May 23, 2023 8:00 am – 1:00 pm (continental breakfast included)
NIU Naperville Conference Center, 1120 E. Diehl Road, Naperville, IL 60563
FREE
We have come through some rough years and while there may be more challenges ahead for businesses, SCORE is here to help all entrepreneurs! Join us for a FREE half-day educational workshop as we help you to plan ahead with your growth, pivot as needed to adapt to life and ultimately, PROSPER!
Overall Agenda
8:00 – 8:45 AM | Continental Refreshment and Networking
8:45 - 9:00 AM | Welcome Remarks
9:00 - 10:00 AM | Dave “The Shef” Sheffield – Grow Your Business Through Word-of-Mouth Marketing
10:00 - 10:15 AM | Break
10:15 - 11:15 AM | Amy S. Hilliard - Futureproof Your Business by Learning How to Pivot for Success
11:15 - 11:30 AM | Break
11:30 - 12:45 PM | Panel of Master Mentors with Open Q&A related to “What You Need To Know to Start or Grow Your Business”. Questions will be submitted in advance, and if time permits, allowed from the floor as well.
12:45 - 1:00 PM | Closing Remarks and Adjournment
Dave “The Shef” Sheffield is an award winning motivational speaker who helps audiences harness the power of an Always Better Your Best attitude personally and professionally. Dave is the author of five books designed to develop leadership skills, grow your business, and create outstanding customer experiences.
Program: Grow Your Business Through Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Few things are as powerful as a satisfied customer referring your company as a tool for growing your business. The most effective (and inexpensive) way to increase your revenues is through organic referrals from your clients. But how do you turn your clients into evangelists for your business so that you can prosper? During this program, we will explore how you can use the power of word-of-mouth marketing to accelerate your profits!
Participants will learn:
- How to become a master at relationship marketing
- One word that can help you explode your referrals
- How to position yourself as an expert in the eyes of your customers
- How to remain up when the business climate is uncertain
- 3 Ways to Stand Out In the "Sea of Sameness" and reinforce customer loyalty
- Simple marketing ideas that your customers will notice
- How to create a raving fan base of customers
A Reinvention Specialist, Amy S. Hilliard is a passionate and lively communicator who shares insights on change, empowerment, and the entrepreneurial spirit. Her speaking clients say that she ignites others to take action. With amazing stories of navigating both the Fortune 500 corporate world and her own businesses, she helps people look beyond the obvious in themselves and their situations to find hidden opportunities and innovative solutions.
A pioneer, she knows what it takes to build businesses. Amy's achievements have been covered by major media including CNN, Fortune, Success, The Food Network, Black Enterprise, Essence, NPR, and Entrepreneur Magazine. An honors graduate of both Howard University and the Harvard Business School, Amy has uniquely created and grown multi-million dollar global corporate brands and built her own pound cake recipe into The ComfortCake Company, with United Airlines as her first customer, and national distribution with Walmart, 7-11, Home Shopping Network and a McDonald's test. Her strategic and diversity marketing consulting firm, The Hilliard Group, has worked with blue-chip companies, universities, and non-profit organizations for over 25 years.
Program: FutureProof Your Business By Learning How to Pivot for Success
In today’s times, if you aren’t willing to change, you will be left behind. One thing we all know for sure is that Life. Will. Change. As entrepreneurs, to prepare for the future, you must be willing to reinvent yourselves and your organization. This requires resilience and a willingness to change. Dreams, plans, and businesses can survive, thrive, and be resurrected to stay alive for the future if you learn how and when to pivot.
The challenges and uncertainties of a global marketplace require making changes quickly and strategically—which means learning how to pivot and embrace change. Pivot mindsets and cultures can inspire creativity, gain critical alignment, and maintain momentum when competition is tough, timing is tight, a crisis is looming, or future opportunity is knocking. This program will address how pivoting can generate strategic, cross-functional, and long-term business value, revenue, profits, and market share, helping to futureproof your business for the years ahead.
Participants will learn:
- Strengthen your personal/professional abilities and attitudes regarding change, reinvention, and resilience
- Realize the importance of pivoting as a key organizational and life function
- Enhance creative thinking by combining strategy and data with intuitive skills and observations for making decisions
- Address the implications of successful and unsuccessful pivoting activities -- financial, professional, and personal
- Leave with a Three-Point Strategic Process and 10 Pivot Points to use for making Decisions
