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SLIG 2019 Academy Course Highlight: Building and Nurturing a Successful Genealogy Business
Course Coordinator:
- Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG
- Teresa Steinkamp McMillen, CG
- David E. Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA
This course requires active interaction and participation. Sessions include hands-on activities. At the end of the week, each student will have a unique business plan crafted from each day’s homework.
Students should bring a laptop computer with a word-processing and a spreadsheet program installed. Nightly homework assignments will include income and expense accounts, creating a weekly calendar, marketing and promotion, and business plans.
Required Textbook: Mills, Elizabeth Shown, editor. Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2018.
Schedule of Topics:
Day 1: W e focus on setting goals for our business and the tools for measuring and monitoring the health of our business: finances. Students with existing businesses may want to bring three-years of balance sheets and income and expense statements.
Day 2: We concentrate on client relations beginning with the inquiry through the final report and invoice. These steps are combined with time allocation and management to create a weekly calendar.
Day 3: The discussions focus on client reports, marketing, promotion, and time management. Students develop the marketing and promotion piece for their business plans.
Day 4: Is devoted to creating future plans for education and credentialing; developing financial projections; creating marketing plans; and time management. Students use the homework pieces as the basis for creating a business plan.
Day 5: W e discuss expanding our businesses beyond client research to include revenue streams like writing and speaking.
Registration: