Get advice on starting your own business

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Nebraska District Office and AARP will sponsor a two-hour FREE, fast-paced event designed to offer quick, down-to-earth advice to start and grow a small business.

Speed Mentoring for Encore Entrepreneurs will be held April 17 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Nebraska District Office, 10675 Bedford Ave., Suite 100, Omaha.

Mentors from SCORE, the Nebraska Business Development Center, Catholic Charities, the Nebraska Enterprise Fund, Proxibid, and Dundee Bank will meet with entrepreneurs in quick, 15-minute bites.  As entrepreneurs move from station to station, they’ll have a chance to hear information on:

• Preparing business plans
• Financing options from SBA loans to microloans
• Basic start-up information to do business in Nebraska
• Social media/marketing
• Available resources and where to find them

Currently, there are more than 76 million boomers, and many are interested in and poised to be entrepreneurs; one in four between the ages of 44 and 70 are interested in starting their own business or non-profit in the next five to 10 years.  Nearly half report a desire to be encore entrepreneurs, a business with a positive social aspect.

For many boomers, entrepreneurship training is the toolkit empowering them to use their experience, knowledge and skills to become job creators in our state. This event is designed to leverage the partnership between SBA and the network provided by AARP to introduce existing and future entrepreneurs to small business resources in Nebraska.

In addition, as part of the effort to guide encore entrepreneurs, SBA has set up a dedicated web page for Americans over the age of 50 featuring: an online self-assessment tool that will help potential small business owners understand their readiness for starting a business as well as information to help with business planning, shaping a winning business idea, professional counseling, financial services and information to find local resources in Nebraska.

Moreover, an important source of financing for entrepreneurs is the SBA guaranteed loan program. The SBA provides short- and long-term guaranteed loans to eligible, credit-worthy start-ups and existing small businesses that cannot obtain financing on reasonable terms through normal lending channels. SBA provides a number of loan programs for most small business needs.

Call (402) 221-7211 or email michael.foutch@sba.gov by April 12 to register.

Light refreshments will be provided courtesy of AARP.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District/Flickr