Souhegan Valley Chamber of Commerce launching educational series for business owners

Thursday, January 19, 2012

AMHERST – On Feb. 8, the Souhegan Valley Chamber of Commerce will begin a program designed to help local companies build their businesses.

The series, “Build Your Business: New Toolkit for Today’s Professionals,” will run for six months, then begin again in the fall.

The first program, called “Building Your Sales Techniques,” will feature Kevin Hollenbeck, owner of Sandler Training Center, as the presenter. May Balsama, executive director of the chamber, described him as a “sales guru much sought-after by major corporations.”

He is donating his services for the first 90-minute seminar at the chamber offices, she said.

The series is open to any business owner or business employee in the area, whether or not they are chamber members. The cost for each seminar is $25 for members, $30 for nonmembers.

“One of the things we need to do, if we want to build a strong economy, is build strong businesses,” Balsama said. “One way to do that is to make sure they’ve got the tools that they need through knowledge. It may be that you’re a fantastic salesperson, but you can always learn something new from others.”

Sales will be the first topic, and in March, marketing techniques will be discussed. Also in March, there will be a seminar on financial information that people might need as tax time approaches, Balsama said. Eventually, there will be seminars on social networking, networking one’s business and technology networking.

“Our objective is to make this a permanent program of topics and issues that are important to running your business,” she said.

In the fall, she expects to provide seminars on such programs as QuickBooks, Excel and Word.

“A lot of those fall into the running of a business, and we don’t all go to school for all of this, so you end up picking your way through it,” Balsama said. “There’s a much better way to (learn) it, and we hope to help us all find that way.”

The program, underwritten by Centrix Bank, came out of a chamber membership survey in which Balsama hoped to find out what members appreciated and enjoyed but also what else they were seeking.

“Our networking events were second only to our expo” in popularity, she said, but “there was a very strong response for a business education series.”

A lot of chamber members are sole proprietors, she said, so they don’t have the time to take college courses or spare employees to go. The chamber series will give them “at least a start to gaining new knowledge that will be helpful” to their businesses, she said.

Each seminar will be held 7:15-9 a.m. Wednesdays. The first 15 minutes will be for coffee, refreshments – possibly from Windows on West Street, the Milford High School restaurant – and settling in.

Members and nonmembers can sign up by going to www.souhegan.net or calling the chamber at 673-4360.