On March 30, Fab Lab ICC will host a 10-week small business management class we call the SEED initiative; Small Business-Entrepreneur Empowerment and Development. The series will be facilitated by local small business consultant Brittney Holum (dba Arrow Advisors) and will feature local and area real-world subject matter experts (SME’s) in most of the eight topics to be covered. For example, Legal Fundamentals will be facilitated by Independence attorney Joslyn Kusiak. As with the other SME’s, Joslyn brings a wealth of knowledge gained from helping small business owners in her law practice over the last several years. Small business management training has been part of my vision for the last 16 years and this new streamlined course has been a long time coming.

I was hired by ICC in 2006 to develop and implement the Successful Entrepreneur Program. The program was really the brainchild of Dr. Terry Hetrick, then president of ICC. He envisioned a nuts-and-bolts program about business management made up of practical real-world information. Although not an academic, I had owned a couple of businesses and worked in management of a couple of manufacturing companies. I answered a classified ad in the Reporter in February or March. Even though it was Dr. Hetrick’s idea, I was given free-reign to develop the 2-year non-transfer program in the way I thought it would be the most benefit.

Since I had never met a business textbook I liked, I developed my own materials. The Successful Entrepreneur Program was successful for a couple of years but marketing a 2-year program became increasingly difficult. Entrepreneurs don’t want to spend two years learning the basics of business management. At the same time, I worked to get people interested in starting businesses by telling them of the need for a thorough business plan, long hours, need for big financing, basically warning them of all the obstacles. All of that doesn’t do much to inspire people to start businesses.

I discovered the Ice House Entrepreneurship program in 2011 and launched the first Entrepreneurial Mindset class featuring Ice House in the fall of 2012. The Mindset class helps people validate their business idea in a low-cost way toward deciding whether to turn the idea into a business. Mindset also provides inspiration. People are willing to work through the obstacles if they’ve been inspired from the beginning. The Entrepreneurial Mindset class provides what is needed to validate and start a business, but once the business is launched and full operations start, a different set of skills is needed, business management skills.

Since the launch of Entrepreneurial Mindset in 2012 and Fab Lab ICC in 2014, I’ve kept the need for a short-term business management training course in the back of my mind. I’ve been waiting for the right person and right set of conditions to come, and that time is now.

Brittney Holum came to the Lab several years ago. She started her consulting business while living away from Independence but had moved back to be closer to family. She has clients all over the United States and a couple overseas. She has now co-facilitated the Mindset class with me twice and has since become a certified Ice House facilitator. She helped us host a similar training in 2020 offered through Network Kansas E-Community and facilitated by Wichita State University. That program was very good, but we were on a waiting list for two years to get it and it is likely be five years before we can get it again. Brittney and I started discussing the idea of building our own small business management training program and SEED was born. In addition to Fab Lab ICC, the local Innovative Business Resource Center, Montgomery County E-Community and Network Kansas are all sponsoring this inaugural launch.

The live in-person sessions will start on March 30 from 6 PM to 8 PM at Fab Lab ICC and each Wednesday through June 1. The eight topics to be covered are Management, Marketing and Branding, Customer Centric and Sales, Finance and Accounting, Human Resources, Legal Fundamentals, Technology and Strategy. The cost is $400 per person. Although this represents a substantial investment for most small business owners, I can tell you from experience that the investment can easily be recouped from the knowledge gained (and mistakes avoided) in any one of the eight topics.