DATES:

September 28 & 29

AGENDA:

8:00 am
Networking & Check-in
8:30am to 5:00 pm

LOCATION: TBD

Marketing, Finance & Leadership Led by Upstate's Best Business & Technical Experts

Branding – your competitive advantage (Marketing)

• Strategic positioning to raise capital & secure partners, distribution channels, customers, & committed employees
• What is a brand & why brand – fundamental elements
• Best practices in naming, positioning & message development
• The art & science of identifying & marketing a brand
• How brand is critical to business & funding success

Finance

• Understanding the basic "levers"which drive your financial model
• Quick & dirty forecasts
• Key concepts & issues
• How sales affects all expenses & determines profitability
• Methods of projecting sales estimates
• Generate best-case/worst-case scenarios

Leadership

• Your values, your vision, Leadership RisingSM drivers/principles, High GainSM participating sheets, people & performance
• Leadership coaching – tackle specific questions & issues with a professionally trained executive coach

DATES:

October 19 & 20

AGENDA:

8:00 am
Networking & Check-in
8:30am to 5:00 pm

LOCATION: TBD

Growth Strategy - People, Process, Technology

Goals for your venture - how to define and measure

• Review the big picture and set a course for driving growth, considering team, product/service, markets, partners, profitability
• How do you integrate your marketing strategy and sales strategy
• The basics of funnel math, metrics, lead generation
• Sales planning architecture
• Sales territory, strategic business unit (SBU), key account plans
• Pricing strategy and price optimization (competitive analysis, strategy differentiation)
• Forecasting (why, what do you need, how to)
• Why you must know ALL the numbers (bookings & revenue, #/account, growth rates, sales cycle times, pipeline size, close ratios)
• What you can afford in sales and marketing
• Can you prove that your sales model can “scale”

Sources of funding

• Where do I fit in the funding continuum
• “Investable” vs. “Lifestyle” businesses
• Using federal grants to fund R&D (SBIR/STTR)
• Monroe County Business Assistance
• Bank Financing
• City of Rochester Business Assistance
• High Tech Rochester & Rochester Angel Network
• Insyte-Consulting & Western NY Venture Association

Negotiating Term Sheets

Legal, investor & entrepreneur perspectives

DATES:

November 2 & 3

AGENDA:

8:00 am
Networking & Check-in
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

LOCATION: TBD

Led by National and Regional Experts

Five stages of growth

• What is a business plan & why do I need one
• How to move from vision - to strategy - to tactics - to action

Financial planning for your venture

• Understanding business & sales models
• Understanding gross margin
• Creating & using metrics & scorecards
• Creating bank & investor-ready financials
• Understanding valuation

The role of sales in your business plan & financials

• Understanding sales optimization
• Hiring the best sales athletes
• Performance metrics & follow up

Venture capital & angel group fundraising

• Rules of the road
• Who are they
• How do they invest

Communicating effective value propositions

• Tying competitive advantage to your customers’ ROI

DATES:

November 17

December 1 & 8

AGENDA

8:00 am
Networking & Check-in
8:30am to 5:00 pm

LOCATION: TBD

Led by Upstate's Best Business & Technical Experts

Provides real-time feedback from angels, VCs, bankers, strategic partners.

TEN alumni - new ventures and small businesses firms -always say this boot camp is a driving force to achieve goals. It serves as a "forcing function"to get entrepreneurs to move their growth strategy out of their own heads and into a format that could be communicated to their management team, potential customers, strategic partners and investors.

Creating Effective Sales Presentations and Investor Presentations

• Learn why TEN wraps up each class by teaching you how to build and deliver effective sales and investor presentations – both are essential to your growth strategy.

Marketing: Getting in the Selection Set with a Strong Value Proposition

• Learn the key elements of a good marketing plan
• Learn how to use what you’ve learned to prioritize marketing tactics and budget to reach your targeted segment

Building and Delivering Effective Presentations

• The ability to tell your story effectively can make or break a sales or investor presentation. Successful entrepreneurs master the “meat and potatoes” of strong content plus the ability to communicate clearly to elicit the desired response.
• Communicating a customer focused strategy
• Speaker self-awareness and audience awareness
• Staging techniques
• PowerPoint strategies

Introduction to the Sales Presentation Template and Working with Coaches

• Applying SMART Selling strategies and content
• Understanding your economic buyer and influencers
• Responding to objections and closing the deal

Introduction to the Investor Presentation Template and Working with Coaches

• How does the “meat” of my business plan measure up
• Pitch to the right audience
• Understand “business model” and “economic model”
• Valuation – why you need to know for yourself
• How to respond to investors

Day One - training & small group sessions

Day Two - Practice dry-run sessions

Day Three - expert judges give real-time feedback