UW-Madison Classes

Explore classes that will help you develop the skills you need for your business to thrive.

Biz Smart Sprint

June 26, 2025 | 4:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Start-up Assistance

Biz Smart Sprint is your introduction into the world of entrepreneurship. In this live, virtual 6-week course, you will learn the building blocks you need to become a successful entrepreneur. Each week, you'll discover the key components you need to start a business, including the Business Model ...

Details

Fee: $239.00



Introduction to Financial Management

June 30, 2025 | 4:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Business Accounting and Budget

Whether you are starting a new business or looking to organize your current business' finances, accurate financial information is one of the most valuable tools you have to drive success. This course seeks to set participants on the right path by providing a "101" overview of financial bookkeepin...

Details

Fee: $259.00



Positive Power Plays: Skills for Conflict & Negotiation

July 30, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

All leaders experience conflict in one form or another. In this class, you will learn how to turn conflict into collaborations and reach win-win resolutions. You will see conflict to clarify roles, relationships, and heighten creativity. Learning how to reach beyond the impasse and find solutions...

Details

Fee: $289.00



Maximizing Your Leadership Potential

August 6, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

Maximizing Your Leadership Potential is a program designed to help you with practical to achieve lasting, sustainable results through people. This course will enable you to sharpen your skills in four fundamental areas of leadership: self-awareness, learning agility, communication, and influence....

Details

Fee: $289.00



Communication & Delegation Skills

August 13, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

Whether you are communicating with your employees, customers, or suppliers your ability to express yourself well and understand others is a major factor of your success. For this course, you will have the opportunity to take the DiSC Personal Profile and use the results to better understand your ...

Details

Fee: $339.00



FORWARD FEST: From Side Hustle to Small Business

August 18, 2025 | 12:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Start-up Assistance

Overview

Have you been thinking about turning your hobby into a business, but aren't sure where to start? Do you have a side hustle that's grown and you want to explore next steps? Are you interested in learning more about how to explore a business idea you have? This session will teach ...

Details

Fee: No Cost



FORWARD FEST Leveraging the Library: Valuable Resources for Market Research

August 19, 2025 | 12:30PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Start-up Assistance

Put this session on your Holds List, and "check out" some great resources from your local libraries

When taking your business from idea to reality, you'll likely have a lot of questions that need answered in order to get your business off to a strong start. For example: What do you need to...

Details

Fee: No Cost



FORWARD FEST: Demystifying the Pro Forma: Building Financial Projections

August 20, 2025 | 1:30PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Business Accounting and Budget

Session Description

In 40+ years of working with entrepreneurs, we have regularly observed that "the money part" of business planning is often what causes many business owners and would-be business owners alike the most anxiety and confusion. Yet the numbers don't have to intimidate you. I...

Details

Fee: No Cost



FORWARD FEST Is it the Real World? Or is it AI? An Entrepreneur's Introduction to Artificial Intelli

August 21, 2025 | 9:00AM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Managing a Business

You've heard plenty about Artificial Intelligence being a "game changer" across industries - but what does that mean for your day-to-day work? We asked ourselves this question - and how AI could level the playing field for small businesses - and did some investigating.

We know that as a sm...

Details

Fee: No Cost



FORWARD FEST Mastering Strategic Pricing for Cash Flow Management

August 22, 2025 | 10:30AM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Business Basics

This session provides practical strategies for determining the right pricing for your product or service to optimize profitability and sustain business growth. Participants will explore how to evaluate competitors, brand value, and customer segmentation to create pricing strategies that align wit...

Details

Fee: No Cost



FORWARD FEST: Business Taxes 101: Navigating Self-Employment and Small Business Taxes for Beginners

August 22, 2025 | 1:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Tax Planning

Stepping into the world of business ownership brings with it the critical responsibility of understanding and managing business taxes. Whether you're a fledgling entrepreneur, a freelancer transitioning to a formal business entity, or a small business owner, grasping the basics of business taxati...

Details

Fee: No Cost



SHRM Learning System Certification Course

September 17, 2025 | 6:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

You are the future. Invest in yourself with SHRM certification.

Are you looking for help to navigate the increased demands on HR professionals? Become the most qualified and valuable HR professional you can be with SHRM certification.

The SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP®) and ...

Details

Fee: $1450.00



Human Resources (HR) Basics for Non-HR Professionals

September 25, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

For most small business owners and managers, there is a wide gap between hiring your first employee(s) and bringing on an HR manager or team of HR professionals. Yet in the meantime, there are a lot of legal details and best practices to know to best position your business for success. This cours...

Details

Fee: $289.00



Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP)

October 2, 2025 | 5:30PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Start-up Assistance

ETP is an intensive business-planning training program designed to help participants who want to start a new business, grow an existing business, or make a substantial business pivot that requires viewing the business with a new perspective.

The focus of the program is to help you complete...

Details

Fee: $250.00



Launch Into Leadership

October 8, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

...
Details

Fee: $289.00



Intermediate Financial Management

October 21, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Business Accounting and Budget

If you as an entrepreneur or business manager are looking for the answers and solutions to these sorts of questions and challenges, then this class is for you:

(1) How to read and understand financial information
(2) How to analyze financial information to improve business management d...

Details

Fee: $359.00



Leading with Emotional Intelligence

October 29, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

Research by the Carnegie Institute concluded: "15% of success is technical skills - 85% is people skills." Emotional Intelligence is all about people skills - how well you know yourself and your emotions and how well you read and interact with others and their emotions. Learn about how the brain,...

Details

Fee: $299.00



Introduction to Financial Management

November 3, 2025 | 4:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison

Topic: Business Accounting and Budget

Whether you are starting a new business or looking to organize your current business' finances, accurate financial information is one of the most valuable tools you have to drive success. This course seeks to set participants on the right path by providing a "101" overview of financial bookkeepin...

Details

Fee: $259.00



Maximizing Your Leadership Potential

November 4, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

Taking on new supervisory responsibilities is a great opportunity and challenge. Many in supervisory roles have learned either by trial and error or by following what was done by their predecessor. In most cases, this is not a very effective strategy. This course will start you in the right direc...

Details

Fee: $289.00



Communication & Delegation Skills

November 10, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

Whether you are communicating with your employees, customers, or suppliers your ability to express yourself well and understand others is a major factor of your success. For this course, you will have the opportunity to take the DiSC Personal Profile and use the results to better understand your ...

Details

Fee: $339.00



Positive Power Plays: Skills for Conflict & Negotiation

November 18, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

All leaders experience conflict in one form or another. In this class, you will learn how to turn conflict into collaborations and reach win-win resolutions. You will see conflict to clarify roles, relationships, and heighten creativity. Learning how to reach beyond the impasse and find solutions...

Details

Fee: $289.00



Fearless Performance Management

November 19, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

The performance management - or employee feedback - process can fill many managers and employees alike with a sense of dread. However, with the right skills and mindset, this process can become collaborative, two-way communication that reduces anxiety and sets everyone up for success.

This...

Details

Fee: $304.00



Leading in an Age of Permanent Whitewater

December 1, 2025 | 8:30AM | Wisconsin SBDC at UW - Madison, Grainger Hall, Madison

Topic: Managing Employees

We live in an ever-changing world, and our work as leaders involves creating both a shared vision to help our employees move forward and an environment of reassurance and stability in times of turbulence. Whether change comes in response to a crisis or as part of an opportunity to grow or evolve,...

Details

Fee: $289.00



Statewide Online Events

Explore the following online business education options that can be accessed from anywhere.


SBIR 101 Webinar

June 25, 2025 | 12:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Center For Technology Commercialization

Topic: Start-up Assistance

$4.5 Billion dollars in product development is available, maybe to you! Learn more about how you might tap the largest seed fund in this brief overview (and how we can help for free).

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (ST...

Details

Fee: No Cost



From Ideas to Products (Virtual)

June 26, 2025 | 11:30AM | Online
Facilitated by: Center For Technology Commercialization

Topic: Start-up Assistance

You have an idea, you may have started the initial research on it, and now you're trying to see what's next?

Join us virtually to learn more about lean startup mechanics, the SBIR/STTR program, and the services that are provided by the CTC and its partners.

Agenda:...

Details

Fee: No Cost



Self vs Contract Manufacturing for Food & Farm Businesses

July 1, 2025 | 9:00AM | Online
Facilitated by: Food Finance Institute

Topic: Marketing and Sales

In this workshop, you will learn how to develop your own dedicated production facility and/or work with a co-packer to produce the lowest cost possible, with the best quality, within food safety guidelines.

Topics Covered Selecting / developing the right production model for your business,...

Details

Fee: $35.00



Financial Foundations for Food Brands

July 14, 2025 | 9:00AM | Online
Facilitated by: Food Finance Institute

Topic: Business Accounting and Budget

About Financial Foundations for Food Brands

Define, align, and strengthen the key elements of your business's financial foundations at Financial Foundations for Food Brands

This fundamental training helps food-focused entrepreneurs establish a solid financial founda...

Details

Fee: $250.00



Financial Foundations for Farms

July 15, 2025 | 4:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Food Finance Institute

Topic: Business Accounting and Budget

Establish a solid financial foundation for your farm or value-added agriculture business at FFI's fundamental training, Financial Foundations for Farms.

In this training, expert-led instruction, tools, and coaching combine to help you develop your marketing and financial management skills,...

Details

Fee: $250.00



SBIR 101 Webinar

July 24, 2025 | 12:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Center For Technology Commercialization

$4.5 Billion dollars in product development is available, maybe to you! Learn more about how you might tap the largest seed fund in this brief overview (and how we can help for free).

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfe...

Details

Fee: No Cost



NIH Presubmission Panel Review

August 12, 2025 | 12:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Center For Technology Commercialization

Topic: Start-up Assistance

Do you plan to submit to NIH in April? Please register with CTC to participate in our free Presubmission Panel Review. CTC, in collaboration with a panel of expert reviewers, will simulate the NIH review process to help you improve your SBIR/STTR proposal ahead of the September deadline. This reg...

Details

Fee: No Cost



SBIR 101 Webinar

August 19, 2025 | 12:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Center For Technology Commercialization

$4.5 Billion dollars in product development is available, maybe to you! Learn more about how you might tap the largest seed fund in this brief overview (and how we can help for free).

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfe...

Details

Fee: No Cost



Food Business Consultant Training

August 20, 2025 | 10:00AM | Online
Facilitated by: Food Finance Institute

Join Food Finance Institute Innovative Finance Expert and FFI founder, Tera Johnson, for our Level 1 and Level 2 Consultant Training.

Take your food and farm business clients to the next level by attending FFI's Level 1 and Level 2 Consultant Training. Offered in two 2-day sets, this ...

Details

Fee: $500.00



SBIR 101 Webinar

September 16, 2025 | 12:00PM | Online
Facilitated by: Center For Technology Commercialization

$4.5 Billion dollars in product development is available, maybe to you! Learn more about how you might tap the largest seed fund in this brief overview (and how we can help for free).

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfe...

Details

Fee: No Cost

Contact the SBDC at UW-Madison

Whether you’re not sure where to start or ready to make a leap, our experts are here to offer trusted insights and industry-specific advice. Get started with the SBDC, serving Wisconsin’s small businesses since 1980.