Small Biz Focus: This New Year at BizLaunch

This column is written by Tara Palacios and sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

Happy Holidays! Here’s to a recharging of the business batteries in 2018.

In BizLaunch, our one and only New Year’s Resolution is to continue developing exciting new in-depth program opportunities that will help take your business to the next level. We promise, this resolution will not end in January. Therefore, it is with pleasure we can announce our latest collaboration with a long-term partner, and to offer more ways to help build your business in Arlington in 2018.

Beginning this January, BizLaunch and SCORE DC will formally partner on a variety of entrepreneurial workshops from advanced social media training to lead generation to how to become an 8(a) contractor and much more. Currently, we have a formal relationship with mentorship opportunities and special events; however, we will be able to increase our number of educational programming opportunities in the New Year with our latest endeavor. What does this mean for local entrepreneurs? This means more in-depth programming to help our businesses succeed.

As we say hello to new opportunities with SCORE, we’d also like to formally thank a long-time supporter, mentor and overall amazing guy — local Arlingtonian — Joe Clarke. Joe Clark has mentored and volunteered with SCORE for countless hours to help guide local entrepreneurs and small businesses within BizLaunch for the past 10 years. We can’t begin to thank Joe enough for his tireless energy and ability to help others in an engaging, fantastic way.

I am sure if you look around town several local businesses have worked with Joe over the years. Joe will be “retiring,” from SCORE as of December, 2017. However, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if his latest endeavor is a brewpub. If you have worked with Joe — please give him a special shout-out in the comments below.

We have a ton of opportunities scheduled for this New Year. We look forward to seeing you in 2018. Our first small business program Pick Me will be held at Arlington Economic Development on January 24. We will be offering more networking opportunities, plus BizLaunch will continue its partnership with Arlington Independent Media offering small businesses the ability to raise their voices. Stay tuned. We hope you can join us!