As your business expands, your legal structure can make or break your growth strategy.

This session guides small business owners through entity options beyond the startup phase, including multi-member LLCs, S Corporations, and partnerships. We discuss ownership agreements, liability protection, and how the right structure supports financing and long-term success.

Learn:

• The pros and cons of common growth-ready structures
• How ownership agreements protect you and your partners
• When it makes sense to transition from one entity type to another
• How lenders and investors view different business structures

This session is ideal for business owners ready to scale, take on partners, or strengthen their legal foundation for financing.

Brought to you by Capital Pathways, a no-cost program from the Virginia SBDC that helps small businesses get the funding they need to grow. The program is designed for very small (fewer than 10 employees), emerging, and growth-ready businesses that face challenges accessing traditional financing. It offers hands-on group learning, guided implementation, and extended one-on-one support focused on strengthening your finances, loan applications, and legal setup.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting how businesses operate, market, serve customers, and make decisions. This session is the basis for the AI Fundamentals series from Virginia SBDC and and is designed to help small business owners build a practical understanding of AI concepts and where AI can fit into their business operations.

 Learn how to:

• Gain more exposure to foundational AI concepts and terminology

• Identify practical ways AI can support business operations and decision-making

• Evaluate where AI tools may provide value within your business

• Develop a purposeful approach to adopting and using AI technologies

This workshop is designed for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to gain further understanding on AI and explore how it can be applied thoughtfully and effectively in their organizations.

Despite its reputation as a lifestyle industry, craft beverage production is serious business. Breweries, wineries, and distilleries need to have a strong legal foundation across a variety of domains – regulatory compliance, IP, sales contracts, and more.

In this conversation, SBDC Craft Beverage Assistance Manager Chris Van Orden asks John Szymankiewicz of the Beer Law Center about the many ways in which legal support can help craft beverage producers operate above board and avoid costly mistakes down the road.

Updated for 2026

Are you interested in pivoting more of your efforts to ONLINE SALES?

This session covers:

• The variety of websites available, the possibilities for upgrading yours to better accommodate online sales and the estimated costs to accomplish this!
• The various e-commerce platforms available and how to select the best based on your specific business needs.
• How to setup and manage your online storefront or service portal and how to use data and marketing to maximize returns.

Building strong credit is a foundational step toward financial stability, access to affordable financing, and long-term growth opportunities.

In this session, we walk through clear, practical steps to help you understand how credit works and how to fix common issues so you can pursue your personal and business goals.

This webinar explains personal and business credit scores and reports and breaks down real-world strategies small business owners can use to improve credit, correct common report errors, and prepare for future funding. We’ll connect credit habits directly to loan readiness and explain what lenders look for in your applications.

Learn:

• What credit is, how personal and business credit differ, and why both matter.
• How the three major credit bureaus collect information and calculate scores.
• How to access, read, and monitor your personal and business credit reports .
• How to identify and dispute errors using your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

This session the first step in a program that is ideal for business owners and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their credit before applying for loans. To participate in the program you must schedule a 1:1 advising session after viewing.

Brought to you by Capital Pathways, a no-cost program from the Virginia SBDC that helps small businesses get the funding they need to grow. The program is designed for very small (fewer than 10 employees), emerging, and growth-ready businesses that face challenges accessing traditional financing. It offers hands-on group learning, guided implementation, and extended one-on-one support focused on strengthening your finances, loan applications, and legal setup.

Getting your finances organized is the first step toward scaling your business or applying for funding.

In this session, we walk through simple, practical steps to help you structure your finances, build better habits, and prepare for next steps—whether that’s going after a loan or growing your operations.

Learn:

• How to separate personal and business finances
• What basic bookkeeping looks like (even using a spreadsheet)
• Simple systems to track income, expenses, and receipts What reports like an income statement can show you
• How to set goals and forecast your cash flow

This session is ideal for business owners who are ready to get structured before diving into accounting software.

Brought to you by Capital Pathways, a no-cost program from the Virginia SBDC that helps small businesses get the funding they need to grow. The program is designed for very small (fewer than 10 employees), emerging, and growth-ready businesses that face challenges accessing traditional financing. It offers hands-on group learning, guided implementation, and extended one-on-one support focused on strengthening your finances, loan applications, and legal setup.

Already using QuickBooks but want to take it further? This intermediate-level training will help you get more value from the platform by showing you how to use advanced tools, spot errors, and build better reports to support your business decisions.

You learn:

• How to reconcile accounts and fix common mistakes
• How to customize and analyze reports (income/P&L, balance sheet, cash flow)
• How to manage customers, vendors, and products/services more effectively
• Tips for cleaner books and smoother reporting

This session is perfect for QuickBooks users who are ready to go beyond setup and start using the platform more strategically.

Brought to you by Capital Pathways, a no-cost program from the Virginia SBDC that helps small businesses get the funding they need to grow. The program is designed for very small (fewer than 10 employees), emerging, and growth-ready businesses that face challenges accessing traditional financing. It offers hands-on group learning, guided implementation, and extended one-on-one support focused on strengthening your finances, loan applications, and legal setup.

In times of industry stress, craft beverage producers with a good handle on operations stand the best chance of coming out ahead. But how can company leadership ensure that the right systems, talents, and resources are in place?

In this session, Craft Beverage Assistance Manager Chris Van Orden speaks with Mike McGarvey of Minded, LLC about the vital role that the COO plays in the craft beverage space and how even the smallest producers can adopt best practices established by much bigger firms.

 Updated for 2026

Does your business need a mobile app?

In this bootcamp you will learn if your small business will benefit from having a mobile app, and the steps to successfully deploy and market your app on the app stores. Areas covered include:

• Market Research
• App Scoping
• Finding a Developer and Budget
• App Business Planning
• Marketing Approach
• Building a Prototype
• Launching an App
• Promoting App

Presented by Cameron Nelson, CEO of Tenzing Startup Consultants