curated Resources

 

We’ve searched far & wide, we’ve tried out the following resources on for size, they’ve worked for us, and we hope they’ll work out for you too. If you have questions or would like someone to connect with you or if any of the links are broken, please don’t hesitate to reach out now.

customer discovery

growth strategy

finances & unit Economics

intellectual property

Negotiation Skills

thriving in a fast-paced world

Glossary

OPENING A Food business?

Peoria City/County Health Department has published a PDF guide book to opening a food establishment in Peoria County to help you navigate the process and help make a decision about what type of food license is best for their business. Download it here.

For more information, please contact Corine Peplinski, Environmental Health Training Specialist at (309) 679-6173 or email cpeplinski@peoriacounty.org

Get help locally with mentors to guide you

In collaboration with Peoria County Government, Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, Illinois Small Business Development Center at Bradley University, Minority Business Development Center & SCORE Mentors, and other regional partners launched the Start a Business in Greater Peoria program.

By participating in this program, you will be able to meet with mentors and advisors and receive digital stamps to validate your business opportunity. When you receive 4 of these digital stamps, you will be eligible to apply for a micro-grant of $5000.

Learn more or sign up for the program at https://startabusinessgp.org/

Also check out our latest biz labs videos

Biz Lab Workshops are presented by Distillery Lab partners. Watch to gain actionable insights that you can immediately apply to your business on key areas like design thinking, sales, go-to-market strategy, small business finance, how to figure out pricing, branding and much more. Check out the full playlist of videos at this link on branding, design, marketing, sales, finances and much more, or just simply click on the playlist button on the top right hand corner of the embedded video below.

Learn how to launch your business for non-native speakers of english

English for Business and Entrepreneurship by Amy Nichols & James Riedel, University of Pennsylvania
This course is designed for non-native English speakers who are interested in learning more about the global business economy. In this course, you will learn about topics and language necessary to succeed in the international workplace. You will explore business English through authentic readings and video lectures, while learning about business vocabulary, concepts, and issues.

  • Unit 1 will provide an introduction to entrepreneurship by examining ideas, products, and opportunities.

  • Unit 2, you will learn about the basics of market research, including how to identify an opportunity.

  • Unit 3 will focus on business plans, why these plans are important, and will give you a chance to practice composing a business plan. In the final unit of the course, we will present basics for funding a business and will help you create a persuasive presentation, or pitch, based on a business plan.

Learn how to start your business at your own pace

Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to Startup Success by Bill Aulet (MIT)
Disciplined Entrepreneurship is a systematic and rigorous 24 step to build new innovation-based ventures, created at MIT. It has proven extremely valuable for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs globally at all experience levels. Rather than invent new concepts, Disciplined Entrepreneurship assembles the tools that have already established track records of success in practice from many different sources. It then integrates them together in an easy to access and prescriptive road map.


User Innovation by Eric Von Hippel (MIT)
Innovation happens everywhere. More often than not, it is about ordinary people solving real problems. Imagine, this could be you. This course will teach you to look at the world through the lens of problem discovery and problem solving. You will explore problems that you see in your life and in the world and evaluate their potential for entrepreneurial innovation. You will iterate toward solutions that are just right. As you do that, you will become a user innovator.


Commercializing Technology (Harvard & UCSD)
Universities, government labs, and private companies invest billions of dollars in the research and development of breakthrough technologies that have the potential to transform industries and lives — but very few of these technologies ever leave the lab. Those that do often fail to find compelling market applications. So what determines success? How does an invention become an enduring innovation?

were you able to find what you needed?

This list of curated resources is a work-in-progress so we thank you for your patience. If you weren’t able to find what you needed, please reach out to us right now. We can’t wait to help you launch and grow your business.