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The CBA® Marketing course provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of marketing including:

• The marketing plan
• Strategic planning
• Marketing research
• Feasibility studies
• Customer relationships and understanding the consumer
• Segmentation, target marketing and positioning
• Product planning, development, pricing and distribution
• Promotion management including digital marketing

These concepts are especially important for those helping small businesses, as marketing is often a mystery to small business owners and managers. In today's competitive environment, your clients likely need to make plans and implement them, while simultaneously monitoring rapid changes in competition, regulations, legislation, the economy, society and technology.

This course is composed of nine (9) modules:

• Session 1: Introduction to Marketing
  • This module provides an overall perspective on what marketing is, the processes it involves, and carious philosophies of marketing.
• Session 2: Strategic Planning and the Marketing Plan
  • Organizations cannot succeed without planning, and marketing plans must support the organization's mission, vision and objectives.
  • This module looks at strategic planning and mission, key marketing strategies, analysis necessary for such planning and the basics of a marketing plan.
• Session 3: Marketing Research, Feasibility Studies, and Sales Forecasting
  • Marketing thrives on information.
  • This module looks at the knowledge that is crucial to understand the environment, the consumer, the competition, the likelihood of a project's success and potential profitability, and the evaluation of the organization's marketing efforts.
• Session 4: Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) and Consumer Behavior
  • Marketing centers on consumers.
  • Firms cannot succeed if they do not understand consumers fully and deeply and provide them with value and satisfaction.
  • This module looks at how companies accomplish these tasks.
• Session 5: Market Segmentation, Market Targeting and Positioning
  • Organizations cannot be "all things to all people (or to all businesses)."
  • In almost all cases, both consumers (and businesses) have different needs, wants, and desires such that they cannot be satisfied by one option.
  • This module examines the ways in which marketers divide the market into different interest groups (segments), select one or more segments to target with an appropriate marketing mix, and position the product or brand in the marketplace to appeal to the target market.
• Session 6: Product Management
  • Consumers seek solutions to problems and marketers help to solve those problems by the products and services they offer.
  • This module looks at products and services (and how they differ in terms of marketing), the importance of customer service in providing value to the consumer, the process of developing new products/services, and the need to build a strong brand.
• Session 7: Price Management
  • Pricing the product or service is an important part of the marketing mix, as price is the only thing that generates revenue.
  • This module examines price, costs, break-even analysis, and various approaches to setting and adjusting prices.
• Session 8: Place Management
  • Products and services need to move from the providers to the consumers in a timely, efficient, and effective manner.
  • This module discusses Channels of Distribution and Supply chain Management with a focus on satisfying the goals of the channel members and the consumer.
• Session 9: Promotion Management
  • Firms must be able to reach their target audience with information about the company, brands, and products.
  • This module focuses on the promotion element of the Marketing Mix, with a good understanding of our target market's values and media exposure habits, and our goals and objectives, with a special emphasis on digital and social media marketing.

The CBA® Accounting and Finance course provides an overview of essential issues regarding the areas of accounting and finance. The objective of the course is to impart enough information and develop sufficient basic skills to allow the student to understand the impact that these subject matters have on small businesses. The lack of an understanding of, or lack of financial information in general, represent major causes of business failure.

This course covers business organization, accounting, tax, business planning, financial statement analysis and other specialized analytical techniques. This course is one of the more quantitative areas in the program. The work in this course will require effort by the students to work out problems using basic mathematic skills and to learn more advanced analytical techniques based on those skills.

It is comprised of nine (9) modules:

• Session 1: Business Entities
  • An introduction to the way that businesses are organized and taxed.
• Session 2: Business Planning
  • An examination of the business plan and its uses and purposes.
• Session 3: Financial Statements
  • An introduction into the various types of financial statements, what's on them, and what their use is.
• Session 4: Financial Statement Analysis
  • How to use the information found in financial statements to understand a business.
• Session 5: Financial Projections and Cash Flow Analysis
  • The basics of making financial projections.
• Session 6: Managerial Accounting
  • Break-even analysis and other forms of managerial accounting.
• Session 7: Sources of Financing
  • Types of SBA programs available and a discussion of other funding sources.
• Session 8: Cost of Capital and Capital Budgeting
  • The basics of cost of capital and capital budgeting.
• Session 9: Valuation
  • A review of the processes for valuing non-public, closely held firms.

