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By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune October 15. 2014 4:57PM Business Resource Fair has answers In her 15 months running a soccer supply shop on Biddle Road in Medford, Cheryl Rose has often turned to the local Small Business Development Center for advice and tools. On Saturday, Oct. 18, Rose will be among the panelists sharing start-up experiences and ideas during the annual Rogue Valley Business Resource Fair at the RCC/SOU Higher Education Center in downtown Medford. The 12th-annual event features advice and consultation with dozens of entrepreneurial and business insiders, as well as academic and professional experts. The Soccer Post franchise Rose operates has thrived, in part, because she provided a niche service at the right time. It has also succeeded because she asked the right questions and found people with answers.  "I went to the SBDC before I actually started because I wanted to see if what I wanted to do was reasonable," Rose said. "The most valuable thing I learned was to be prepared." That meant arming herself with financial data, projections and a budget. "The more I planned, the more opportunity I was going to have for success," she said. "Sometimes I had the craziest questions." Her franchiser provided a lot of numbers, and she supplied the knowledge of peak selling periods in relation to the start of the region's various soccer seasons. Armed with her local insight, she tapped into "amazing" SBDC software to crunch numbers, helping with decision making. "As you go through the Excel spreadsheet numbers, it really helps with the rest of the financial statements," Rose said. "I go back and refer to them all the time." The resource fair, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 101 S. Bartlett St., has tripled its previous preregistration figure, with more than 200 participants signed up. SBDC Director Jack Vitacco said the goals have changed over the years. "We've tweaked the program so we're not only attracting people thinking about starting a business, but we're attracting more people already in business who can take advantage of the resources we're offering to help them grow." The popular Internet business presentations by Project A's Jim Teece will be offered in the morning and afternoon. "He's done three sessions in the past, and some people would go to all three and miss everything else," Vitacco said. "We have purposely scheduled fewer workshops with the intention of beefing up the substance." For more on the resource fair, go to www.sou.edu/sbdc/businessresourcefair.html. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31, and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/Economic Edge.     http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141015/NEWS/141019765 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->