June 22 & 24: SBA Offers Free Webinar and Web Chat to Encourage Disaster Preparedness Planning for Business Owners

No matter what time of year it is, or where you run your business, it’s a good idea to have a disaster preparedness plan in place. Recent disasters, such as the record-breaking flooding which occurred in Tennessee in April, serve as reminders to be proactive when it comes to building strategies to survive a disaster and recover quickly.

Toward this end, the U.S. Small Business Administration will offer two online disaster preparedness events next week:

Tuesday, June 22 -- 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT
Agility Recovery Solutions President & CEO Bob Boyd will discuss "10 Steps to Business Preparedness." Boyd will highlight key aspects of business continuity planning -- including risk assessment, data backup, crisis communications and insurance coverage. A Q&A will follow.

Register in advance at: http://www.preparemybusiness.org/education.

Thursday, June 24 -- 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. EDT
SBA’s monthly Online Business Chat, "Disaster Preparedness for Business Owners: An Inside View," will be hosted by Nashville business owner Genma Holmes [pictured], CEO of Holmes Pest Control. Holmes will share her experience of how another business owner’s losses after Hurricane Katrina inspired her to develop her own preparedness plan. Because she was ready for the disaster, Holmes was able to resume operations just one day after cleaning up after a recent flood in Nashville.

Holmes will take questions and offer advice on disaster preparedness. Those participating in the Thursday Web chat may submit questions before or during the discussion.

Join the event live by visiting http://www.sba.gov/, and clicking "Online Business Chat." Web chat participants may post questions prior to the event by visiting: http://bit.ly/LiveMeetingSBA.

To review archives of past Web chats, go to: http://bit.ly/MonthlyWebChatSBA.

For education, planning, testing, and disaster preparedness tools and information to help keep your business up and running -- after a disaster, power outage, etc. -- please visit: http://www.preparemybusiness.org/.

SOURCES: Genma Speaks [photo], U.S. Small Business Administration
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Jan. 28: SBA’s Export Experts Offer Free Web Chat on Going International, and Accessing Small-Business Capital and Credit Programs

Does your business product or service have potential in an overseas market? Have you considered doing business globally? Exporting can be a means of substantially growing your business. The U.S. Small Business Administration's January VOICE online chat discussion will highlight exporting basics, as well as general SBA capital and credit programs for small-business owners.

SBA offers several loan programs to help small businesses expand or develop an export market. From 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. [ET] on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010, business owners can find out if they are ready for exporting, and learn more about how to get started.

Richard Ginsburg and Patrick E. Tunison, of SBA’s Office of International Trade, will co-host this month's Web Chat on “Small Business Exporting and Access to Credit.” For one hour, Ginsburg and Tunison will answer questions on how to grow a business through exporting.

SBA’s free monthly Web Chat series provides small-business owners with opportunities to discuss relevant business issues online with experts, industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs. Chat participants have direct, real-time access to the Web Chats via questions they submit online -- in advance and during the live session -- with instant answers.

Participants can join the live Web Chat by going online to http://www.sba.gov/, and clicking “Online Business Chat.” Web Chat participants may post questions before the Jan. 28th event by visiting http://bit.ly/SmallBizJan2010, and posting their questions online.

To review archives of past monthly Web Chats, visit online at http://bit.ly/WebChatArchives.

SOURCE: U.S. Small Business Administration
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