2011 WBN Small Business Development Grant Program – Applications Now Accepted

Through the support of Utah Valley community members and businesses, the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce Women’s Business Network (WBN) is proud to announce the new WBN Small Business Development Grant Program. The Program is designed to facilitate the growth of small, female-owned or -employed businesses in Utah Valley through the WBN’s three-fold mission:

The WBN mission is to empower professional women by promoting business connections, encouraging diverse personal and professional networks, and providing development opportunities.

Towards fulfillment of this mission, two grant recipients will receive the following benefits:

• $1000 Small Business Development Grant
• Free Registration for Two at the 2011 WBN Holiday Luncheon and Silent Auction Scholarship Fundraiser (11:30AM on December 8 at Thanksgiving Point; $50 Value)
• One Year Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce Membership (Valued at approximately $400)

Application guidelines for the 2011 Small Business Development Grant Program are as follows:

• All applicants must be female and be employed within or the owner of an organization in Utah Valley with five or fewer employees. Applicants do not need to be current members of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.
• All applicants must successfully demonstrate organizational mission and vision, viable products or services, and adequacy of business planning.
• Grant funds are reimbursement-based and purchase receipts must be submitted to the WBN for reimbursement within six months from the date of grant award. Electronic receipts, including scanned copies of original receipts, must be submitted via email to wbn@thechamber.org with a brief narrative explanation of the expense.
• Grant funds are approved for new development expenses, such as marketing, website development, graphic design, attorney or accounting fees, equipment, et cetera.
• Purchases made prior to grant award will not be considered for reimbursement.
• The application deadline is November 12, 2011. Grant applications must be submitted electronically to the WBN at wbn@thechamber.org.

The WBN Board will review applications at its November Board meeting. Grant recipients will be notified in writing.

To apply for the Program, download and complete the 2011 WBN Small Business Development Grant Application. All applications must be received by November 12, 2011. Late applications will not be considered.

April 2011 WBN Luncheon Follow-up: Intellectual Protection

Our April luncheon for the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce Women’s Business Network (WBN) luncheon was held Thursday, April 14th at  Heritage Schools, Inc.  We were pleased to hear from our 2010 scholarship recipients as they end their school year.  Applications are currently being reviewed to choose the 2011 scholarship recipients.  Your support continues to make these scholarships possible!

Randall B. Bateman

The luncheon speaker was attorney Randall B. Bateman, who spoke on “The Enormous Power and Importance of Intellectual Protection.”  Intellectual property includes patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, domain names, and patents.  Bateman pointed out how protecting this property protects your business.

Patents protect your inventions, but may not be worth the cost if you don’t intend to make money with it.  Common patent pitfalls include the lack of documentation and timing problems.  Be aware that if you sell a product before it’s patented, there is only a one year window for getting the patent once you’ve made the item public.  If you wish to get a patent in Europe, you must apply before selling (disclosing).

The theft of trade secrets has become serious business and can quickly become a problem if employees take client lists, formulas, training materials, etc. and use them for their own gain or sell them to competitors.  For small businesses, your biggest threat isn’t your competitor – it’s your employees! Take steps to keep trade secrets safe by limiting access and having nondisclosure and/or noncompete agreements.

We got to play a game on recognizing trademarks (pictured).  Adding the ™ symbol indicates a trademark and you can do this without having to file any paperwork.  Even stronger is having the ® symbol that indicates your trademark has been registered with the government. Luncheon participants were given a set of IP Worksheets, A Brief Guide to Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, and Trade Secrets.  Bateman also provides this information online, free of charge.

Announcements

• The North Utah County Women in Business have invited us to attend their conference on May 12th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Lehi.  This event will replace our regular WBN luncheon for May.  For more information or to register, go to the WIB website.
• Habitat for Humanity of Utah County has designated Thursday, May 5th, as “Women in Business Build Day.” This is a great opportunity to give back to the community while working alongside other businesswomen.  Spaces are filling up, so head over to the Habitat website to sign up soon.
• Heritage School is hoping to get a good audience for their students’ musical, “The Wiz”,  on May 13, 14, and 16. Group discounts are available.  More information can be found on Heritage’s blog.
• The Barbara Barrington Jones Foundation has been able to lower the cost to attend their Retreat for Women event in August.  More details and registration info is available on the foundation’s website.

Thanks to Five Star BBQ and Catering Company, Community Action Services and Food Bank, Mountain America Credit Union, and Heritage Schools, Inc. for sponsoring the April luncheon!  Thank you also to the Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation, who is our 2011 Angel Sponsor!

       

Would you like some easy recognition for your business?

If you or your organization would like to sponsor future events, contact Alison Dyer at ali@uvmag.com.  Or, you can simply bring a door prize of at least $5 value (in addition to any service discounts, if applicable) to a luncheon and we’ll mention your donation at the giveaway!

March 2011 Luncheon Followup – Networking

Jessica Egbert and Barbara Barrington Jones

Our March Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce Women’s Business Network (WBN) luncheon was phenomenal!  We met at The Hub at Corporate Alliance in Provo for our quarterly Nothing but Networking event.  The networking events are always popular, but this one broke attendance records!  Part of that was due to having the North Utah County Women in Business join us.  There were also a lot of new members and business women checking us out as a result of our participation in the recent Big Business and Technology Expo.  Welcome, everyone!!

In addition to a fantastic lunch catered by Copper Grill Catering (formerly A Viking’s Feast), we had fun getting to know each other during the networking activities.  Business cards were swapped and we learned some interesting things about each other.  I’m pretty sure some great connections were made and some of these businesses will be working with each other soon.

