training Program.
Customized Training
Want something different? Want something more? We will develop customized training specifically for you and your employees.
Strategic planning is our specialty, and we provided facilitated training to dozens of area companies. Is our strategic planning process successful? Our participants think so. Read their testimonals. Call us for a free assessment of your needs at 316-978-3193.
We work closely with a large network of resource partners, and we will be glad to connect you to area business training and events. Our business events calendar provides informtion about dozens of area activities.
NOTICE
Participants in Kansas SBDC events and workshops agree to allow the Kansas SBDC staff and official photographers to photograph and record them in the context of the event. Images captured may be used on Kansas SBDC websites, posted on social media, shared with media outlets, and/or used in future print and electronic promotional materials. For questions or concerns, please call 316-978-3193 or email ksbdc@wichita.edu.