Business Lab™ is a course consisting of seven weekly sessions, which builds a cohort of business owners to a completed plan and a public pitch of their business. The hands-on course is interactive and covers marketing, idea viability, values, financial management, implementation and pitching. Impact studies have shown that 83% of the businesses that have been part of this iterative program since 2005 were still in business after 13 years. In 2019, it was estimated these businesses were contributing $19.2 million to the local economy each year.

The Hannah Grimes Center has created a detailed Instructor’s Guide for this program which your community can access for free. This roundtable will share what we’ve learned over the years and will offer tips and answer your questions. We hope communities will take this guide as a starting point and feel free to iterate and customize it to the unique set of entrepreneurs in their communities.