Mastering short business course

For those who don’t have time for graduate school, Orange Coast College is helping people get their MBA ? in just a day.

The school is holding its annual Small Business Conference and Expo Wednesday with the theme “MBA in a Day.” The six-hour conference will include 11 workshops spread out in four sessions, covering such topics as using QuickBooks software, marketing your business with e-mail and financing options from Small Business Administration lenders.

The event’s keynote speaker will be Dave Kilby, senior vice president of the California Chamber of Commerce, giving a speech entitled “Common sense to help take your business to the next level.” There will also be dozens of exhibitors on hand, many focusing on business-to-business services, organizer Janis Dinwiddie said.

“We want to give the attendees a chance to speak one-on-one with these folks,” she said.

Radio host Bob McCormick will broadcast his “Money 101” show from a makeshift KNX 1070 studio created for the expo. Audience members will be allowed to ask questions during the broadcast and interact with McCormick.

“We really want to encourage small biz owners from new start-ups to folks that have been in business for a few years,” Dinwiddie said.

A lot of the expo will focus on new opportunities in the marketplace. “Technology is really changing the way businesses interact in the market place,” she said. “Things like the Internet have really changed the way many approach businesses. There’s also several new financing options out there that many businesses aren’t aware of.”

The small business expo was created in 2000 as a way to get information to business leaders who didn’t have a lot of extra time on their hands.

“What we’ve found is that sometimes they just can’t get the information they need because they can’t take a lot of time away from their business,” Dinwiddie said. “This is a chance to compress a large amount of information into a short period of time and help them think through what they are working on currently.”

Founder George Blanc said he started the expo because he was constantly being approached by local chambers of commerce in search of counselors for fledgling business owners. Blanc later formed the Small Business Assistance Center, an economic resource that gave free advice to start-ups. Blanc left OCC and now owns his own consulting firm.

“Small business owners sometimes feel like they’re by themselves struggling as a business,” he said. “Sometimes you just need a refresher course on what’s important.”