Graduation Day

Thursday, April 1, is graduation day for 12 students in the Managing Your Business course sponsored by South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension and hosted by the Kimball Horizons Team.  Instructor for the course was Dr. Larry Swain, Rural Business Management Extension Specialist, SDSU.

In addition to a presentation by the Small Business Administration, a visit from the president of the local chamber of commerce, and a recognition get-together by the chamber of the commerce, the students have been busy with this for the past six weeks:

WEEK I

                Registrations, Introductions

                Business Survey by participants

                Pitfalls of running your own business

                Steps to Business Success

                Checklist for Success

                Introduction to Entrepreneurship

                Management Strategy Planning

                Getting Organized

                Short Business Plan overview

WEEK II

                Describing y our business

                SWOT Analysis

                Competitive Analysis

                Market Potentials/Market Share

WEEK III

                Understanding and Dealing with People/Swain Personality Styles

                Customer Relations

                Employee Relations

               

WEEK IV

                Planning for Success

                Goal Setting

                Tactical Planning

WEEK V

              Review of goals and objectives

                Marketing of the business

                Introduction to financials

WEEK VI

                More on financials and ratio analysis

                Writing an Executive Summary

                Review and wrap up of Short Business Plan

                Final Evaluation