Main Street businesses to receive online training
Small business owners located in Peabody's downtown Main Street District will receive an exclusive benefit beginning Feb. 22.
Peabody Main Street Association will be one of only 23 downtown districts in Kansas who will have access to an online training library designed to teach owners how to increase their sales, profits, and customer traffic.
According to Kristen Hooper, executive director, Peabody Main Street Association, the online training, known as "Destination University" (www.DestinationUniversity.com), were created by Jon Schallert, an internationally-recognized speaker and small business consultant who teaches businesses how to turn themselves into "consumer destinations."
The Kansas Main Street Program contracted with Schallert to bring the customized training to Kansas's Main Street businesses.
The online training will consist of eight one-hour workshops, one per month for eight months. Workshop topics include "Creating an Annual Marketing Plan," "Increasing Website Profitability," and "Building Word-of-Mouth Marketing."
Each month, owners also will be able to listen online to top business authors discussing similar marketing topics that tie into the specific workshop of the month.
According to Schallert, "Online rich-media training of this type is typically reserved for large corporations with massive information technology budgets. Peabody's downtown owners will be the first in America who have access to these workshops, with this technology, thanks to the Kansas Main Street Program."
Schallert said the online training is designed to accommodate the schedules of busy independent business owners. "Owners will be able to view this online training 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at their convenience. No longer will an owner have to spend money and valuable time away from their location to receive world-class business assistance."
Jon Schallert is the president of The Schallert Group, Inc. of Longmont, Colo. Schallert speaks to thousands annually on his "Destination Business" processes, developed after 21 years of working with small businesses, including ten years with greeting card giant Hallmark Cards.
For more information contact Kristen Hooper, executive director, Peabody Main Street Association 620-983-2174, pmsa@peabodyks.com.
