Whether in retail, wholesale, manufacturing or service, proper planning and management can mean the difference between sinking and swimming in today's turbulent economy.
Two entities with a long record of training and counseling small business owners, families and individuals, will continue to offer several courses this summer that can further career goals. The University of Georgia's Cooperative Extension Service will provide certifications in regional seminars to help business owners comply with new regulations. Meanwhile, the Small Business Administration, an agency of the federal government, and the Association of Small Business Development Centers, a sister organization operating through university systems across the country, will provide small business counseling and training for a wide range of topics in and around Bartow County.
Business counseling
and training
The Georgia SBDC network is organized through UGA, offering assistance to small business owners and those wishing to begin a business. The Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce will offer free business counseling and training every Tuesday with instructors from the Dalton SBDC office. Instructors are typically accomplished business owners with the experience to consult up and coming entrepreneurs on a multitude of issues.
On Thursday, July 15, the SBDC will conduct a free seminar at the Cartersville Chamber titled "How to Get a SBA Loan." Regular monthly seminars on starting a business and other topics are held in Kennesaw for a small fee. For more information on the SBDC and upcoming events, visit www.sbdc.uga.edu or contact the Dalton office at 706-272-2700.
Also on July 15, the SBA will conduct a course titled "The ABC's of Starting a Restaurant." The free seminar held in Atlanta will discuss business license requirements, IRS reporting, human resource laws, financing options and other essentials for food service ownership. For registration, visit www.sba.gov/ga or call 404-331-0100, extension 305.
UGA Extension lead-safe and healthy homes
Another entity of UGA offering career-enhancing courses is the UGA Cooperative Extension. On Tuesday, June 29, a course will be offered to certify individual renovators in compliance with new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency concerning the safe removal and disposal of lead paint.
In April, the EPA enacted new requirements for projects that will disturb the paint in pre-1978 homes, childcare facilities and schools. Any project disturbing more than 6 square feet of lead based paint indoors, 20 square feet of lead-based paint outdoors or any window replacement must be conducted using lead-safe work practices.
The eight-hour course will take place in Watkinsville, with instruction from a certified instructor from Greenville Technical College in South Carolina. Cost of admission is $260 and includes instruction and the lead certified renovator exam.
"All the training really is, is lead safe removal practices. So when I renovate, all I do is I learn how to renovate safely and put down plastic and protect my workers with masks and washing hands and things like that. It's really just how to do it safe so that you're not contaminating the soil, you're not contaminating the house, you're not hurting the people and the pets that live there," said Pamela Turner, UGA Cooperative Extension housing specialist.
The extension service's family and consumer sciences department will also host a two-day seminar this summer in Athens, Wednesday and Thursday, July 14-15. The Essentials for Healthy Homes Practitioners course will look at the home as an entire unit to help professionals in the home health and inspection industry assess problems as they relate to one another as opposed to chasing symptoms. The cost of the course is $100.
For more information and registration for these events, visit www.fcs.uga.edu/ext/housing or call 706-542-9165.