Haines Main St (Corinne Smith/KHNS)

The Haines Chamber of Commerce is putting on a series of business workshops at no charge, to support local entrepreneurs. The sessions will take place on Fridays at 12 noon via Zoom through April.

Tracy Harmon is the executive director of the Haines Chamber of Commerce. She says the workshops are geared toward Haines residents interested in launching new business ventures.

“So, it’s five weeks of different trainings that we are just hoping to inspire new entrepreneurs. You know, we’re in this land of business opportunity,” Harmon said. “And there’s all these opportunities to create, you know, where your passion meets something you’re good at. And if you could put that into a business and make money off of it. We want to give people the tools to be able to do that and to make it profitable.”

The business bootcamp series started Friday (March 25) with start-up basics, led by the Alaska Small Business Development Center. 

“They covered your business plan, startup costs, and tax structure. And so every week, we’re going to do these on Zoom, and we’ll make all the resources available for that presentation,” she said.

Harmon says workshops will be shared on the Chamber’s Facebook page.

The next sessions include strategic planning for business growth (April 1), finance and asset management (April 8), leadership and employee development (April 15), and marketing (April 22). 

Harmon says Haines businesses have faced many challenges over the two year COVID pandemic, and current businesses may also find the workshops helpful.

“Maybe its a time also to go back to the drawing board, you know, you get really busy during the cruise ship  season of just running your business that you don’t really have time to kind of go back,” Harmon said. “And am I really set up? Like, what’s my tax structure? You know, how how am I managing the finances and the assets of my business? How am I doing with employees? And, retention? How is my marketing plan? This is a really good time to train and to get ready for operations coming up.”

The business workshops will take place Fridays at noon, for the full schedule visit haineschamber.org