Entrepreneur's Growth Conference: Trends and Strategies for Business Success

Duquesne University Small Business Development Center is celebrating its 15th Annual Entrepreneur’s Growth Conference on May 10, 2013.

This action-packed event has something for every business – just starting or growing fast - with workshops, a business building tradeshow and a keynote speaker at lunch.  Businesses looking to learn the hottest trends in social media, the latest strategies for finding and keeping customers and tips for increasing profits are invited.



Workshops include:

·         Starting a Business: A Roadmap to Success

·         Build a Better Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing a Great Business Plan

·         Before You Buy: Is a Franchise the Right Business for You?

·         Relationship Management: Tips to Find, Connect & Keep More Clients & Customers

·         Come On Big Money: How To Sell Your Business & Get Top Dollar

·         Re-Invent, Re-Invigorate, Re-Think: A Five-Year Strategic Action Plan for Faster Growth & Bigger Profits

·         Resources, Opportunities, and Ideas for Women & Minority Business Owners

·         Money, Money, Money: Who Has It & How To Get It

·         Deduct It! 15 Money-Saving Secrets of Tax Savvy Entrepreneurs

·         Next Generation Networking: How to Meet More Customers, Vendors, Partners & Friends Online & Offline

·         The Competitive Edge: How to be a Marketing Rock Star

·         The Social Savvy Entrepreneur: 15 Time-Saving Ideas to Build Business on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

·         Watch This: The Marketing Power of Online Videos

·         Clicks & Cash: What It Takes to Drive Website Traffic, Convert Visitors to Customers & Keep Them Coming Back



A special networking opportunity will be provided at lunch – many of the events speakers have volunteered to stay for lunch and host a table.  This is a chance for attendees to sit with the expert and pick their brain; get a few new ideas and network with others at the table as well.  There will be speakers who are discussing topics such as branding, finding money and social media.

The Entrepreneur’s Growth Conference begins at 8:00 a.m. with registration and networking and continues through 4:30 p.m. at Duquesne University.



Register at www.sbdc.duq.edu.


Use code Pitt13 and receive a $20 discount.  If your customer is small business, consider exhibiting.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Former Mrs. USA Rekindles Childhood Memories

Mrs USA 1993 Melanie Patterson

Former Mrs. USA turns house into living museum enabling guests to re-experience their childhood

BELLE VERNON, PA – There aren’t many guest houses in America where a June Cleaver look-a-like greets travelers as they check in for their stay – but that’s exactly what happens at “The Good Ole Days House,” where the ’50s through the ’70s come alive.

Ace Waggoner, 62, of Riverside Calif., recently was welcomed by proprietor Melanie Patterson, when he brought his wife home to the Mon Valley to visit family. For the Waggoner’s travelling home not only entailed logging some 3,000 miles but also about 50 decades. “This is my third time here,” he said. “I like the décor, it’s similar to what I grew up with; we’ve never seen a place like this.”

The 1928 house boasts working rotary telephones, glass milk jars and metal bread boxes while a Ladies Home Journal capturing Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding day graces the coffee table in the living room retrofitted with a circa-1950’s television. The bathroom houses a 1928 clawfoot tub where guests can suds their hair with “Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific” and “Lemon Up” shampoos. And while the game room might not boast an in-home theater, it does come equipped with a record player that spins popular 45” singles, as well as authentic toys and pinball machines from the ’70s.

The house, with its honeymoon-themed “Happy Days Hideaway for 2” located in her aunt’s neighborhood beauty shop occupying the backyard, is the inspiration of entrepreneur Melanie Patterson. Patterson is a former teacher, 1993 Mrs. Pennsylvania USA and national Mrs. USA title holder and inventor of PIBS (paper bibs on a roll that sold at local supermarkets for more than a decade), said she faithfully attended Duquesne University’s Small Business Development Center’s (SBDC) Entrepreneurial Growth Conference (EGC) where keynote speakers encouraged her to market to baby boomers.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh