Business Basics & Beyond - Workshop Series
Back by popular demand, SFMade’s Business Basics & Beyond workshop series returns this summer to support early-stage Bay Area manufacturers. Join us for 8 high-impact workshops designed to help you build and grow your business.
Time & Location
Jun 26, 2025, 10:30 AM – Aug 21, 2025, 1:00 PM
Zoom Sessions
About the event
Running your own business requires you to wear a ton of hats — too many to fit sometimes. It can feel like there’s not enough hours in the day to do everything you need to do and for every problem solved, a new one pops up like a big game of whack-a-mole.
We are hosting our second round of workshops designed specifically for new and small, but growing businesses to help you focus your energy on tackling the most important and common operational challenges you’ll face as a business owner.
Workshops will cover topics such as: business registration compliance, crucial marketing foundations, pricing your products, best practices for managing inventory, optimizing your eCommerce store, financial literacy, and advice for hiring your first employee(s).
Course Outline
June 26th: Side Hustle to Serious Business: Getting Set UP
Making your business official? Run through the required common — and not so common — places you’ll need to register, including information on registering your business with local government, so you’re ready to hit the ground running.
July 10th: Marketing Foundations: Understand Your Customers and Competition
Make the most of your efforts by learning who is — and who is not — your target customers so you can focus your energy selling to them. Learn what your competition is doing, or not doing, to find opportunities to differentiate yourself.
July 17th: Optimizing Your eCommerce Store
You got customers to your website, now what? Keep them there! Learn methods and best practices for how to organize and layout your store so that you provide a great experience and promote additional sales.
July 24th: Hiring Your First Employee(s) with Kerry Lange
Too many hats not enough heads? This workshop will cover what you need to know and prepare for when making the very big decision to hire your first employee(s).
July 31st: Charging What You’re Worth with Daniel Wiser
Learn methodologies to help you tackle one of the toughest challenges: Charging the “right” price. Daniel Wiser will cover several strategies all with the goal of helping you find that ideal Manufacturers Recommended Retail Price (MSRP).
August 7th: Inventory Management Foundations
Whether it’s your garage, storage unit, or a small warehouse, learn about effective ways to organize, track and manage your inventory to keep your running smoothly and prepare you to scale.
August 14th: Understand Your Finances with Adam Fragen & Ramandeep Shergill
Learn effective ways to set up your business accounting so you can accurately track your financial health and make informed business decisions.
August 21st: Office Hour
A time to come together to ask questions, get answers, and wrap up the workshop series. This includes opportunities to discuss how you can use the info to apply to your businesses going forward.