City To Offer Free Business Classes In Jamaica, Jackson Heights

JAMAICA, QUEENS -- Aspiring entrepreneurs in Queens, listen up! The city wants to arm you with the smarts to start your own business success story, and they're doing it absolutely free.

The New York City Small Business Services will host four bilingual business courses free of charge in Jamaica and Jackson Heights through the month of June, the agency announced Thursday.

The classes - available in English and Spanish - will discuss the basics of business planning, entrepreneurship, financing and more. Similar workshops are also available in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

"We offer courses for businesses of every stage, size, and industry throughout NYC where you can gain the business strategies and tools that will set you apart from the competition," the agency said.

The series starts on June 7 with "Business Planning Basics" - or Aspectos Básicos de Planificación de Negocios - at the Small Business Support Center in Jamaica from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

This course, offered in Spanish by the Immigrant Business Initiative, will go over how to organize your business idea into a structured plan, identify and promote it with potential customers, and meet the legal requirements to start a business.

Next up in the Small Business Support Center at 90-27 Sutphin Blvd. is "10 Steps To Starting Your Own Business" - or 10 Pasos Para Comenzar su Propia Empresa - on June 19 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. This class will talk about those steps and how NYC SBS can help with each one.

The agency will switch up the venue for its next class on Small Business Financing, hosting "Financiamiento Para Pequeñas Empresas: Cómo y Dónde in Jackson Heights on June 21.

The NYC Business Solutions Financing Team will go over the criteria, products and basic options for small business owners seeking finances in this course from 6 to 8 p.m at the Business Center for New Americans, 78-27 37th Ave.

The agency will return to Jamaica's Small Business Support Center on June 26 to wrap up its series with "Show Me The Money: Financial Statements and Profit" from 6 to 8 p.m.

This workshop will help aspiring entrepreneurs make sense of business financial statements and how to use them to make smart financial and management decisions. It will also discuss cash flow planning and tools to help business owners track the funds going in and out of their business.

Click here for the full list of NYC business classes coming up in all five NYC boroughs.

(Lead photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)