About
Our intensive 10-week accelerator program provides an unparalleled opportunity to scale your business alongside a cohort of like-minded entrepreneurs.The Owner 2 CEO program is rolled out twice a year in the Fall and Spring. Submit your application for the cur......More
About
Our intensive 10-week accelerator program provides an unparalleled opportunity to scale your business alongside a cohort of like-minded entrepreneurs.The Owner 2 CEO program is rolled out twice a year in the Fall and Spring. Submit your application for the current enrollment process.
Commitment
Attend regularly
Participate fully-leave your cell phone at the door
Complete an initial assessment and follow-up assessments
Out-of-class assignments will be required
Create a Strategic Action Plan
Recommended Eligibility
2+ years in operation
$200,000 revenues in the most recent fiscal year
2+ employees (owners may be included in this count)
Schedule
Tuesday's & Thursday's from 6-8 pm (Via Zoom)
Entrepreneurial Leadership Development & Delegation
Knowing who you are as a leader, your strengths, and weaknesses will be the basis for developing a growth mindset and moving from working in the business to working on the business.
Perfecting an effective elevator pitch
Understand your personal BOSI DNA and how it impacts your performance
Understanding employee’s mindset and intrapreneurial skills
Improve your own personal performance and develop personal objectives
Creating effective delegation strategies, including monitoring and performance management
Planning and Strategy for Growth
Review the foundation of your business, mission, vision and values, & SWOT
Understand scalability and how it impacts your business
Identify methods and opportunities for growth
Develop skills to create an effective strategic plan for growth
Examine current business plan, business situation and organizational structure for best fit with your business model
Content and Communication
Going beyond the normal concept of marketing to evaluate the importance of developing and managing strong marketing content and solid methods of communicating your marketing message to your clearly identified customer base.
Understanding how your purpose and your customer’s needs interact
Know how to create and use meaningful value propositions to increase sales
Understand how buyers make purchase decisions
Determining appropriate media for your market
Create effective communications for use in a variety of media
Understand how digital and traditional marketing approaches interact to get the best out of both in a changing business environment
Sales and Lead Generation
No sales, no business. In this session we will be building on the content and communication session to create a plan for the development of a solid pipeline of sales leads and how to implement the plan to maintain the pipeline and close sales.
Tools to develop a sales pipeline
Procedures for tracking leads and secrets on how to act on those leads
Techniques for opening and closing a sale
Methods for delivering exemplary client care and generating repeat sales
Creating an effective sales and lead generation operational plan
Internal sales or an external sales force, what are the factors that need to be considered
Tactical Communication
Growing a business requires effective communication with a wide range of audiences, employees, vendors, customers, service providers to mention just a few. This session provides tactical and practical interpersonal communication advice and help you develop the skills to ensure productive working relationships both inside and outside the company.
How to develop shared mission statements driven by explicit expectations
Communicating effectively when challenges arise in the working environment.
Best practices for effectively communicating via email.
Management in a Digital Environment
Irrespective of the type of business we operate, there is no escaping the impact of technology in almost every aspect of running our businesses. Whether it is accepting payments, managing the financials or using the full gamut of social media options, technology is a critical part of business growth.
Plan your digital environment, knowing what processes should and could be organized
Market your business in a digital environment, when to use social media, what to use and how to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing efforts
Handle financial transactions in a virtual environment
Understand how to develop automations that allow your systems to communicate with one another
Using & Managing Social Media Platforms
We hear a lot about social media and their value for growing business. The key to success is know which, what, and how and how to manage and monitor results.
Using social media platforms in our overall marketing strategy (Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc)
Social media tools overview(Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, Agorapulse, Sprout Social, Sendible, etc.)
Curating content and creating a content calendar
Understanding social media analytics and the KPIs for each platform
Advertising
Understanding and Using Financial Information to Manage Growth
Established businesses have a CPA to create financial statements and manage tax reporting. Growing a business however, requires review of company financial data as a tool to manage day to day business transactions for growth and profitability.
Know how to use financial information from your accounting software to manage business growth, effect change and improve performance and profits
Appreciate the value of budgets, costs and pricing strategies to manage people and processes in the business
Understanding break-even analysis and ratios and how they are used to plan growth
Identify cash flow bottlenecks before they arise and know how to resolve them if they do happen
Understand what lenders look for to make financing decisions
Financing a Growing Business
You will need to finance the business at some point it you haven’t already. Learn from a commercial lender.
Discuss what banks are looking for when they make lending decisions
Learn what criteria they use to evaluate a business for lending
Prepare to present yourself and your company to a lender
Develop an understanding of how to present your company’s financial information to make the lending decision easy
Human Resources
Growing companies require people. They are the most expensive resource most companies will have so hiring decisions are amongst the most important and potentially costly decisions a business owner will have to make. In this session we will be looking at the HR function and understanding how it impacts business growth.
Understanding and creating the company culture for your business and how it can impact growth
Appreciate the legal background to employment activities
Identify critical issues related to Human Resource function and the potential traps for business owners
Assess current workforce situation
Develop appropriate job descriptions, policy manuals and compensation plans
Developing an effective management team
Understanding generational issues, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace
Growth Market Opportunities: Government Contracting
The US government is largest purchaser of goods and services in the USA making it a perfect business expansion opportunity. It’s a complex marketplace and this session focuses on the opportunities it presents and how to access them.
Understand how to navigate the maze of government contracting
Find methods of maximizing your exposure to government agencies and large corporations
Know how to access, research, and respond to government contract opportunities
Growth Market Opportunities: International Trade
The International marketplace is a $4 trillion opportunity and expanding at rates greater than the domestic market. In this session you will focus on the opportunities selling internationally presents for business growth.
Learn how to access the market intelligence you will need to determine suitable overseas market and how to compete effectively in those market
How to ready your company for export readiness and compliance
Discuss how international sales are financed
Growth Market Opportunities: Social Responsibility
Today’s consumers are more socially conscious and frequently use their spending power to support causes and businesses that share their own values and aspirations. Socially responsible business is good business.
What does it mean to make your business socially aware and responsive to changing consumer needs?
Organize, manage and market your business in ways that meet your growth goals
Understand how to remain sensitive to the values and aspirations of your customers.
