Region: Portland Metro

Westside Pitch is a startup competition for Washington County entrepreneurs seeking to showcase their early-stage businesses. Competitors will have the chance to pitch their business venture to a panel of local investors to win cash and other prizes.

Eligible competitors include all entrepreneurs who either operate their business or live in Washington County. The 6 selected finalists will have developed a unique product or service that solves a problem/need in a national or international market.

This is a great opportunity to increase the visibility of your venture to investors, city/county executives, and the general public.

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 31, 2023

Plan Your Website for Online Success

You know you need a website for your business. But, how do you set it up for online success?

First, you need to have a solid plan in place. Fortunately, this webinar will help with exactly that!

After this webinar you’ll have a better understanding of:

Your website’s audience
Feature and functionality needs
Content planning
How to choose the right platform
Best practices for online success
After this webinar, you’ll have a comprehensive plan in place for your business’s website. Attendees may also request the free workbook upon completion of the webinar.

Jessica Baldwin | Co-Founder | Cardsetter

Jessica is the Co-Founder of Cardsetter, an easy-to-use website platform with custom design and setup included. Jessica has been helping small businesses launch successful websites for over seven years. She also spent more than ten years growing her own successful blog and entertainment website for Billings, MT, Billings365.com. Jessica has been on both sides of website development, as the client and then later as the development company, giving her a robust understanding of the entire process.

Are you new to the importing business or plan to start soon? Do you need a refresher on your existing importing knowledge? This workshop will provide valuable insights to help you jumpstart your importing operation. Areas covered include but are not limited to the import process, the role of US Customs and Customs House Brokers, and your responsibilities as the importer on record. The workshop will also help you familiarize yourself with the differences between DeMinimus, formal, and informal entries. The basics of product classification using the Harmonized System (HS), the essential documents required by US Customs when you import, an introduction to the Incoterms 2020, and resources you can use to increase your knowledge about Importing Into The USA.

At the end of this workshop, you should be able to:

Identify the skill sets you need to start an import business.
Learn the steps in a typical import transaction process.
Understand your responsibilities before filing Entry documents with Customs as the importer on record.
Learn the basics of your product classification, admissibility, valuation, record keeping, marking, Free Trade Agreement, and Incoterms-2020.
Understand the difference between Informal & Formal Customs Entry and the essential documents required by Customs.
Learn what you should tell your exporter before you import.
Locate importing Into the USA resources.
Presenter Tekle Sebhatu, Ph.D., has over 24 years of domestic and international business experience. As a consultant and trainer, he has worked with private and public/private partnership organizations to help companies enter and expand into global markets. He has taught international trade, importing and exporting, and other business courses at several higher education institutions. He is a SCORE Portland mentor.

Learn how to become a great manager by setting your team up for success. Optimize your team’s strengths while minimizing their weaknesses and foster the growth of their talent.

Your job as a manager is to optimize your team’s strengths and help each team member grow. You will learn the five key attributes of a great manager: hire fewer people and pay them more; be proactive with recognizing team members and showing appreciation; set clear expectations and help them know how their efforts contribute to the organization as a whole; take away hassles, not motivation; and, discover and leverage strengths of each individual.

Presenter: Donna Capodacqua, PhD SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is founder and CEO of Chrysalis Partners LLC, a boutique business coaching firm.

Having served businesses in the greater Portland metro area for more than 25 years, sitting on the Board of Directors for four organizations, and a small business owner for 23 years, Donna has an extensive background. She has worked with multi-million-dollar companies with 2,500 employees to start-ups across a variety of industries and settings, including union environments and non-profit organizations. She has seen it all.

She knows what infrastructure systems, leadership and talent a company must have in place, but also understands that one-size solutions do not work. Donna offers practical insight and expertise to her clients, guiding them to find the right solutions that are translated into implementable tactics based on their purpose, values, goals and aspirations.

Donna took her PhD in business administration from Tourou University. She earned her MBA and BA from the State University of New York at Albany. When not working with clients, Donna enjoys spending time with her husband and friends, volunteering in the community, traveling, wine tasting, fishing, game nights, learning new things and meeting new people.

Do you know what’s working and what’s not on your website?

Google Analytics is a free tool offering a wealth of information about your website traffic volume, traffic sources, user behavior and audience preferences.

In this workshop we’ll review the most important reports to help you create a healthy, ongoing SEO strategy and build your Google authority:

1. Traffic Channel: Organic Search, Referral, Direct, Organic Social, Paid Search

2. Traffic referral source

3. Social media channels

4. Engagement rate

5. Geography: City, State, Country

6. Most viewed pages

7. Blog readership

8. Video views

9. PDF downloads

10. Tech: devices & browsers

Explore Custom Dashboards

Learn to build custom dashboards for easy access to key reports. Design a dashboard based on your most critical business goals, with visual data displays including tables, donut charts, line charts, bar charts and geo maps.

Transitioning from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4

In October 2020 Google released a new version of analytics called Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 is the new default analytics platform which replaces Universal Analytics (UA), effective July 1, 2023. In the meantime, you have the option to run both versions concurrently. It’s recommended to install GA4 immediately in order to start building history on the new platform. This workshop covers GA4 exclusively.

Prerequisites: This workshop will not cover Google Analytics account setup and installation, as the installation procedure varies depending on your website platform. Please seek out a YouTube video tutorial for your specific website platform or consult your webmaster for installation support. It is expected you will have your GA4 account setup and installed on your website prior to the workshop. No further experience required.

Presented by Stacey McCormack, Musimack Marketing

Stacey McCormack is the Founder and CEO of Musimack Marketing, a digital marketing agency in Tigard, OR. She specializes in website optimization and social media engagement for small business. Stacey is passionate about consulting with local business owners to navigate a variety of free online marketing opportunities to increase brand awareness and generate demand for their business. A 20-year marketing veteran, Stacey’s former life in corporate America includes experience across all major media including Radio, Broadcast TV, Cable TV, Newspaper and Digital Advertising formats. Today, she helps small businesses shine online through website design & development, SEO, social media and digital advertising.

The fourth annual Duck Tank event will be a truly special night. The OEMBA Board has assembled an outstanding lineup of judges for the competition, featuring big names from the region’s startup and venture capital universe, such as Jon Maroney, general partner for the Oregon Venture Fund, and Christopher Joseph, co-founder of Wyld. In addition, entrepreneur Jason Peterson will debut as this year’s event emcee. Jason is an entrepreneur, attorney, and producer who has been featured in the “Top 30 Entrepreneurs under 30” by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

This thrilling event will kick off with a networking cocktail hour followed by pitch presentations.

On Saturday, February 25, entrepreneurs in the Portland area will have the opportunity to pitch their startup ventures at Duck Tank, hosted by the University of Oregon Executive MBA Alumni network. Duck Tank is a competition format event in the same style as the television show Shark Tank. With Duck Tank, contestants have the opportunity to pitch their business concepts to a renowned panel of entrepreneurial professionals and venture fund leaders.

Westside Pitch is a startup competition for Washington County entrepreneurs seeking to showcase their early-stage businesses. Competitors will have the chance to pitch their business venture to a panel of local investors to win cash and other prizes.

Eligible competitors include all entrepreneurs who either operate their business or live in Washington County. The 6 selected finalists will have developed a unique product or service that solves a problem/need in a national or international market.

This is a great opportunity to network with investors, city/county executives, service providers, and fellow entrepreneurs.

 2023 Westside Pitch APPLICATION Deadline is January 31!

Spectators are welcome!! Tickets are only $20, and include appetizers and 2 beverage tokens.