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Business Boot Camp teaches about startups

May 02, 2017 10:54AM ● By Kelly Cannon

Entrepreneur John Richards explains the process of creating a startup business during the Business Boot Camp. (Kelly Cannon/City Journals)

By Kelly Cannon | [email protected]
 
Cottonwood Heights City has a continuing series of seminars called Business Boot Camp aimed at educating business leaders in improving and maintaining their business. The latest of these boot camps was held on March 23 at the Cottonwood Heights City Hall.
 
“We really want to expose our business owners to a lot of information and educational opportunities,” said Peri Kinder, the business development coordinator of Cottonwood Heights. “Not only to get businesses exposed to educational opportunities but also networking between each other and help each other make their businesses grow.”
 
The focus was on startup businesses and how to avoid the pitfalls many startups encounter. The seminar was led by John Richards of Startup Ignition.
 
“Richards is really well known in entrepreneurial startups and how to make them work,” Kinder said. “We thought he’d be great to bring in to help people who might want to start a business on how to get started.”
 
Richards, who is an entrepreneur and investor, said the biggest reason startup fail is because they don’t do things in the right order. According to Richards, a startup needs to follow a six-step path in order to succeed.
 
The first step is discovery, where the business owner confirms whether they are solving a meaningful problem. Next is validation, where the owner seeks validation that people are interested in the business’ solution to a meaningful problem. Next is efficiency, where the business model is refined and efficiency is improved. The next step is scaling, where growth is driven aggressively. The last two steps are sustaining the business and renewing the business model based on the growth.
 
Richards said a major pitfall new startups make is they try to scale or grow their business too soon before a sustainable plan is in place.
 
According to Kinder, there have been several topics covered by the various Business Boot Camp seminars.
 
“We’ve covered social media. We’ve covered conflict resolution. We’ve covered how to get a business started,” Kinder said. “It’s really gone across the gamut for topics that people are interested in.”
 
Kinder usually finds topics for boot camps from suggestions made by people or through her finding experts in their fields who are willing to share their knowledge.
 
In April, Kari Sikorski hosted a workshop teaching business owners how to take great photos for use on social media sites or promotional materials.
 
The next business boot camp will be at 5:30 p.m. on May 18 at Cottonwood Heights City Hall. The topic will be unconscious bias.
 
For more information about the Cottonwood Heights Business Boot Camps, visit http://www.cottonwoodheights.utah.gov