Elevate Hennepin serves 462 entrepreneurs with 4,243 hours of advising in Q2

Elevate Hennepin serves 462 entrepreneurs with 4,243 hours of advising in Q2

Elevate Hennepin advisors have been busy for another quarter.

In the second quarter of 2024, advisors spent 4,243 hours supporting business and entrepreneurs with everything from legal questions and business planning to marketing and operational insights.

Entrepreneurs from 27 cities across Hennepin County tapped into the initiative to grow and evolve their businesses. In addition to the one-on-one support, business owners also developed new skills for each stage of business in CEO Start, CEO Now, and CEO Next—the Elevate Hennepin CEO Growth Series.

Since Elevate Hennepin began in 2020, it has delivered 35,668 hours of professional consulting for 2,912 businesses and entrepreneurs. Advisees report 608 new or retained jobs, 186 new businesses launched, and $28.4 million in financing to grow their businesses.

Advising across disciplines

Elevate Hennepin offers expert advising for topics across business disciplines.

In the second quarter of 2024, 46% of advising hours were dedicated to what we call “general business services,” which is support for creating a solid business plan, strategic planning, and coaching on specific business challenges.

Marketing was the next most popular topic—21% of the 4,243 hours of Elevate advising was dedicated to making marketing plans, strategies, and supporting entrepreneurs to spread the word about their product or service.

Advisors spent 15% of the overall hours of advising guiding entrepreneurs on legal questions like how to update contracts, negotiate leases, or confirm their business entity was formed right.

With Elevate Hennepin support, 13 businesses were able to raise a total of $3.5 million in financing to start or expand their business. Eight businesses reporting creating 97 new jobs.

Guidance across backgrounds

Elevate Hennepin was founded to support entrepreneurs at all stages and from all backgrounds. The second quarter showed that ideal remains top of mind.

Thirty five percent of businesses that sought support reported one to four employees; 32% were self-employed. Expert consulting and training means these small and new businesses have a better shot at growing, creating jobs, and avoiding many of the early-stage pitfalls of starting a business.

Most businesses and entrepreneurs served (55%) reported less than $50,000 in gross sales; 23% reported up to $250,000 in sales; 8% reported up to $1 million; and 6% reported more than $1 million in sales. The wide range of gross sales numbers demonstrates for another quarter the wide range of support in Elevate Hennepin can serve businesses of all size.

More than 65% of users were Black or people of color, and 58% of advisees were women. A foundational goal of Elevate Hennepin was providing resources to empower culturally diverse and those otherwise unrepresented in the business community to give these groups better access to entrepreneurship. The latest quarter shows continued success meeting that goal.

Thank you!

None of this would be possible without our incredible advisors and professional facilitators. Because of these entrepreneur-focused leaders, the vast majority of people who get support from Elevate Hennepin say they were able to take their next step forward with confidence.

In all, 85% of advisees said working with the Elevate Hennepin network allowed them to continue growing with confidence.