Advance your career or start a new business
with help and inspiration from Oswegrow

Learn side hustles, social media marketing, and communications skills this spring
 

 
OSWEGO, ILL. – Whether you’re just looking to get ahead in your career or thinking about following your passion and embarking on a new business idea, there’s something for you at an Oswegrow workshop this spring.  

Oswegrow offers technical assistance to self-starters and entrepreneurs at all levels. By attending a workshop, you’ll get expert advice on a variety of topics, from starting your own small business to diversifying your existing workforce. You’ll also have the opportunity to connect to other resources available to you as an Oswego entrepreneur, including market research and one-on-one mentorship with business professionals who have been in your shoes.
 
Join us for one of the following workshops this spring. All workshops will be held at the Oswego Public Library District’s downtown Oswego campus, 32 W. Jefferson Street:
 
Starting a Side Gig While Working a Full-time Job
Thursday, March 19, 2020
8: 30 a.m.
Transition from J-O-B to B-O-S-S by starting your new business as a side gig to ramp up your income and make a seamless move. Presenter Marie Herman, owner of MRH Enterprises, will share the pros and cons of this strategy and provide insight on how to  get started – identifying your business opportunities, simple actions to get started and pitfalls to avoid.
 
Social Media Roundtable
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
6:30 p.m.
Join our Fox Valley SCORE roundtable discussion on how to more effectively leverage social media to market your business. Join Sara Troyer, program coordinator with the Illinois Small Business Development Center, to discuss social media strategies and goals, the best tactical practices, and how to build your advocate community. Learn how to enhance your social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
 
Is This Thing On? Speak and Be Heard
Thursday, April 16, 2020
8:30 a.m.
Men and women communicate differently. Learn how to identify and leverage those differences to project confidence and authority from the moment you step into the room. This workshop, taught by Theresa Sperling, CEO of Achieve That Next Level, will teach you how to listen more closely to identify communication differences in your everyday life and apply that knowledge to command a room.
 
Intellectual Property and Your Small Business
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
6:30 p.m.
Learn how intellectual property laws affect and protect small businesses, from fair use to the proper way to claim ownership of your own intellectual property, from Allison Cychosz, of AMC Legal, a lawyer who practices in intellectual property and contract law.
 
Progress Through Diversity
Thursday, May 21, 2020
6:30 p.m.
Community service organizations have carried generations through difficult times, but when they failed to foresee the need to diversify their memberships, they saw numbers decline. Learn how to empower the female members of your organization, including leadership roles, to strengthen your organization. Learn from presenter Stacey Limacher’s experience in addressing gender parity in one of the world’s oldest and most established service organizations. 
 
Owning Your Own Biz: You can do it!
Thursday, June 18, 2020
8:30 a.m.
Want freedom, money and respect, but feel stuck in your nine-to-five job where you feel underappreciated and underpaid? If you dream of owning a business, get out of your comfort zone and leap into entrepreneurship with guidance and inspiration from this workshop. Presenter Kelley Rice, owner of Imagination Print & Design, will share from her experience opening a small business right here in Oswego.
 
Registration is not required to attend, however, a minimum number of attendees must be registered for a program to run. Register at www.oswegrow.com.  While there, find resources of all kinds for your small business, including market research databases, connections to mentors, appointments with the business librarian, and more.
 
Oswegrow is a partnership between the Oswego Public Library District, the Village of Oswego, and Fox Valley SCORE that provides opportunities for small business owners and entrepreneurs to learn and grow their businesses in Oswego.
 
For more information, contact business librarian Drea Flores at 630-978-1024, or [email protected].