Over a weekend this past fall, TSC participated a “boot camp” for the 2020 Path to Prosperity Business Development Competition, a program hosted by the Bristol Bay Development Fund (BBDF) and Bristol Bay Native Corporation. The competition allows individuals, for-profit businesses and tribal entities who would like to start or expand their operating presence in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska to submit business ideas and win startup cash to support their operations and growth. This annual business development competition is specially designed for businesses with a positive economic, environmental, and community impact on Alaska. Businesses are judged based on their feasibility and their contributions to community development. More than 60 business concepts have been submitted in the cumulative two seasons that BBDF has facilitated Path to Prosperity.
TSC was invited to source presenters for the “boot camp” portion of the event at the request of Cindy Mittlestadt of BBDF and Paul Hackenmueller of Spruce Root, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) based out of Juneau and the creator of Path to Prosperity. Once the businesses submitted their applications, 12 participants were selected to advance to the Business Boot Camp, where they learned various aspects of business operations to help them prepare and submit a business plan. It was in this portion that TSC stepped in and presented important business concepts to the participants via virtual training presentations.
TSC put out a call for help to its consultants, and several agreed to give presentations, including Betty Huntington, CEO of Mallard Duck Bay, and TSC’s Heather Eldred, Sarah Andrews, Andrey Maslov, Amber Lee, Oleg Maslov and Shelley Abrams. TSC’s presentations covered a variety of topics including developing a pitch deck, marketing and research, accounting and financial management, preparing a business plan forecast, company identity and branding, value propositions and marketing, people management and soft skills, and human resource best practices. Several presenters also participated in one-on-one sessions with interested individuals to answer specific questions related to the area of expertise they spoke about. Each TSC consultant who participated in the virtual training sessions was excited to be able to help the Boot Camp participants understand concepts that were important to building a solid business plan.
After the finalists submitted their business plans, the top three winning entrepreneurs were selected to receive awards of $10,000 to $20,000 to grow their businesses. Recently announced this past month, the 2020 P2P awardees have been selected. Congratulations to the three winners!
Following the success of P2P’s virtual training boot camp, TSC has continued to host virtual training alongside BBNC, this time for BBNC’s In-Region Government Contracting participants. Training on company culture was completed in April, and a session on supervisor best practices and expectations is coming up next in May.