By Paula Scott, BCE Executive Director
The BCE is looking forward to an exciting 2020. We will be awarding prizes, holding brown bag discussions, and expanding the ways we help new and improving small businesses in the four counties surrounding Bluffton.

Do you have a New Year’s resolution for your business? We’ve got your bases covered with the Ropp Triplett Business Plan Competition, which begins on Wednesday, January 15. We are awarding $7500 in prizes to new businesses and improving 45817 businesses. 

Only three spaces are left in the Emerging Business category! And we need a third entry to run the Improving 45817 category. Check it out at BlufftonEntrepreneurs.com/Programs.

Brown Bag Discussions continue with a session on Succession Planning with Tim Sieschott, a BCE board member and financial advisor serving all First National Bank offices. Join us at noon on January 30 at Bluffton Town Hall, 3rd floor. Please RSVP at [email protected] or 567-525-6667. We’ll bring dessert!

Other topics on our radar below. What would you like us to tackle first?
• Creating or upgrading websites
• Accepting electronic payments
• Pop-up shops and retail in 2020
• Creating fillable online forms
• Growing Facebook and Google skills
• Focus groups

Our new coffee hours are a chance to drop in and chat with BCE staff Paula Scott and Nicole McConnahea. Join us on Tuesdays from noon-1 p.m. and Thursdays from 6-7 p.m. at the Twisted Whisk Cafe. Occasionally there will be a variation to this schedule due to additional events. Visit our Facebook page for updates.

The Ropp Triplett Business Plan Competition will be held in January-March 2020, with $7500 in prizes to be awarded. Entrepreneurs are invited to attend a 7-week class and to present their plans to a panel of judges. There are two competition categories: Emerging Businesses (in Allen, Hancock, Hardin, and Putnam counties) and Improving 45817 Businesses.