The CBA® Human Resources course offers a comprehensive review of major concepts in the area of human resource management. Particular focus is given to competitive advantage derived from improvement upon HR planning, selection, recruitment, training and compensation practices. Vignettes related to the hiring, management and termination of people in the workplace will be offered as a means to delve into topics from both a practical and theoretical perspective.

This course is comprised of seven (7) modules:

• Session 1: Introduction to HRM (The changing HR environment; Legal issues in HRM)*
• Session 2: Affirmative action debate
• Session 3: Staffing (Recruitment, Selection)
• Session 4: eRecruiting debate
• Session 5: Ensuring positive performance (Training, Performance Management, Compensation)
• Session 6: Organized labor debate
• Session 7: Gender and pay debate

*The basic course topics covered by the typical HRM textbook.

The CBA® program offers a concise, yet comprehensive up-to-date curriculum designed for maximum on-the-job performance. The instructors, who are required to have business experience in addition to graduate-level teaching experience, emphasize application as well as theory.

Courses are segmented by discipline, i.e., distinct areas of study, which were produced specifically for small business and entrepreneurship development including Human Resource Management, Marketing, and Accounting/Finance. For more information on learning objectives and specific sessions, please visit the Courses tab.

Each of the three courses should take 20-40 hours to complete. Students should complete the program in 12 months, although an extension of up to an additional 12 months may be granted for extenuating situations.

Grading

• Each session of each course will be graded through a written assignment or exam (essay or multiple choice). Each course has between seven and nine sessions.
• You must achieve 80% or greater in each of the three courses to complete the CBA® certification.
• If you receive a grade below 70%, a retake exam is necessary and generally must be taken before you are allowed to proceed to the next exam or continue to the next course. This makes it easier for you to learn, understand and retain the concepts being taught, rather than waiting until completion of the course. It is also easier for you to increase your grade this way
• Note: Each participant will be allowed to retake one session in each course at no charge. If more than one retake is required, the CBA® candidate will need to register again for that course and pay the course registration fee of $500.

Can I 'Test out' of CBA®?

• No. CBA® candidates may not test out of any segment of the program.

When can I register?

• Registration Opens: 15th of each month
• Registration Closes: 25th of each month
• Exception: In December, registration is open from 12/9 - 12/19 for the January 1st start
• Session Start Date: 1st of the following month
• Session End Date:
• For Ohio SBDC employees: 6 months from start of session
• For Non-Ohio SBDC, partner organizations, public professionals: 1 year from start of session

What is the CBA® registration fee?

• The registration fees have been designed so that you have several options. You may take one or two courses to heighten your knowledge in a topic(s) of special interest, one that needs development, or you may take all three (3) courses to become fully certified. The fee for the complete (3-course) program is $1,450. Individual course registration is $500 per course. 

If you are a business professional:

1. Complete the 
2. or by check/money order with the registration form above
3. If eligible for a 10% military veterans discount, 
   1. Use discount code: VETERAN10

If you are a SBDC employee:

1. Complete the 
2. or by check/money order with the registration form above.
   1. Use discount code: OTHERSBDC
3. If eligible for a 10% military veterans discount, 
   1. Use discount code: VETERAN10

Specific organizations are defined as and are exclusively limited to:

• APEX (formerly the Procurement Technical Assistance Centers [PTAC])
• Export Assistance Network (EAN)
• Entrepreneurial Services Provider Program (ESP)
• Minority Business Assistance Program (MBAC)
• Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)
• Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE)
• Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC)
• Women’s Business Center (WBC)

If you meet the criteria above:

1. Complete the the 
2. or by check/money order with the registration form above:
   1. Use discount code: CBAPARTNER
3. If eligible for a 10% military veterans discount, 
   1. Use discount code: VETERAN10

All cancellations and refund requests must be made in writing prior to the date on which an individual registrant gains access to the CBA® coursework. Once access has been granted, no cancellations, refunds, or transfer fees will be processed. Substitutions are allowable only if the original registrant has not started the coursework. Requests should be sent to Lifelong Learning at lifelonglearning@kent.edu.

A minimum of 20 hours of continuing education each year following the certification is required to retain certification.

Exception: Small Business Development Center (SBDC) directors will determine the number of annual continuing education hours.

The CBA® program was developed by and for Small Business Development Center (SBDC) advisors. For over 20 years, the Certified Business Advisor® program has been used by SBDC advisors nationwide, as well as employers of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations that support small businesses and entrepreneurs.