Wednesday, March 14, 2012

3 Days StartUp! in New York City

Click Here to Apply- Deadline March 15, 2012

School Business and Accounting-Chairperson- Linda Silva-Thompson and myself will be participating at this event.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Great Websites for Small Businesses


Small Business Administration. Find information, links and resources to help you start and grow your business, including SBA-guaranteed loans.
Website: http://www.sba.gov/

SCORE. Get matched with an experienced SCORE mentor to receive free counseling and advice, in person or online.
Website: http://www.score.org/

Small Business Development Centers. Expert business advisors at the SBDC near you can help with all aspects of starting and growing your business -- for free. And don't forget the Women's Business Centers.
Website: http://www.asbdc-us.org/

Bplans. Learn from 500-plus free business plan templates, read useful articles and buy best-selling business plan software Business Plan Pro.
Website: http://www.bplans.com/


U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Need to file for a patent, trademark or copyright? This site has the resources, answers and tools you need.

VentureBeat. Described by The New York Times as one of the best blogs on the Web, VentureBeat covers the venture capital industry. VentureBeat keeps those seeking investment capital "in the know" on who got funded from whom, also providing the latest on hot industries like mobile technology, social networking and green business.

American FactFinder. Get your market research started with U.S. Census and other demographic data in an easy-to-use form.

FedStats. Statistics from more than 100 federal government agencies to help in your market research.Website: http://www.fedstats.gov/

IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center. Stay on the right side of the tax code with the latest tax news and forms.

FindLaw Small Business Center. Get legal forms, find answers to common legal questions and even search for lawyers at this site.

Employment Law Information Network. Information and advice on federal and state employment law, including guidebooks on and sample policies for all aspects of HR.


BuyerZone. Ready to equip your startup by buying business products and services? Visit this site to research your options and connect with sellers.

TopTenReviews. Before you buy or upgrade your tech tools, read the reviews here.

MarketingProfs. Articles, guides and resources covering everything you need to know about marketing, from creating ad copy to attending trade shows.

PRLog. Distribute press releases to major search engines for free at this site, which also offers tools and guides to help you write releases that get results.

Evernote. Bid bye-bye to Post-it notes with this app that lets you capture notes, ideas, photos and links in the cloud and search and access them quickly from all your devices.

Capturengo. No more typing (or losing key data) with this app that captures business cards and receipts on your smartphone and stores them in the cloud.

Vlingo. Make driving and working safer with this free voice interface tool that lets you browse the Web, dictate texts, e-mails and actions, or find contacts by speaking into your smartphone.

GoPayment. Boost cash flow and convenience by using your smartphone to accept credit cards on the go, whether at a customer's location, trade show or event.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net. Whether you need an image for marketing materials, business projects or your website, it's often too expensive to hire a photographer or use a stock photo house. This site boasts thousands of images available for free download and limited use (higher-resolution pictures are extra). Check with the site for any other restrictions.
Website: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Monroe College Alumni Business Owners Showcase

 What an incredible event! I personally had the pleasure to see one of my former students bring her small business idea to a reality. Renee Johnson is  the owner of "Me, Myself and I", a beauty company with a purpose.







Mrs. Jerome proudly showcased some of the 150 Monroe College Small Business Owners.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Monroe College School of Business and Accounting congratulates its partner Sunshine Bronx Incubator on its grand opening!

Mayor Bloomberg cuts the ribbon at Sunshine Bronx Incubator (Daily News Article-Click here)
Present from Monroe College at Sunshine's ribbon cutting ceremony- from left- Professor and MC Small Business Center Executive Director-Johanna Espinosa, Vice President of Academics- Karen Ann Mcarty, Dean of School of Business and Accounting-Mike Marinaccio, Chairperson of School of Business and Accounting-Linda Silva-Thompson.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Top 10 New Year's Resolutions You Can Make for Your Business



Top 10 New Year's Resolutions You Can Make for Your Business  
The new year provides small business owners the opportunity to improve on their operations and change their fortunes. Here are ten plans of action every entrepreneur must make for their businesses.
By Jan B. King
From her book: Business Plans to Game Plans

1. Develop a Business Plan or Strategic Plan - You won't get where you're going unless you know where you want to be and let your employees know as well.

