Today, December 17, 2014 is the 18th anniversary of the Alexandria SBDC. The photo accompanying this blogpost shows the ribbon cutting on the same day in 1996; you will probably recognize many of those in attendance. A few weeks ago the Alexandria SBDC held its first annual Holiday Kickoff celebration to highlight the accomplishments of… Read more »

This week, the Alexandria Veterans Business Enterprise Center hosted its fourth speaker series event. This event invites a successful veteran in business to share his or her experiences in business and tips on success after the military. This month’s event featured Laura Law-Millet, co-founder of the GI Film Festival. After a 14-year career as an… Read more »

We’re on the cusp of the holiday season where we might dreamily fantasize about Norman Rockwell-esque snowflakes, frosty windowpanes, twinkling lights, and smiles. Once we’re actually into the intensity of the season, however, it tends to take on a different cast and becomes more a scene of frustration, scowls, congested parking garages, and futile searches… Read more »

Our resident social media expert and blogger extraordinaire Ray Sidney-Smith discusses the importance of having a cohesive marketing campaign for the holiday season. For nearly the last decade, here in the United States, the biggest shopping day of the year has been the day after Thanksgiving. We all know it as Black Friday. However, for the savvy business owner especially… Read more »

This week’s post was written by Ray Sidney-Smith of W3Consulting, social media consultant and facilitator of the monthly Roundtable for the Alexandria SBDC. If you had all the time in the world, would you ever get much done? The British naval historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson would say unequivocally that you would not. After all, you… Read more »

This week, as we celebrate Alexandria Honors Veterans Week, the City publicly recognizes the value that veterans bring to our community at large. Here at the Alexandria Small Business Development Center, we recognize that veteran entrepreneurs enhance our business community as well. This recognition is part of what led to the formation of the Alexandria Veterans… Read more »

In an ideal world — one where small businesses have unlimited time and money — entrepreneurs would employ a bevy of experts to advise them in a variety of areas. In reality, most small businesses make do with limited resources and usually lack the capacity to engage consultants. There are, however, opportunities for business owners… Read more »

In the second of our two part series, we provide tips on website development after you have selected a firm to work with. 1. Don’t skimp on the strategy phase of your website redesign. A good website firm will have a defined process for determining what you want and need from your new website. This… Read more »

The process of developing a new website can seem overwhelming to many small business owners. There are so many variables, and most small business owners are not website development experts. During the redesign of the SBDC website in early 2014, our staff learned several valuable lessons that we wanted to share with our clients. In… Read more »

Many small business owners talk with their accountant (or try to find one) only at tax time.  Those who do, however, are missing the opportunity to develop a real relationship with one of the most important business advisors that you will have.  Accountants have a large range of expertise that will be crucial to you… Read more »