I graduated (again!)

The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program is pretty rad, especially if you’re a lifelong nerd who likes school. BUT EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT, this program is pretty life changing for business owners. Let me tell you why.

I already have my MBA (all this really means is that I spent years longer in school than I had to, by choice). Allegedly, this qualifies me as equipped to run a business.

My friends, believe me when I tell you that I still do not know what KPI means, or how to put together a balance sheet.

Maybe some master’s degree programs are super specific and help you advance in your career. However, “business” is such a broad term that it’s pretty impossible for any institution to tailor the program to its students. No shade to the university I attended, the curriculum was legit and my instructors were super knowledgeable. It was just all theoretical and presented on a very macro/global scale.

Working for yourself is at the same time the best thing in the world, and also the hardest. Just because you have a particular skill that people will hire you for doesn’t mean you’re good at the back-end operations that keep a business running. Nobody really prepares you for how much you’re going to care about this thing you’re trying to do. Most folks with a regular 9-to-5 won’t get it. It can be really, really isolating.

Enter Goldman Sachs and Babson College! At an Innovation Lab networking event about a year ago, I met Jackie and Kerri who run the state of Iowa 10KSB program through DMACC.

After some convincing and an (intense) application process, I found myself in a classroom in Des Moines with about 30 other small business owners.

From February to May this spring we were made to dive into every aspect of our businesses. We were asked to be vulnerable and honest with not only our classmates but ourselves. We had to talk openly about financials (not easy!).

Most importantly, every single week was spent taking the lesson topics and applying them to our own businesses. Each of the case studies, team-building activities, and workbook exercises had a thoughtful purpose and translated directly into action items we could implement.

Thanks to this program, I have a concrete plan to hire another employee this year, a new service offering that I CANNOT WAIT to launch, and booked a branding photo shoot to up my business’s professional presence online (sneak peeks coming soon!)

I’m proud of every single one of the business owners who made it through this cohort. It was a big commitment of time, brain power, and energy, but totally worth it. I hope they all take their biz to the next level by taking what we learned and using it to absolutely crush it over the next year!

If you’re a business owner and are interested in more info., hit me up! They host two cohorts a year (in both the spring and fall), and are always looking for referrals. Happy to pass along the contact and application info!