If your business is spinning its wheels, or if you are considering starting a business, a seminar scheduled for next week could help.

The seminar, “Small Business Tools for Thriving, Not Just Surviving,” will be Thursday, Nov. 29, at the Olive Tree restaurant in Villa Rica, with networking at 6 p.m. and dinner and the seminar starting at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $10, which covers dinner, and the deadline to register is Nov. 26 at any of the sponsor organizations.

“Just like the title says, we want to teach people ways to not just get along, but to really jump start a small business,” said Rev. Chad Sadorf of the Villa Rica Downtown Development Authority. “So many people want to start a small business and they have a lot of energy and zeal, but they may not have a business plan. This seminar is for anybody who is interested, whether they already own a business or want to start one.”

The event is sponsored by the Villa Rica Downtown Development Authority, The Burson Center, Villa Rica Main Street Program, Amy Brown State Farm Insurance, Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Center at the University of West Georgia and The Newspapers of West Georgia, all of which will bring their combined knowledge and business experience to the seminar.

“I’d like us all to be thinking positively and learn ways to be successful for 2013,” said Amy Brown, owner of Amy Brown State Farm Insurance Agency. “We don’t need people to go pay $500 or so to listen to somebody speak when we have great resources right here.”

The seminar will concentrate on four essential business tools: creating a business plan, always having a “Plan B,” setting goals and marketing your business. Guest speakers include Todd Anduze of the University of West Georgia Business Development Center, Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Business Development and Community Relations Donna Lackey, Newspapers of West Georgia Publisher Leonard Woolsey and Amy Brown.

“We really want to encourage our small business owners,” Sadorf said. “Some of them may not have ever written a business plan or they may not know how to set goals or market themselves in the new era that we’re living in. You’d have to driving into Atlanta to get what we’re basically bringing you for free right here in Villa Rica.”

Brown believes the seminar would be beneficial to those considering a new business or those who may have been in business a while and are in a rut.

“People who have been in business forever sometimes keep doing the same thing over and over again, but if they would just tweak things a tiny bit they could be really successful,” Brown said.

Besides themselves, the only other item participants are asked to bring is a stack of business cards for networking purposes.

If the seminar is a success, organizers are optimistic it could become an annual event with fresh topics each year to continue to make local business owners successful in their endeavors.

“We just want these businesses to succeed because so as your business goes, so does all of our businesses go,” Sadorf said.