Entrepreneur Education

Seminars and workshops focused on the needs of micro and small businesses in Everett, covering topics from basic business finance to landlord-tenant law to digital marketing and more.

Unlocking Opportunities:

A Guide to Small Business Financing

Do you get frustrated when your bank or credit union denies your loan application? Would you like to know what the bank looks at and how it evaluates your business and financials?

Join us on Thursday, April 18 at 4:30pm for a presentation on unlocking opportunities for your growing business! You will learn:

The basics of what a commercial lender does, the 5 C’s of credit, and loan structuring.
How to analyze your balance sheet and income statements.
Factors of cash flow, repayment, and the different methods to calculate it.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from your local community bank to help guide your business to new heights and growth!

Kevin Daniels is your Homstreet Bank Branch Manager at the downtown location. Kevin serves the City of Everett and the greater Snohomish County communities, bringing 8 years of invaluable experience in the banking and mortgage industry.e.

Request an Entrepreneur Education Topic

We want to ensure we’re covering topics that matter to you, our micro and small business owners. If there’s an area of your business where you could use support or a skill you’d like to further develop, we want to hear from you! Submit your topic and/or speaker ideas below to help us continue to provide relevant content.

Past Seminars & Workshops

The Power of Effective Follow-Up

Do you find following up challenging? Find yourself getting overwhelmed and end up not doing it? We’ve got you covered!

Join us on Thursday, February 8 for an insightful workshop where Rachel Morgan, a seasoned Retail Sales professional, will guide you through the nuances of effective follow-up.

In this workshop, you will:

• Learn what to say without sounding pushy

• Discover how effective follow-up lead to customer retention and loyalty

• Utilize various channels (i.e. email, text, phone, DMs, and cards) for a well-rounded strategy

Rachel’s proven techniques will empower you to level up your follow-up skills and show you how follow-up goes beyond merely asking for the sale.

Increase Your Sales

Are you struggling to meet your sales goals ? Not sure how to approach and engage customers without feeling pushy or “salesy?” Not sure what to say when customers are “just looking?” We’ve got you covered!

Join us on Thursday, August 10, 2023 for a seminar on increasing your sales without sounding salesy, presented by Rachel Morgan Coaching!

You’ll walk away knowing how to:

Engage a customer from the get go
Bring resources and tools back to your stores to use with your teams
Handle “just looking” customers
Guide the sale with confidence
Make stronger recommendations (and increase customer satisfaction and thus sales)

Rachel brings her frontline retail knowledge from working on the sales floor, proven techniques and strategies to boost sales, and tools to train teams to sell with enthusiasm and excitement to this session to help you learn to increase your sales and drive long-term growth in your business.

Preparing Your Business for Summer Events

Join us on Thursday, April 13, 2023 for the next installment in our Small Business Marketing series!

The sun is coming out and event season is just around the corner! Are you excited for the increased foot traffic, or anxious thinking about street closures?

The Downtown Everett Association and the City of Everett are partnering to provide tips on preparing your business for summer events. Placemaking Manager Tyler Chism and Economic Development Director Dan Eernissee will share an overview of major events coming to Downtown Everett this summer and what you can do to ensure your business benefits. From communicating with customers to sidewalk sales, we’ll cover best practices for operating during events and creative ways you can capitalize on increased foot traffic during events.

Start preparing now to take the stress out of events and make this summer fun (and profitable!).

Maximizing Your Business's Potential on Social Media

Join us on Thursday, February 9, 2023 for the first installment in our Small Business Marketing series!

John Rollins, owner of Social EKG, will explore the most effective strategies for using social media to promote your business and engage with your target audience. From building a strong brand identity to creating compelling content and leveraging analytics, you’ll learn how to create a social media strategy that drives real results for your business. We’ll also discuss the latest trends and best practices in social media marketing and how to stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Be You: Social Media + Your Secret Sauce

Thursday, November 10, 2022, we were at Think Tank Cowork with Mo Smith of I Love It When to learn about the importance of authenticity on social media and how to find your voice. Hear from your peers as local business owners share how they developed their unique social style and their approach to posting. More details from Mo are available below:

“Social media is the LAST thing any of us THINK we have time to do as business owners. What if there was a way to do it that felt easy, natural, and… like you?

My goal with this workshop is to inspire, motivate and give you some ways in which you can create more traction online and bring more people into your store and Downtown Everett! More people = more sales = positive growth in our beautiful city of Everett.

I’m looking forward to giving you something FUN to talk about that night!

Oh and PS… if you join us you’ll get a FREE headshot from a professional photographer. (Yes, you need one!)”

Hit Pause: Self Care for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

Mo Smith of I Love It When joined us at Life Ink by Bee on Thursday, October 13, 2022 for a conversation on maximizing business success this holiday season through prioritizing your wellness. A note from Mo to you:

“This class is for you if you’re exhausted, you always put yourself last on the list, and you’re looking for a way to bring some balance back into your life! Let’s take a moment to slow down, close that cash register and commit just this one evening to you.

We’ll be exploring some different techniques that you can utilize EVERY day to help you gain more peace and fulfillment while running your business.

Intrigued? Good – because I’ve heard lots of good things about you, and I’m looking forward to seeing your face there!”

Navigating Your Cashflow

Our first official workshop in our new speaker series, ‘Navigating Your Cashflow: Increasing cash in and decreasing cash out to maximize business success,’ will be presented by Walter Acuna. Walter is a Senior Business Consultant at Chase Bank in Everett, helping mentor entrepreneurs to understand and grow their businesses.

The presentation was hosted at Narrative Coffee on Thursday, September 8, 2022.

The HOW Behind the WOW: Creating Stellar Stores

On May 23, 2022, the Downtown Everett Association brought national retail experts Frontdoor Back to teach local businesses best practices of storefront design. Attendees learned the must-haves for creating eye-catching storefronts and engaging stores that increase foot traffic and boost sales. The design seminar, sponsored by DEA, was offered at no cost to businesses in Downtown Everett.

Following the seminar, the DEA contracted with presenters and retail experts Seanette Corkill and Anne Marie Luthro of Frontdoor Back to provide one-on-one consultations for individual stores. Ten businesses were selected through a competitive application process to receive consultations and reports at no cost to the business – five Tier I and five Tier II reports. These 60-minute on-site consultations provided business owners a Top 5 list of action items to get their stores looking and functioning at their best.

Tier I Report: Petrikor

Tier II Report: MyMyToyStore

Storefront Checklist