The Maricopa Community Colleges Small Business Development Center is launching a series of classes to teach entrepreneurs how to use free open-source software to manage their business operations.
The program is being funded by a $60,000 grant from Hewlett-Packard Development Co. LP.
Mark Engle, executive director of the Maricopa SBDC, said the main office will launch the first of six classes Jan. 24.
HP’s Social Global Innovation Group and Boston-based nonprofit EDC are helping the SBDC launch the program. It’s called HP Life, which stands for “Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs,” said Anne Shure, project director for the North America HP Life Center of Excellence.
The grant is an in-kind donation of computers and curriculum developed for aspiring entrepreneurs. The program has been in existence since 2005. It was launched in other countries before arriving in the United States in 2011 with the establishment of 10 centers.
This year, the Maricopa SBDC is one of 10 groups across the country to receive a grant, Shure said.
Engle said the donation will be used to establish two HP Life Centers — one at the Central Phoenix SBDC at 2400 N. Central Ave., and another inside the city of Chandler’s Innovations small-business incubator at 145 S. 79th Ave.
The hope is to have the program up and running this spring, he said.
The free classes can be taken either as a whole or separately. They cover topics such as project management, the development of financial plans and establishing marketing plans.
The first series of classes will be held once a week from Jan. 24 through Feb. 29. They are limited to 12 students and already are full, Engle said.
But the SBDC is hosting an open house Jan. 18 to assemble a second group of students interested in taking the courses.
Attorney Christy Thompson, founder and president of the Thompson Law Firm in Chandler, was among the first to sign up. She and her staff focus on bankruptcy, family law and personal injury.
Thompson said she has worked with the Maricopa SBDC as a business owner, taking workshops and seminars, and continues to do so. She said she has found the SBDC’s services and expertise to be extremely helpful in her business, and she is excited to be among the first to participate in the HP Life Center program locally.
“As soon as I saw these classes, I said, ‘I am going to take all of these.’ I have signed up for the entire series,” she said.