Some people have asked, “What exactly is a networking activity?” Networking activities help you increase your personal and professional networks and improve networking skills. A common activity we do is to have a numbered list of questions.  Participants are divided into smaller groups of 4-6 people and they each take a turn rolling dice or drawing numbers out of a box to decide which question they have to answer.  A wide variety of questions are used (What is your favorite food?  How did you end up at your current job?  Where would you live if you could?) and the answers to the questions not only help you to know the people in your group better, but also serve as conversation starters. I’ve found that I have an easier time remembering people’s names and where they work after learning more about them.

Next month’s luncheon will be on Thursday, April 14, 2011.  Watch for updates with all the details and make sure you register before the luncheon so we have enough food.  Because our group is growing, we’ll be looking for larger locations than we have used in the past.  Let us know if you have any ideas.

Thanks to Eli Kirk, Aspen Senior Care, and UV Expos for sponsoring this luncheon! Thank you also to the Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation, who is our 2011 Angel Sponsor!

Would you like some easy recognition for your business? If you or your organization would like to sponsor this or future events, your minimum $50 donation goes directly into the WBN Scholarship Fund and allows you a brief presentation to the WBN Luncheon attendees. For more information about this and future sponsorship opportunities, contact Alison Dyer at ali@uvmag.com.

Or

Bring a door prize of at least $5 value (in addition to any service discounts, if applicable) to the luncheon and we’ll mention your donation at the giveaway!

Understanding Digital Media – February Luncheon Follow-up

Our February WBN luncheon was held , February 10th at The Scera Center for the Arts.  We were excited to see a lot of new faces as well as some ladies we hadn’t seen in awhile.  The luncheon began with a networking activity and then it was time to eat the delicious lunch catered by Landmark II Catering.

Thanks to Habitat for Humanity of Utah County and Hawkins, Cloward, and Simister for  sponsoring this luncheon!  Thank you also to The Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation, our 2011 Angel Sponsor!

Our featured speaker was Michele Roberts, Director of Marketing and Communications for The Daily Herald.  She spoke onUnderstanding Digital Media and How it Applies to Your Business.  Michele pointed out that we are living in a global economy and your business needs to be online even to reach Utah Valley.  Physical location of a business is just not as important anymore. People in their 20s, 20s, 40s, and 60s use digital media differently, but they ALL use it.  Understanding your product, target market, and consumer needs is just as important in a digital world.  Digital includes email, mobile (texting, mobile sites), applications (apps), business websites (landing page, full website), search engine optimization (SEO), and social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BlipTV, FourSquare, blogs, etc.).

Digital is powerful and dangerous, but easy to manage when you understand it.  It’s important to learn how to guide it and vital that a company becomes what their intended consumer needs.  Utah ranks best in the nation for personal computer ownership, with 74.1% of homes owning a computer. Utah is also the most tech-savvy state in the nation.  Forrester predicts that interactive marketing will grow 17% through 2014, led by social media (increasing 34%). Mobile  (increasing 27%), display advertising (17%), search engines (15%), and email (11%) will follow.  Michele noted that Utah Valley consumers are generally seen as tech savvy, young, educated, and cheap.

According to a new survey recently announced by Ruder Finn, Americans are spending an average of 2.7 hours on the mobile Internet, connecting socially, managing their personal finances, and even as a means for advocacy.  While 79% of traditional desktop users go online to socialize, 91% of mobile phone users do. Mobile phone users are 1.6 times more likely to manage finances compared to traditional desktop users. Mobile phone users are 1.4 times more likely than traditional desktop users to rally support for a cause. The survey states, “Mobile phones have become the way people organize their lives…and this trend will…accelerate…the faster businesses can adapt their services…the more rapidly they can…understand their customers to drive growth.”

Next month’s luncheon will be a Nothing But Networking event, beginning at 11:30 am on March 10th at Corporate Alliance. Would you like some easy recognition for your business? If you or your organization would like to sponsor an event, your minimum $50 donation goes directly into the WBN Scholarship Fund and allows you a brief presentation to the WBN Luncheon attendees. For more information about this and future sponsorship opportunities, contact Alison Dyer at ali@uvmag.com.  Another option is to bring a door prize of at least $5 value (in addition to any service discounts, if applicable) to the luncheon and we’ll mention your donation at the giveaway!

FYI – Habitat for Humanity is working on a women’s week building event and would like to know if there’s enough interest to have a “women in business” day.  It would be a half day event on a week day.  If there is enough interest, we’ll keep the details coming.

2010 Holiday Luncheon Followup

 

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  We had a great time at this year’s Holiday Luncheon.  WBN members gathered at the Rose Room at Thanksgiving Point on Thursday, December 9, for food, fun, and fundraising.  The setting was beautiful and there was plenty of room.  To mix things up, each lady drew her table assignment out of a hat.  The gifts from the table sponsors were also mixed throughout the tables, generating good conversation at each table about each of the gifts and the sponsor who gave them.  Networking was in full bloom as we enjoyed Thanksgiving Point’s wonderful food.

The silent auction had a little bit of something for every possible taste and budget.  One of the gift baskets even had a fish that would come to life once you added water!  The proceeds from the sponsorships and the silent auction went to support the WBN scholarship program.  The WBN Board is thrilled to announce that we exceeded our goals and are heading into the new year with a great start.  Thank you to all our sponsors and donors!!

Watch for information on our January 2010 luncheon.  We’re excited to see new people joining our ranks and hope to see even more.  Spread the word and encourage other business women you know to enjoy what the Women’s Business Network has to offer.