Get free expert guidance and advance your business goals through Hennepin County's Elevate program.
A flourishing business is supported by one thing: Community. You can ask any business owner and they will praise their community, because it truly does take a village. The collaborative spirit within a community helps lighten the pressure of being an entrepreneur. Sharing ideas, resources, or propelling each member towards advancement is something we all crave. As people unite, blending their skills, insights, our business grows in a different way.
Thanks to support from Hennepin County and partner cities, businesses are coming together to offer free advisors, programs, cohort learning, events, and more to small businesses. The only cost is the time you invest in growing your business.
About Elevate Hennepin
Elevate Hennepin is a free resource for business advising and support, connecting business leaders to mentorship, education, low-barrier financing, and more. It’s where founders and entrepreneurs share knowledge and support. It’s a one-stop business support network.
Elevate aims to advance an inclusive and equitable economy in Hennepin County and beyond. Our community is made by the hands of those starting from scratch, building something fresh, striking out and stretching the marketplace with new ideas, ingenuity, and determination. For our economy to work for everyone we need to work together!
What is the eligibility to be included in this?
Elevate has minimal requirements for you to join and it's fairly quick to get started. The only requirement to receive these services is your business needs to be registered in Hennepin County. This means that your business must be registered with the State of Minnesota in one of these cities:
Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Champlin, Chanhassen, Corcoran, Crystal, Dayton, Deephaven, Eden Prairie, Edina, Excelsior, Golden Valley, Greenfield, Greenwood, Hanover, Hopkins, Independence, Long Lake, Loretto, Maple Grove, Maple Plain, Medicine Lake, Medina, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Minnetonka Beach, Minnetrista, Mound, New Hope, Orono, Osseo, Plymouth, Richfield, Robbinsdale, Rockford, Rogers, St. Anthony, St. Bonifacius, St. Louis Park, Shorewood, Spring Park, Tonka Bay, Wayzata, Woodland.
What are the types of services available?
Elevate has a wide variety of businesses to connect with. The categories they currently offer are Advisors and Consultants, City Specific Resource, Cohort Learning and Networking, Government Resources, Lending Resources, Coaches and Mentors, Accounting, Financial management, Business & Strategic Planning, Certification - SBE, DBE, MBE, WBE, Human resources, Legal services, Loans, grants, access to capital, Marketing, Social Media, Website, and Technology for business
What do they offer?
Elevate Hennepin is a free resource for you to work with advisors. You can receive 25 hours of free consulting for your business with as many Elevate advisors as you would like. For example, if you wanted to work with 5 different advisors. You would be allotted 25 hours for each individual advisor.
Yes, you read that correctly! You get 25 hours with EACH business. After you have used your 25 hours with an advisor you can continue to work with their pricing they set up for their business.
How do I get started?
The first step is to explore the advisors they have available and choose one that will best fit the needs of your business. By clicking "Connect with an advisor," you will be taken to an online registration form. Fill this out and someone will reach out to you.
If you need help navigating the tool or finding an advisor, contact a business resource navigator at economic.development@hennepin.us for assistance.
Do you recommend any advisors?
We recommend A.M. & Associates, a Minneapolis-based consulting firm specializing in fostering safer workplace environments—with an emphasis on compliance, threat assessment, and DEI. Anna helps organizations create cultural change and mitigate future liability through preventative processes, policies, and procedures which support and prioritize physical and psychological safety.
You can contact them via their profile on Elevate Hennepin.
We recommend ConnectUP! Institute, a social finance and enterprise development studio. They provide education, consulting, collaboration and capital for entrepreneurs from underestimated communities. Alumni of their programs have grown to the shelves of local and national brick and mortar stores, win business competitions and secure diverse lines of credit to scale their business! They’re passionate about connecting entrepreneurs, investors and other support organizations at our bi-annual ConnectUP! Summit and industry specific Mini-Summits in the off-years!
You can contact them via their profile on Elevate Hennepin.
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