Business Resources

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The Brian Hamilton Foundation Starter U: How to Start and Grow a Business is a free, self-paced online course teaching everything you need to know to start, run, and grow a business. Whether you live in Portland, Oregon or Portland, Maine, work 3rd shift or 1st shift, this course is designed to give you, the entrepreneur, the flexibility to learn according to your schedule.

Inmates to Entrepreneurs hosts an eight-week course for anyone with a criminal background who has started or is interested in starting their own small business. This free course is offered year-round. Topics covered include marketing, business finances, setting up a business, and sales, among others.

Whether you are evaluating your entrepreneurial potential, your company's website, or comparing your business to your industry's leaders, these free assessments will help give you a good idea of where your business stands to inspire your strategic planning and set you on the path to continuous improvement.

The Business Model Canvas is a one-page business plan or an overview that lays out both what you do (or want to do) and how you go about doing it; enabling structured conversations around management and strategy by laying out the crucial activities and challenges involved with your initiative and how they relate to each other. 

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a specific project, organization, or sector. This analysis leads to a richer understanding of what the project or organization can offer, the key weaknesses that need to be worked upon to succeed, and where to bring in external partners for assistance.

Personas are portraits of fictional but realistic individuals used as a common reference point to describe particular groups in your intended audience. Personas help ensure that your work stays focused on people rather than an abstract description of the group they are said to represent.

‘Marketing’ what you do doesn’t have to mean selling it. The Marketing Mix will help you do this, if that’s your goal, but it’s also useful for defining the different ways in which people might form opinions about your work – as well as highlighting opportunities for influencing this process.

Identify your customer's major jobs to be done, the pains they face, and the gains they perceive by getting their jobs done. Define the most important components of your offering and how you relieve pain and create gains for your customers. 

Start today, and push your business to the next level. SBA 7(a) up to $250,000 working capital loan can be used in many ways to help your business take that next step.  Expenses such as — payroll, rent, utilities, marketing expenses, events, and seminars are all approved under this loan type.