April was a very educational month for the Heartland Chapter!  Instead of a traditional meeting, we were provided with a business class.  Mike Frewer, the husband of one of our chapter members (Dianne Frewer of A Fitting Creation), kindly offered to give a business lecture to our chapter, and we eagerly agreed.  Mike has years of business experience as the Senior VP and VP of Emerging Technologies of Thermo King Midwest, as well as helping Diane for years as an advisor to her sewing business.  Mike provided a very professional presentation complete with PowerPoint, giant notepad, and a delicious home cooked meal (a man of many talents!). 

Our discussion included topics such as why businesses fail, non-disclosure agreements, connecting with millennials, creating a succession plan for your business, and aligning your marketing with your individual marketplace.  Each of us in attendance even dug into our own records and contributed to the presentation with our individual statistics on these topics, which made the class even more individualized and instructive. Mike’s presentation was not only extremely informative, but it created a safe space for open discussion between our chapter members about some of the minutia of our businesses. From how many repeat customers we each had to tales of employee troubles, as well as how to keep track of alteration project times on QuickBooks. We all ended the day with plenty to think about, both big business to-dos and the helpful day-to-day hacks.