Business Planning 101

Read the following phrases: financial forecasting, budgeting, balance sheet, financial statement, cash flows, and sources and uses statement.

Did your eyes just glaze over?

Preparing these statements can seem daunting, but learning the terminology is your pathway to securing financing and unlocking longterm success for your business.

Join us for a workshop on how to prepare (or update) financial statements! This is a Zoom webinar which will air on Monday, August 15 from 1-3 pm MST. Admission is free of charge and a recording will be made available to those who register.

Our Business Development/Loan Specialist, Carrie Taylor, will be covering the following subjects:

• The basic principles of financial statements. • Preparing projections, cash flows, personal and business financial statements and sources and uses statements. • Using LivePlan (we have access to free software that makes formatting your plan a breeze!)

This particular webinar was designed with the Montana Department of Commerce’s Indian Equity Grant Fund (IEF) Small Business Grant program as a framework, but is applicable to all small business entities. For those who are applying for the IEF program, please note that applications are due August 31, 2022.

Carrie Taylor specializes in small business consulting. Her passion for assisting small business owners achieve their goals led her to a 20+ year career in banking. As a former bank branch president, she focused on ag, commercial and consumer lending. She grew up on her family’s ranch in Jackson, Montana, graduated from Montana State University-Bozeman and is a 2016 graduate of the rigorous three-year Pacific Coast Banking School.

Please visit www.sweetgrassdevelopment.org to learn more about upcoming events, including public “pop-in meetings” for the 2022-2027 CEDS!

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The North-Central Montana Economic Development District, dba Sweetgrass Development, is a private, non-profit corporation created in 2004 to support economic development in the Blackfeet Nation, the Montana Chippewa Little Shell Tribe, and the counties of Glacier, Cascade, Pondera, Teton and Toole, as well as the Blackfeet Nation. We are a diverse area that includes a large metropolitan area, many small towns, rural farming areas, several Hutterite Colonies, and the Blackfeet Reservation. An eighteen-member Board of Directors governs Sweetgrass Development. The Board is comprised of community leaders who are elected or appointed officials as well as business owners and representatives of the communities.