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On Wednesday, Oct. 7, the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Conference Center will fill with people who are used to doing several jobs at once.
They are the bookkeeper, the marketing department, the hiring manager and the person answering customer emails after dinner. Raise the Bar Entrepreneur Workshop is designed for that kind of business owner: someone looking for practical help that can be used the next morning.
Hosted by QCity Metro and powered by Wells Fargo, the workshop begins with breakfast and registration at 8 a.m. The program runs from 8:40 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church on Beatties Ford Road, a corridor with a long history of Black business and church-rooted community life in Charlotte.
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Event information
- Event: Raise the Bar Entrepreneur Workshop
- Date: Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026
- Time: Doors and breakfast at 8 a.m.; program from 8:40 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Venue: Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Conference Center
- Address: 3400 Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte, NC 28216
- Ticket: $27.65 total, including fees
- Hosted by: QCity Metro
- Powered by: Wells Fargo
The schedule moves through the working parts of running a small business.
A panel of local business owners opens the program with “Real Talk,” covering wins, setbacks and lessons learned. The sessions that follow address funding and grants, legal basics, cash flow, taxes, artificial intelligence, social media, hiring and sales.
The organizers have built each session around a takeaway. Attendees may leave with a checklist, a cash-flow tracker, a 30-day content plan or an AI prompt prepared for their own business.
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The agenda includes:
- 9 a.m.: Real Talk: A Business Owners’ Panel
- 10 a.m.: Show Me the Money: Funding & Grants 101
- 10:55 a.m.: Cover Your Bases: Legal Basics 101
- 11:50 a.m.: Numbers That Make Sense
- 1:20 p.m.: Work Smarter, Not Harder: AI for Small Business
- 2:15 p.m.: Post, Promote, Profit
- 3:10 p.m.: Building Your Dream Team
- 4:05 p.m.: Sell It Like You Mean It
Breakfast, lunch, session materials and access to the vendor and sponsor marketplace are included with general admission. The marketplace gives attendees time to walk around, compare notes and continue conversations between sessions.
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The day has the feel of a long working Saturday: coffee early, notebooks open, hallway conversations during breaks and a final raffle before everyone heads home.
For Charlotte entrepreneurs, it is a chance to spend one day focused on the tasks that often get pushed to the side while the business keeps moving. It is also a reason to be in a room with other people building something of their own, which is usually the part people remember.
Tickets are available through TicketsCLT. The ticket page states that all sales are final. Readers should confirm event details with the organizer before attending.
Source: Official event ticket page.