2. Constantly Promote Your Business - You can't execute one marketing effort each year and expect your business to grow. Plan marketing efforts quarterly or even monthly and plan time for follow through and tracking of results.
3. Create action plans for each person in your organization - Make sure every employee knows how his or her job relates to the company's overall vision, and that each has individual objectives and goals with measurable standards and timetables.
4. Survey Your Employees - Sometimes the biggest employee dissatisfactions are the easiest things to fix. Know what changes your employees would like to make in their work lives and do your best to increase their quality of work life (and usually their productivity as well).
5. Survey your customers and suppliers - Maybe the way you are doing business is costing you relationships with suppliers and customers. Know what bugs them and make it easy to do business with your company.
6. Set up business performance measures and get only those key indicator reports you need to run your business. - Don't waste your time and staff time compiling reports you never use. Know what you need to know to run a successful business, study those reports every month, and use them to take action.
7. Do a human resource compliance audit and stay out of legal trouble.- Unless you have a fully staffed HR department, you may not be aware of all of the compliance laws regarding employees. Have an audit done by an outside professional and prevent problems that could result in million dollar lawsuits by unhappy ex-employees.
8. Know your top 10 customers - what more can you do for them, where can you find more just like them - List your top ten customers by sales volume and let everyone in your organization know who they are. Are they in a particular geographic region, of a particular type - what is similar about them? Do everything you can to build on those relationships.
9. Get a coach or mentor, or join a business support group - Build accountability into your own personal planning by asking others to help you turn your dreams into reality. Enlist people who you can trust to give you objective feedback and create deadlines for your planned successes.
10. Make a list of the year's accomplishments and celebrate your successes with your employees - Don't forget to acknowledge and celebrate each of your milestones. The best part of creating a plan is to know when you've reach your goals, allowing some time to pause and appreciate the accomplishment, and begin to create your next set of goals.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Monroe College Fall 2011-Lets make it a great semester!

Dear All,

Welcome to the Monroe College Small Business Development Center blog by Executive Director and Professor Espinosa. This blog is a conversation and a source of information for those interesting in learning about marketing and the resources available through our Monroe College Small Business Development Center. The goal is to start a dialog on your path to develop your small business.

This semester I will be teaching Social Media Marketing and Marketing 101 at the Monroe College School Business and Accounting. Teaching these courses keep me relevant to the constantly evolving world of Marketing and Social Media. Marketing is the heart of a business success-you may think I am being bias because it is my academic platform- maybe.  The truth is that they are many aspects that compose the success of a business.
A business plan is the foundation and the blueprint of your venture. My philosophy is that once you develop a business plan and create a solid base for your business-the quest for success starts, and marketing becomes your fuel.  For those of you who are not on my Monroe College-Marketing 101 class, I will share my opening-Marketing is the answer to one question- How do I put my service or product in the hands of my consumer? 

But let’s get back to the very important basic start- The Business Plan!
Throughout this semester the Monroe College Business Development Center will hold a series of workshops and network events that will introduce you to the world of entrepreneurship.  We also have a partnership with the Bronx Women’s Business Resource Center (BWBRC). BWRBRC is the small business assistance division of the Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation and is funded by the Small Business Administration and the New York State Entrepreneurial Assistance Program.  Their program will assist you in completing a business plan-If you like to apply to their program please contact their Executive Director, Marcia Cameron at 914-500-9772 or email her at info@bronxwbc.org

For those who are “entrepreneur enthusiasts”, Monroe College studentss and are at the preliminary stages of a business idea-I encourage you to apply to the “Sunshine Incubator Urban Entrepreneur Internship Program” more information will be posted later.
Thank you for reading this post and I look forward to your comments.

Professor Espinosa

Sunday, August 28, 2011