The Business Management track at the 2017 AWFS fair’s College of Woodworking Knowledge includes sessions on digital marketing and lean manufacturing.

Course descriptions follow:

July 19

Digital marketing best practices for woodworking businesses

Time: 11:30-1 p.m.

Speakers: David Briggs, Alan Harp, Marc J. Sp[agnuolo and Kyle Toth

Moderator: David Briggs

The importance of reaching past, present and future customers via social media outlets such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and others has grown significantly during the last several years. Not only can businesses increase their brand loyalty and awareness by engaging customers directly on these social channels, but the insight and leads gained can quickly provide a positive effect to sales and help to build future relationships. This digital marketing session provides more than just an overview of the available technologies — you will learn ways to target specific audiences and promote posts effectively and established professionals in the woodworking industry will share case studies and best practices that you can immediately put into practice for your company. The session will conclude with discussion with this social media powerhouse panel addressing your questions.

E-mailing your customer base

Time: 1:30-3 p.m.

Speaker: David Briggs

Whether your business is just starting to deploy e-mail newsletters and marketing pieces to your customer database or it has already established some messages with regular frequency, it’s important to cultivate basic, intermediate and advanced strategies to harness the full potential of the medium. This session will familiarize attendees with important concepts such as deliverability and list cleaning, present an overview of the most popular free and paid e-mail platforms, provide a checklist of best practices that should be incorporated into new and existing messages and leave everyone with five actionable items to put into effect immediately.

July 20

Establishing a ‘meaningful numbers’ scorecard for your business

Time: 1:30-3 p.m.

Speaker: Daniel Moshe

If you were on a six-month sabbatical and only got a set of numbers once a week to give you an absolute pulse on your business, what would those numbers be? They’ve been called a million things: dashboards, scorecards, key performance indicators and metrics, but in this session we will drill down to the numbers that matter the most in gaining traction and accountability in your business. You will discover the leading indicators that will help you predict the future, make timely decisions and measure your success. Walk out the door with a scorecard that you can start using as soon as you get back to the office. This is a hands-on workshop and, as such, you will achieve the best results if you bring your entire leadership team.

Are you running your business or is it running you?

Time: 3:30-5 p.m.

Speaker: Daniel Moshe

If you are the owner, leader or manager of an entrepreneurial organization who wants to see your business consistently run better and grow faster, Daniel Moshe and the Entrepreneurial Operating System can help you and your team simplify, clarify and achieve your vision. Even the most successful entrepreneurs occasionally find running a business more challenging than they expected, getting less return on their investment of time and money than they would like. Many regularly grapple with lack of control over time, the market or the company; people not listening, understanding or following through; profit (or lack thereof); inability to break through to the next level of growth; the “magic pills” that aren’t working or making a difference. If these problems seem all too familiar, you are not alone. In this session, you will be introduced to the six key components of successful businesses and, armed with a set of simple, practical tools, you and your team can begin using them right away for better results.

July 21

Kick-ass lean: Vegas style, Part 1

Time: 9:30-11 a.m.

Speaker: Brad Cairns and Lynn Thomson

This session is going to get your fired up and ready to rock and roll with lean processes. We will cover the basics of what lean is and why it continues to impact the woodworking industry. Speakers share why lean is their passion and what it has done for their businesses and they are not leaving until you can identify the seven deadly wastes that plague all woodworkers. You will leave understanding how to kick your corporate culture into high gear and realize how to grow your profits while simultaneously reducing your stress.

Kick-ass lean: Kicking it up a notch, Part 2

Time: 11:30-1 p.m.

Speakers: Brad Cairns, Beau Lewis and Lynn Thomson

This session builds on the information and strategies in “Kick-ass lean, Part I” with a more advanced focus on how to lead your lean organization. The panel will bring you up to speed on what you have to add to your skill set to be a great lean leader and Beau Lewis shows you the power of throughput accounting. The goal of this session is to get your organization past the basics and to dig a little deeper into your lean toolbox.

For more, visit http://awfsfair.org/education.