Elevate Hennepin - A Discussion with Community and Economic Development Director Patricia Fitzgerald
Sunday, April 9, 2023 at 1:47AMArticle by Becky Fillinger, photos provided
Were you aware that small businesses in Hennepin County can tap into a wealth of no-cost business support services? Elevate Hennepin, in its third year, has supported over 2300 businesses with consulting and other support services. We talked to Patricia Fitzgerald, Community and Economic Development Director for Hennepin County Housing and Economic Development, to learn more about this all-encompassing business support program. 2 Dope Chicks – a tasty gem of a downtown restaurant – told us what participating meant to their business.
Patricia FitzgeraldQ: What's the origin of Elevate Hennepin?
A: The initiative started in 2020 as an emergency response to the pandemic but has grown to be an innovative model of long-term business support.
During the pandemic, Hennepin County convened a diverse Business Advisory Council that represented the diversity of the business community to help maximize the impact of pandemic recovery funds. One of the biggest things we heard from them is that businesses needed technical support to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, but also to build for future success.
In response, Hennepin County contracted with a team of professional business advisors and consultants with a range of specialties to work with businesses to help them rebuild and position them for future success. These services were completely free to businesses. The impact and value were immediately evident, and Elevate Hennepin was born.To date, Hennepin County has invested more than $6 million in Elevate Hennepin, with additional investment of $2.5 million annually over the next two years. Over 90 percent of that funding goes directly to business advising costs.
Elevate has quickly been embraced and will continue to improve and refine to meet the needs of the business community as we evolve.
Q: Your website mentions that the program offers a business support ecosystem. Can you please talk to us about what that encompasses?
A: Elevate Hennepin amplifies our region’s ecosystem of small business support. Hennepin County is fortunate to have a wide range of nonprofit, mission-driven organizations and community-based lenders serving entrepreneurs. Elevate Hennepin supports those organizations, and has added a diverse group of specialized consultants, and created a resource hub that facilitates access and networking. Our focus, and the focus of Elevate Hennepin’s advisor network, is on serving local businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs located in Hennepin County.
Through Elevate, businesses in Hennepin County can access free expert consulting and technical assistance from more than 20 professional business advisors who specialize in a full range of business services, including legal, accounting, financial planning, marketing, business planning and strategy, and much more. And, you can access up to 25 hours from each consultant. We are finding that many businesses are working with multiple advisors, and that advisors are connecting businesses to each other to address unique needs. For instance, one advisor might work on financial planning, then connect them to another advisor to work on marketing. So, there’s a new ecosystem of advisors and businesses and government agencies taking shape that is really exciting.
As one of our advisors, Henry Blake, said, “You can get just about every kind of service you need to establish and run a viable business.”
The other aspect is that elevatehennepin.org is a hub of curated events and resources from a variety of sources. In addition to events and resources from Elevate advisors and the county, there are also resources from numerous other trusted business-support sources like the Small Business Administration, the state of Minnesota, cities, and other partners. The idea was to create a central hub, curated for aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses to access a wide variety of business-support resources and assistance in one place.
Q: How is the no-cost consulting structured? Does it cover multiple aspects of business ownership?
A: Consulting is one of the key aspects of the Elevate Hennepin initiative - more than 90 percent of the overall investment goes directly to one-on-one business consulting and cohort training programs. Hennepin County has intentionally selected more than 20 professional business advisors and organizations who represent the diversity of Hennepin County businesses and specialize in the full range of subjects and services a growing business might need.
We try to make it as simple of a process as possible for the businesses. A business owner can either connect to one of Hennepin County’s business navigators to discuss their needs or directly to an advisor through the Elevate website at ElevateHennepin.org.
Each business owner can access up to 25 hours of free consulting from each of more than 20 advisors. It covers a whole range of business needs, including:
So far, more than 1,400 businesses have tapped into Elevate Hennepin for more than 9,500 hours of this one-on-one technical assistance or back-office support. From there, the advisor just invoices the program and Hennepin County pays the advisor for their services.
Q: How many businesses have taken advantage of Elevate Hennepin?
A: As of year-end 2022, more than 2,300 businesses have engaged with the online resource hub, accessed technical assistance, or participated in a cohort-learning program. Of those, 1,400 have utilized the one-on-one consulting and received more than 9,500 hours of advising.
Businesses looking for guidance on where to start with Elevate Hennepin are encouraged to email Hennepin County Business Navigator Tashie George at economic.development@hennepin.us.
2 Dope Chicks cofounders Rhonda Caldwell-Heard (left) and Jamis Rodriguez
"Hearing about the program was inspiring for me - it gave a boost in motivation when things were feeling stagnant due to financial roadblocks. Participation in the program has brought awareness to so many resources and other business beneficial programs. It has even earned 2 Dope Chicks a few new customers! Being a new business, partnering with Elevate made sense. It was an extremely useful step in setting our business up for better success - with support in all aspects, from business planning to marketing to bookkeeping - we are very grateful."
Q: How may we stay up to date with the program's news and success stories?
A: So many ways to follow our news - sign up for our newsletter or follow our social media channels:
Newsletter signup link
Elevate Hennepin website
Elevate Hennepin Facebook
Elevate Hennepin Twitter
Hennepin County Economic Development website
Hennepin County Economic Development LinkedIn
