Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses is offering an education program for small business owners to receive intensive training and advice from business experts and peers. The program gives you the time and resources you need to develop a customized growth plan for your business.
TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO NEW HEIGHTS
- Identify and evaluate business opportunities
- Analyze financial statements
- Attract and retain top talent
- Maximize marketing strategies
- Streamline operations
- If accepted, the program tuition will be at no cost to you
WHO SHOULD APPLY?
- Owner or co-owner of a business
- Business in operation for at least two years
- Business revenues of at least $150,000 in the most recent fiscal year
- Minimum of four employees, including the owner
We strongly encourage Georgia business owners who meet the eligibility requirements to apply. Applications will be accepted through May 23. To learn more about the program and application process, please click here. To register for an informational webinar, held on May 12, please click here.
Small Business owner and recent graduate of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at Babson College Program, Carla Carson, describes her experience.
From a pool of hundreds of high-achieving applicants from across the country, Carson, an ACE client who owns Anytime Fitness in Decatur, was one of 70 entrepreneurs confirmed for the first Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at Babson College program. The training program, delivered by Babson College through a blend of online and in person sessions, connects small business owners with a nationally sourced class of peers for 10 weeks of practical, intensive education consisting of a combination of solo projects, online coursework, one-on-one mentoring, and group projects and classes. While at Babson College during one of the two, four-day on campus sessions, “We often worked from 8:30 in the morning to 10 at night,” said Carson. “It was exhausting, fast-paced, and intense — and probably the best learning experience of my life.”
Competition for this program is fierce; Carson underwent a thorough screening and interview process to determine her goals and potential for success. Once she was selected, the program paid for her tuition to participate, as well as her travel and lodging expenses when visiting Babson College. The program emphasizes big-picture concepts – differentiating between real “opportunities” and “ideas,” identifying strengths and weaknesses in yourself and your associates – as well as the finer points of day-to-day operations such as reading balance sheets and financial statements, drafting sound hiring policies, and marketing and sales.
The program is designed to help up-and-coming entrepreneurs take their small businesses to the next level of growth and success. Babson College, the curriculum designer for the entire 10,000 Small Businesses program, is consistently ranked No. 1 in Entrepreneurial Education by U.S. News and World Report.
“We did resource mapping, developed growth plans and exit strategies, did role-playing in negotiation training, consulted with lawyers from New York and Boston and received plenty of helpful feedback and input from individuals and groups,” Carson said. “All in all, it gave me a sense of how everything ties together and works with each other in the successful operation of a business.”
How does Carson plan to use this hard-won expertise? “I’m about to hire two new employees, so already I’m going to implement the interviewing skills I learned at Babson, but, really, everything I studied will apply to what I do in the future,” she said.
