The fifth edition of Carroll Business Academy, a program consisting of four seminars designed to support local businesses held by the Downtown Sykesville Connection, begins Friday.
“The DSC Economic Restructuring Committee’s mission is to support the local business community so, we decided to organize free professional development sessions featuring important information on today’s hot topics in the business world for the merchant to attend and learn,” said Julie Della-Maria, executive director of Downtown Sykesville Connection.
The seminars will be held on Sept. 27, Oct. 10, Oct. 25 and Nov. 7 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Beasman Auditorium, 7200 Third Ave., Sykesville.
The seminars offered are Game Changers for Small Business, Key Financial Concepts for your Family and Business, Retail Industry trends and Analysis and Marketing tools for Small Business, which will be hosted by Google as the finale to the program.
On average, about 25 to 55 participants sign up for the seminars in the program. This year, the DSC is expecting 30 to 40 people for the first three seminars and about 60 people for the Google seminar.
All but one of the seminars are free, which is the last one that’s hosted by Google, but you must register for the ones you go to. Participants do not have to attend all of the seminars, they can go to whichever and however many seminars they decide to register for.
According to Della-Maria, the goal of the program is to offer resources “to small business owners that will maintain their success and competitiveness.”
Della-Maria hopes that these seminars will help give people the information they need for their business in the best format.
“From financial tips to marketing advice, I hope they leave the session with ways to better their service/business, strategize their marketing effort or even understand to use online tools in a more productive way,” said Della-Maria.
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One of the program’s sponsors is the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, which has been sponsoring the program for the past couple years.
“We’re all about Main Street business throughout all of Sykesville,” said Carroll County Chamber of Commerce President Mike McMulllin. “You see a town like Sykesville where they really come together to bring education in for the mainstream business owners.”
McMullin thinks the program will help local businesses in a lot of ways.
“Most folks that open up their own shop maybe are not experts at the different topics that they’re going to be presented with during this,” said McMullin. “They may be amazing restaurant owners or know how to make food and they might know a lot of things like that but how to run a business and all the different aspects — you really need a village to help you with that. That’s what they do here.”
According to McMullin, despite their Westminster location, the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce is the chamber for all of Carroll and is “extremely proud of what they’ve been doing in Sykesville.”
The program is also sponsored by NWSB Bank and the South Carroll Business Association.
Those interested can sign up on the Downtown Sykesville Connection website. There isn’t a deadline to register for the seminars, but once the seminars are full, those interested will no longer be able to sign up.