Experienced Advisor Track
Angel Investing – Beyond ABC’s Shark Tank
Joe Richardson, Eastern NY Angels Capital, LLC
Monday, 9:00-10:15
Program Description: Angel Investing- Getting started with sources of funds, business phases, funding cycles, valuation guide, angel and seed rounds, venture rounds and funding sources.
Presenter Information: Joseph Richardson is an Operating Director at Delta Point Capital Management, LLC, a private equity fund established for change of control transactions. He retired from Berkshire Bank in 2009 having served 42 years in corporate banking. He also managed a portfolio of low-income housing tax credits and new market tax credit projects for direct investment. Over the course of his banking career, he aggregated $100,000,000 in total investments in New York and Vermont. For a brief period of time Joe was also the Director of Economic Development for the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce.
He is a graduate of St Lawrence University with a BA in Economics. He is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University, holds several Graduate Diplomas from the University of Oklahoma National Commercial Lending School and is a Certified Commercial Lender as designated by the American Bankers Association.
Joe has been an active member of many community organizations such as the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce, WMHT Educational Communications, NYBDC’s Capital District/Champlain Regional Loan and Advisory Committee, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Robert Morris Associates, Antique Art Glass Salt Shaker Collection Society, Hudson-Mohawk Road Runners, Capital Affordable Housing Partnership and the Fort Orange Club.
He is currently the Founder and is on the Management Committee of Eastern NY Capital Angels, LLC. (ENYA) The two ENYA angel funds provide long-term capital appreciation and regional job growth through seed investments in early stage, emerging technology growth companies located in the Capital Region. ENYA was awarded a Technology Innovation Award by the Center of Economic Growth at their 19th Annual luncheon in 2015.
Joe resides in Slingerlands. When not volunteering for any good cause, you can find Joe hiking, canoeing, biking and perhaps even running a marathon!
Triple-Bottom Line Economics for Small Business
Myriam Bouchard
Monday, 10:30-11:45
Program Description: How can your clients place equal emphasis on the Planet (healthy environment), People (community well-being) and financial Profit to thrive?
Presenter Information: Myriam Bouchard is a former Mid-Hudson SBDC award-winning certified business advisor. She has over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur. She earned her MBS at Syracuse University and is currently the Treasurer of Re>Think Local, an organization dedicated to helping foster healthy local economies. Myriam owns her own consulting business and designs websites.
Factoring
Andy Allaire, Regional Marketing Manager, AmeriSource Funding
Monday, 2:00-3:15
Program Description: This session will provide a basic overview of Factoring and Asset Based Lending. It will give advisors a working knowledge of the essentials of factoring and when it can and cannot be used. We will also talk about the comparison between Factoring and Cash Advance Lending which is a growing trend and often not a good fit for sustainable financing.
Presenter Information: Andy has been the Regional Marketing Manager at AmeriSource since 2001. Prior to this, he worked for GE Capital and HSBC/Marine Midland Bank. His career has been mostly involved in commercial financing.
Marketing – How your clients can get more customers, who will pay them more money, more often – the fastest, easiest, most cost effective ways possible
Paul Furse, Head Coach, Ascend Marketing, Inc.
Monday, 3:30-4:45
Program Description: By learning and applying the profit proven, scientific principles that have always driven successful marketing, your clients can confidently, predictably, and repeatedly draw greater numbers of customers who will visit more frequently, and spend more during each visit - many of which can be accomplished at surprisingly low cost, and many, even free!
This presentation will be a brief yet concise overview of these principles, as they might appear "from 35,000 ft", yet there will be many immediately actionable items included, so that you can see the immediate practical applicability of many of these concepts.
Presenter Information:Paul Furse has been managing and/or consulting small businesses for more than 20 years. As a Regional Manager for one of the world’s largest corporations, he regularly consulted with hundreds of small business clients on improving sales volume, profitability, cash flow, and morale. Paul was brought in to turn around a badly under-performing operation. With his leadership, the Regional Service Center quadrupled its volume, repeatedly set production records, achieved the lowest cost-per-account ratio in the nation and received the coveted “Most Improved Office” award.
He then continued his career as an analyst for one of the world’s largest consulting firms specializing in small to medium sized businesses.
Paul is also an entrepreneur who has built several small business ventures. As a PCM Coach he brings all of this experience to the benefit of a business enterprise, along with his unique analytical skills and the powerful principles, strategies and tactics of the Principle-Centered Marketing System.
