Yampa Valley Entrepreneurship Center will offer a series of workshops in Craig and Steamboat Springs in the coming months.

Randy Rudasics, manager of Yampa Valley Entrepreneurship Center, is hoping the programs offered by the center will guide a young business minds, and offer advice on a number of the other challenges small businesses face.

“I’ve scheduled about a half dozen programs this winter and springs,” Rudasics said. “We want to do these workshops just to improve folks IQ on small business challenges and how to start a business. We want to give them a little education, if you will, on the steps necessary to start a business, or if they’re in business how to handle some difficult challenges in human resources or marketing.”

The workshops will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, room 302. That session, How to Write a Business Plan, will be taught by Rudasics, and the hour and a half class will cover the basics of creating and writing a solid business plan.

Then, on Wednesday, Feb. 23, the workshop series will continue with a session instructed by Kayleen Cohen with Mtn. Dog Media titled Pivot Your Business Online. That session will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Colorado Mountain College, room 213.

The workshops will then move to Craig, with Exceptional Customer Service taught Thursday, March 24, by Rudasics from noon to 1:30 p.m. The remaining Craig dates and subjects are as follows:

• Wednesday, April 6, Human Resources for Small businesses will be taught by Tina Harkness who is with Employers Council from noon to 1:30 p.m.
• Thursday, April 7, Planning a New Business will be taught by Rudasics from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 11, Marketing Your Business with Social Media from noon to 1:30 p.m.

All of the workshop sessions in Craig will be held at The Craig Chamber of Commerce, 775 Yampa Ave., and all of the Steamboat sessions will take place in various rooms at Colorado Mountain College, which is located at 1275 Crawford Ave.

The final scheduled session, Planning a New Business Startup, taught by Rudasics, will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, back in Steamboat at Colorado Mountain College, room 302.

Rudasics has been offering these types of workshops through the Yampa Valley Entrepreneurship Center for years, but said this year’s programs have been expanded to Craig because the programs are being supported by a grant.

“All the expenses will be reimbursed because of a Rural Business Development Grant provided by the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture),” Rudasics said. “The grants offset the expenses that I incur with outside speakers, my own personal travel up to Craig and promoting the workshops mostly through social media.”

Rudasics is partnering with the Craig Chamber Commerce and Colorado Northwestern Community College in getting these programs rolled out to the community.

“The entrepreneurial sessions … I’ve done it over many years, so I’ve got those PowerPoints well defined, but the marketing ones are not necessarily my strength, so I did bring in outside speakers,” Rudasics said. “These are all free and supported by this grant.”

Rudasics plans to have the events set up on Eventbrite.com by the end of the week, but said those interested in the Yampa Valley Entrepreneurship Center workshops can also call him directly at (970) 870-4491 to get registered.

“People can call me and do that manually. I will take their name and contact information and put them on a list for any of these programs coming up,” Rudasics said. “Here at the Yampa Valley Entrepreneurship Center, we are always trying to help entrepreneurs and small business owners fulfill their dreams.”