The Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA) and the Long Beach City College Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has announced a partnership to create a five-week seminar series to help businesses in Long Beach grow, according to a statement from the DLBA.

“This year’s business seminar series aims to address some of the challenges we heard businesses are facing, including access to capital, accounting, and growing their customer base, through our Layoff Aversion Survey, conducted in late 2014,” said Adam Carrillo, DLBA Economic Development Manager, in a statement. “These workshops support existing business expansion while providing a platform for prospective business owners to learn from their peers how to efficiently open and operate a business that drives a return on their investment as soon as possible.”

Each seminar will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30AM to 10:30AM at the SBDC office at 309 Pine Avenue. The schedule is as follows:

  • April 7 – Starting a Small Business
  • April 9 – Business Planning
  • April 14 – Target Marketing
  • April 16 – Marketing Technologies
  • April 21 – Funding Your Business
  • April 23 – Accounting
  • April 28 – Legal Aspects
  • April 30 – Employee Management
  • May 5 – Retail Site Selection
  • May 7 – Lease Negotiation

“The Long Beach SBDC is pleased to partner with the DLBA on what we feel is an A to Z education on starting and growing your business,” said Mike Daniel of the SBDC. “The Small Business Focus seminar series is built to suit would-be start-ups as well as allow for existing business owners to jump in and out of seminars as they see fit. The seminars are very hands-on and are taught by current business owners who are experts in each of the disciplines being offered.”

All stakeholders within Long Beach Business Improvement Districts will have their registration fee waived, according to the DLBA, whether they are attending the entire seminal series or just specific courses. For all others, the fee to attend the entire program is $149 or $25 per seminar. To register, click here.