Business Basics 1

This online course is designed to support women who have a business, nonprofit, or project idea, who are taking over a family business/buying a business, or who have a few ideas but are not sure where to start. Designed to women but open to all! This course empowers women with a vision to take actionable steps to move their idea forward. This course content is based on principles of lean startup and design-thinking methods.

This course provides:

1. Actionable steps to starting your business, nonprofit, or community project idea.
2. An introduction to female, Montana founders and business leaders and their compelling thoughts on starting businesses.
3. An overview to Lean Startup principles and creating an Minimum Viable Product: getting customers and acquiring their feedback with an imperfect, but good product/service.
4. A brief foundation to startup skills (legal, value proposition, competition, business model canvas etc.) where we see many people starting out require additional assistance. We provide enough guidance to get you started as we can only go into so much in three weeks... ;)
5. Opportunities to build relationships with like-minded women through digital cohorts.
6. Flexible online delivery: Work is done on your own time, online, with deadlines. Optional, virtual labs one-two times per week in a lab where you can ask questions and connect with classmates.

Course details:

• Starts Monday March 28th, 2022, and ends Friday May 6th, 2022.
• Online: work is done independently and autonomously to meet deadlines
• Tuesday evening labs from 6:00-7:30 for questions, occasional guest speakers, and virtual relationship building with classmates (can also watch recordings of live sessions on your own time).
• Spots Available: 100 (first-come, first-served)
• Pre-requisites: while we recommend taking the original Pursue Your Passions course first to learn introductions to frameworks and gather validation, you can still take this course first if you want to jump in full force.
• For students with children who may benefit from a childcare stipend for class time, please contact the online program manager.
• One month free in our Mighty Network online community that includes group business coaching and an open space to collaborate with other like-minded women

General Public

Registration is Open.

Nimbletwist Consulting – Karen Tempkin  

 Karen advises businesses in developing strategy, creating overall company value, maximizing growth and operational efficiency, and achieving the outcomes they desire. She has a unique ability to combine business development with personal development to create individual solutions for each client.

Karen has a proven track record in small and large businesses (e.g., consulting, multinational financial software, engineering, defense, and service-based industries), creating business vision and goals, and designing sustainable strategies that result in quantifiable business outcomes. She develops practical and socially/environmentally/financially responsible approaches to attaining business goals, while ensuring clients are achieving their potential and creating joy and satisfaction in their work. She has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Arizona and a BA from Wellesley College, is a certified Corporate Sustainability Manager, certified Six Sigma Process Improvement Black Belt, Environmental Leadership Program Fellow, and guest lecturer and business competition coach and judge at the University of Montana College of Business. She recently taught a women’s business Accelerator course (mini-MBA) in Washington, DC and Missoula, MT with Her Corner: https://hercorner.org/how-itworks- accelerator and is an instructor for the Pursue your Passion Program at the University of Montana. She has over 20 years of combined business, leadership, corporate sustainability, and consulting experience. Learn more about Karen at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-tempkin-nimbletwist.

Areas of expertise:

• Developing and implementing Corporate Social Responsibility programs
• Developing overall strategy and goals, and creating business plans
• Developing processes and systems to align company strategy and objectives with performance goals and metrics
• Assisting entrepreneurs, business owners and employees with decision-making, problem solving, creating accountability, and improving communication
• Improving project management and time management skills to help individuals achieve their professional and personal goals
• Creating management structures and teams to support strategy and business/financial goals
• Creating management structures and teams to support strategy and business/financial goals
• Maximizing growth and operational efficiency (for both processes and people), utilizing processes and tools of the Six Sigma Black Belt methodology of process improvement
• Teaching, coursework development, mentorship and facilitation

Contact information: