SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands
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Kick off the Holiday Shopping Season with Small Business Saturday. It Works!
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Even with six fewer sho
pping days this holiday season, the NRF is forecasting between a 3.8-4.2% increase in sales. Some retailers will increase their revenue through online sales and some kicked off the holiday season a bit early. Another way to ramp up sales is to take part in established marketing events like
Small Business Saturday--it's
one day every year set aside to support small businesses across the entire United States. Started by American Express and in its 10th year, it is celebrated on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Nestled in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this event encourages consumers to get out and shop and dine at their local neighborhood businesses. It's a great way to
remind consumers that they play a key role in helping the small businesses in our community thrive.
And it works! As shopping small catches on in communities everywhere,
Small Business Saturday has gone from a cause to a day of community celebration. 96% of consumers who reported shopping on Small Business Saturday said the day makes them want to Shop Small all year long, not just during the holiday season.* Time to plan your day!
American Express makes it easy (and you don't have to accept American Express to participate)! Check out the Small Business Saturday
website which is packed with ideas on how to maximize your sales, create events and rally the community. Partner up with other businesses. Create your own Small Business Saturday materials by using their
Studio--it's free and it's easy!
A great way to kick-off the holiday shopping season! Don't miss out.
* The 2018 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey
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Email Is Not Out Of Style
particularly if you want your communications to work
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WHAT'S GOING ON AT SCORE THIS MONTH
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SCORE continues with our FREE workshops and webinars. Listed below are workshops for November and December with more to come in January. In conjunction with
Coastal
Community Capital ,
the Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod
and the various Chambers of Commerce across the Cape, we've scheduled the workshops that you're asking for. Registration is limited so sign up today! Have an idea for a workshop? Email us a capecodscore@verizon.net and we'll try to put it together.
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Grow Your Business Through Social Media
This workshop will cover a number of basic social media tools for small businesses including an overview of the most popular social media networks, general guidelines on creating content, how to post it, and how to use basic analytics to gauge effectiveness of your social media efforts. Click here to register at either location:
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Creating the Brand Called ______
If you don’t have a clearly defined point of difference on which to build your brand you’ll find it tough to succeed. We'll focus on how to identify and define your point of difference and how to translate that into a brand statement. Click here to register:
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Cybersecurity: Identify Your Weaknesses Before A Criminal Does
Knowing what you can do to secure your environment and how to respond to a cyberattack before an attack happens makes a big difference on the lasting effects of an attack. Paul Fiorni, VP at Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod will help participants learn how to identify strengths and weaknesses and importantly, what they can do to secure their environment. Click below to register:
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The Four Pillars of an Effective Website
What makes a GREAT website? Web Veteran and SCORE Resource Partner, Dale Shadbegian leads a discussion on the four critical parts – strategy, best practices, creativity, and the sanity check. Attendees will walk away with research based tips on how to get the most out of their website. Click below to register:
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All Those HR Things That You Absolutely, Positively Need To Do
No matter what size company you run, chances are that at some point you will face an HR issue that exposes your business to risks of financial, reputation or other loss. This workshop will explore the top ten HR practices that are relatively simple to manage and go a long way to guarding against these risks. Participants will leave this workshop with a list of the basic steps they should be taking to avoid legal trouble on the HR front. Click below to register:
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New Webinars for November
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November 7 | 1 PM ET
Learn immediately actionable ideas that are trending right now to firmly plant your product or service in consumers’ minds.
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November 14 | 1 PM ET
There is still time to take actions that can favorably impact your tax bill for 2019. Find out which tax breaks apply to you & how to nail them down now.
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Through her activism with numerous community groups Judi Vigna saw first-hand how the shortage of talent coming into the crafts is disrupting the entire construction industry. She saw that today's young people are not considering a career in the craft trades, mostly because they don't realize that the trades are a truly viable career path that pays well, offers training and apprenticeship programs, has numerous growth opportunities and importantly, has a significant number of open jobs.
That’s when she founded
Specialized Career Guidance in Plymouth, MA, a company focused on helping young people explore careers in the trades. Judi found that middle and high school students have no way to really learn about the opportunities available in the trades. So she decided to address this head on, approaching the problem in a manner similar to college search programs (and familiar to students)—visit many locations and learn about the range of options. Her pilot program launched this past summer as she enrolled 15 high school students and/or recent graduates in her Construction Exploratory Program. Over 8 sessions, students became certified in the OSHA 10 Program, made site visits to companies such as
Redbrook Development
,
Glynn Electric, the
New England Carpenters Training Center in Millbury and the
New England Laborers Training Camp in Hopkinton where they were able to gain exposure to a wide range of opportunities. They were also coached on how to interview, write a resume and importantly, for this industry, get a drivers license. During site visits, participants met with apprentices and actual trades people to see what they do. They learned that these are careers, not just jobs; positions where they will join apprentice programs, work full-time and also attend school a few nights a week. For some, they’ll need college courses to gain the skills they need while also being an apprentice.
The results were amazing....
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IT'S TIME TO FIND YOUR OWN SCORE MENTOR
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Small business owners who receive three or more hours of mentoring report higher revenues and increased growth.
We make it easy for you! Talk to one or more mentors via email, video chat or face-to-face in our Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket offices or at locations in Falmouth, Eastham and...wherever you need us to meet you!
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SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. We have been doing this for more than 50 years.
Because our work is supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and thanks to our network of 10,000+ volunteers, we are able to deliver our services at no charge or at a very low cost.
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Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.
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