Having the right information at the right time can make all the difference in being successful in business. The Western Piedmont Workforce Development Board is committed to providing you the right information to help your business succeed and grow.
Information about local, regional and state resources for existing businesses are available through our office.
No Cost Services
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Customized Job Descriptions.
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Career Centers at four regional locations (Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Catawba County)​
NCWorks Business Video
Local Career Centers
The Career Centers are made available to assist businesses with coordination of talent recruitment and retention. Utilizing www.ncworks.gov, businesses have access to immediate labor market information and virtual recruitment opportunities.
Alexander Career Center
604 7th St. SW
Taylorsville, NC 28681
(828) 632-4631
(Located inside Alexander Co. DSS Office)
NCWorks Career Center – Burke
720 East Union St
Morganton, NC 28655
(828) 438-6161
NCWorks Career Center – Caldwell
1909 Hickory Blvd SE
Lenoir, NC 28645
(828) 759-4680
(Located in the lower level of the Commerce Building)
NCWorks Career Center – Catawba
403 Conover Station SE
Conover, NC 28613
(828) 466-5535
Business Planning & Budgeting
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A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why the goals are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals.
Reprinted from the Start-Up Business & Resource Guide by the NC Small Business Technology Development Center (SBTDC), University of North Carolina, 2009)
An effective business plan serves at least four useful purposes:
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It helps you focus your ideas
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It creates a track for you to follow in the early stages of business growth
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It creates benchmarks against which you can measure progress
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It provides a document for attracting equity or debt financing
Below are some instructions regarding the creation of a Business Plan, as well as examples.
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U.S. Small Business Administration’s ‘Guide to Writing a Business Plan’
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Sample Business Plans for Various Business Types from Entrepreneur Magazine
The Small Business and Technology Development Center will, at no charge, assist you in completing your plan by reviewing your rough draft and offering suggestions and feedback, as well as help you assemble your budget into a computer spreadsheet for a professional looking presentation.
Call for an appointment at:
NC Small Business & Technology Development Center Appalachian-Foothills Region
Appalachian State University, Hickory Office
1990 Main Ave SE | Hickory, NC 28602 | Ph: (828) 345.1110
Manufactured North Carolina
If you are a small manufacturer and you need a Web presence so that customers can find you, then check this out!
Our goal with MNC is to basically put a lot of effort and marketing dollars into building one umbrella website that is found when people all over the world do Google searches for “thermoplastic containers” or “brass hardware fabricators”– and do it on behalf of all those companies for FREE. So hopefully we end up funneling otherwise missed opportunities down to companies across the state. And from those additional sales opportunities, we hope for additional growth and job opportunities at these companies.
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The MNC website is not meant to replace a company’s existing website, it is meant to drive additional traffic to it.
“Manufactured in North Carolina, a partnership of the NC Rural Center, the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation, and the NC State University Industrial Extension Service, is a new, statewide program which will use the Internet to showcase the products, capabilities, and innovations of our state’s small, rural manufacturers to markets nationally and globally.”
Manufacturing Solutions Center
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Manufacturing Solutions Center is the vision for a 21st century economy that builds on strengths…strengths of America’s manufacturing successes.
The Manufacturing Solutions Center can assist you with these areas of your business. Some of the services provided by the MSC:
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Testing Services
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Training
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Product Development
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Marketing
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Engineering
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Inventors & Entrepreneurs