From the City of Pine City:
Friday, September 25, 2020, at 10:10 during its regular meeting on September 24, the City Council of Pine City approved a proposal to assist up to 15 small business owners with short-term business coaching and the ability to build and manage an online presence.
The funding is a direct response to the struggles resulting from COVID, recognizing that small businesses need more than financial support that allows them to stay open longer; they need support to help increase revenue, reduce costs, and in some cases even reinvent themselves.
The business coaching will be conducted by the Small Small Business (SSB) Community, led by Steve Fredlund, MBA, FSA, SWP, a lifelong resident of East Central Minnesota. Although headquartered locally, SSB is a global network with coaches and clients spread over six countries on three continents.
“Understandably a lot of funding is being directed to helping small businesses stay open,” Fredlund shared in a statement. “This is, of course, important, but we also need to help them adjust their strategies to improve profitability during the pandemic and position themselves for greater growth and resiliency moving forward.”
There are three programs available, based on the needs of the business:
Private Coaching:
Four hours of individual coaching structured to maximize the impact for each owner
Lifetime free Learn & Connect membership at smallsmallbusiness.com
Post-program discounts on private coaching, group coaching, and mastermind groups
Building an Online Presence:
Professionally built website including SEO optimization and lead generation
Social Media Video Course with workbooks and tools needed to create one full year of social media posts in a single day
Lifetime VIP access to the Small Business Revival Social Learning group
Full creation and optimization of Facebook for Business
Coaching and training on other social media platforms
Ongoing support for all online presence
Post-program discounts on Facebook Ads programs, Virtual Administrative Support and
CRM Automation/Optimization
Private Coaching & Building an Online Presence:
Full benefits of both programs
To qualify for funding, the businesses must have a presence located within the city limits of Pine City and have less than 50 employees. Further, all elements of the programs must be completed by November 15. There is not an application process; instead businesses will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis. The Building an Online Presence Program takes approximately three weeks so we encourage interested businesses to reach out immediately. Any unused funds will be reallocated elsewhere by the City Council at their November 2 meeting. Fredlund is passionate about serving several businesses in the same area, “The SSB Community is helping individual small business owners around the world, but we are looking for a few communities whose small businesses we can really invest in. Research has shown an extremely strong link between small business health and community vitality.” The program will be supported by the Pine City Area Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Becky Schueller, although businesses do not need to be a member of the chamber to be eligible for coaching.
For more information, or to sign-up contact:
Steve Fredlund at steve@smallsmallbusiness.com or 651.587.5435
Becky Schueller at pinecitychamber@gmail.com or 320.322.4040
Lezlie Sauter at lsauter@pinecitygov.com or 320.438.1020
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