Wix
Adam Wozney, Community Manager, Wix
Tuesday, 9:00-10:15
Program Description: A representative from Wix will walk you through how small businesses can create a beautiful, professional web presence at no cost. This presentation is designed to show SBDC representatives how easy it is to build websites and teach others how to build them as well. Also discussed with be WixEd, a free on-line educational platform and the Wix Lounge.
Presenter Information: Adam Wozney manages small business partnerships, community events and social media for wix.com. Adam specializes in strategic partnerships, experiential marketing, and communications. He is also a freelance digital marketing expert with a passion for civic engagement. Previous to working at Wix, Adam worked for Google, Zooppa and other technology startups.
The Blue Economy
Andrew Delmonte, Certified Business Advisor, SBDC Buffalo
Sue McCartney, Director, SBDC Buffalo
Tuesday,10:30-11:45
Program Description: The SUNY Buffalo State Small Business Development Center has launched a new training program for small business entrepreneurs titled “Entrepreneurship in the Blue Economy.” In response to a deluge of new business opportunities and success stories in Western New York that combine stewardship of our water and natural resources with innovative business models, we began this six-week program to train new leaders in the blue economy. Blue economy enterprises share a common emphasis on the responsibility of businesses to their local communities and to the global environment, on the principle of “doing well by doing good,” and on the mutuality of business, society, and the environment. Hear from Andrew Delmonte and Susan McCartney of the Buffalo SBDC about how to bring the blue economy to your clients across the state.
Presenter Information: Andrew Delmonte is a Certified Business Advisor and the Social Enterprise Coordinator at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at SUNY Buffalo State. At the Buffalo SBDC, Andrew provides specialized counseling services for social entrepreneurs in the areas of social business planning, financing strategies, Benefit Corporations and cooperatives, and social/environmental impact measurement and reporting. Andrew serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of Buffalo First, and on the Board of Directors of the Nickel City Housing Cooperative. He also serves on the Leadership Team of the New York State Sustainable Business Council and on the Economic Development Committee of the Elmwood Village Association.
Susan McCartney is the Director of the SUNY Buffalo State Small Business Development Center and is the Special Advisor to the Provost for Economic Development. Susan is a New York State Certified Business Advisor and is a specialist in strategic planning. Additionally, she co-manages the SUNY Buffalo State Office of Research and Economic Development. She is also an adjunct professor in the SUNY Buffalo State Business Department, where she teaches the cap-stone course, Strategic Management. Susan earned her doctorate and MBA from the University of Buffalo. She also holds a BA in Art History from UB and a BS degree in Biology from Syracuse University. Susan’s community involvement includes the El Museo Board of Directors, Daemen College’s Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement Advisory Board, Italian Cultural Center Board of Directors, and the County of Erie MWBE Utilization Board.
Co-Working and Freelancing
Frank Cetera, Business Advisor, SBDC Onondaga
Wednesday, 9:00-10:15
Program Description: Co-working offices are work spaces, networking places, learning rooms, and social hangouts, by and large for the freelancing community, but also for the entrepreneurial and business communities in general. Statistics show that workers are happier, more productive, and able to access more resources in many different parts of their lives, than they were participating in traditional offices or at-home work-spaces. Learn about this movement and how it can improve local networking and service distribution through activities such as desk sponsorship, One Million Cups, the Freelancers Union, and the collective economy.
Presenter Information: An SBDC Advisor since 2008, Frank is integrated with the freelancing community through pants-in-chair working at Syracuse Co-works, participating as a presenter and audience contributor in One Million Cups Syracuse, and engaging with the national freelancing community through the Freelancers Union.
Frank has been on the forward thinking edge of the business and entrepreneurial communities in Syracuse and New York State, having created the first co-working office in Syracuse in 2009, known as Alchemical Spaces, an 8-desk shared office space in the Gear Factory studio warehouse.
He has also been instrumental in creation of the NY Cooperative Network, which will be holding a day-long Network Gathering at the 2016 CommonBound conference in Buffalo, NY, to develop a working business model and implementation strategy for a statewide Cooperative Business Association.
Social Media - Meeting of the NYSBDC Social Media Group
Amelia Birdsall, Web Content Manager, SBDC Central
Wednesday, 10:30-11:45
Program Description: For NYSBDC staff members who are responsible for social media marketing at the Central Office and the regional centers. While the Social Media Group discusses issues of internal social media policy and activity via email throughout the year, this in-person session will allow for more in-depth discussion of what’s working and the opportunity to ask and answer each other’s questions.
Presenter Information: The Social Media Group is made up of NY SBDC staff members responsible for internal social media marketing. Amelia Birdsall is the NY SBDC Web Content Manager and primary administrator of social media accounts at the State level.