Lone Star College’s Small Business Development Center is hosting five free business success seminars to assist local small business at Lone Star College-Tomball from September 27 through October 25, 2012. The college is located at 30555 Tomball Parkway in Tomball.

The seminars provide local small businesses with the opportunity to learn new aspects of their business as well as network and learn from other small business owners. “We want to help businesses become established, grow, survive and succeed in our local area,” said Karen Cavallaro, senior consultant for the small business development center. “Free seminars such as our Small Business Success seminars as well as other professional consulting and training can give local small businesses the tools they need to thrive in our area.”

The series will be held on Thursday mornings from 8 to 9 am in room E-163. The topics include:

Driving Revenue with LinkedIn
September 27, 2012
Eric Standlee, American Prudential Capital
Business owners can give their business a boost by learning how to use LinkedIn to prospect and market their business and services from Eric Standlee. This presentation will include a step-by-step training of how to set up a profile and use it.

Selling on eBay
October 4, 2012
Chris M. O’Rourke, Outback Western Wear, Lone Star College 2011 Small Business of the Year
Chris O’Rourke from Outback Western Wear, the Lone Star College’s 2011 Small Business of the Year, will explain how he built a huge business selling globally from his store in Magnolia, Texas and how other small businesses can do the same.

Broken Windows Marketing
October 11, 2012
Nicole Finkbeiner, Executive Director, College Relations, Lone Star College – Tomball
Marketing on a tight budget can be tough, so it’s important that businesses get the most for their money when they are promoting themselves. In this humorous and engaging presentation, local marketer Nicole Finkbeiner will explain how a practice used by law enforcement across the United States can serve as a useful guideline in ensuring a business’ marketing is effective.  She will help businesses identify “Broken Windows” that are causing potential customers to run FROM instead of TO a business as well as low-cost solutions that every business can use to make the most of their marketing efforts.

Avoid that Computer Disaster and Sleep Soundly
October 18, 2012
Madelyn Feinberg, Avatar Computer Solutions
What type of computer system does a business need and how do they avoid losing valuable information?  What would happen if a business lost the last month of information entered into their computer? In this practical session designed for the non-geek, Madelyn Feinberg shares best Information Technology practices, mission critical applications for a small business, Cloud Technology, how to avoid viruses,  and six things every business should do to avoid a disaster.

Quickbooks – What You Need to Know
October 25, 2012
Deborah Hroch and Associates, Certified QuickBooks Pro and UH SBDC Quickbooks Instructor
Deborah Hroch will lead small businesses through a crash course in Quickbooks including determining if it is advantageous for a business to do their own bookkeeping. She will also provide useful tips on using the software correctly so a business’s books will be well done instead of cooked.

There is no pre-registration required and each session will include free pastries, coffee and juice and door prizes. Sponsors for the series include Lone Star College System, Lone Star College-Tomball, Harris County Public Library, Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce, Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce, Mangolia Parkway Chamber of Commerce, Magnolia Area Chamber of Commerce, and Tomball Economic Development Corporation.

For more information, visit lonestar.edu/SBDC or contact Karen Cavallaro at (832) 482-1057 or at Karen.S.Cavallaro@lonestar.edu.