ConnectUP! Institute

ConnectUP! Institute is an Elevate Hennepin business advisor offering up to 25 hours of services at no cost, including:

Access to capital

• Identify applicable financing opportunities for business owners
• Provide financial education and literacy
• Offer commercial or personal credit counseling
• Identification of required documentation needed to apply for loans and grants, if available
• Assist with the completion of loan, grant, or other application paperwork
• Assist businesses in preparing financial statements and projections
• Connect business owners to lending entities within the Elevate Hennepin network, and assisting in preparing financials to approach lending entities

Business strategy

• Business and strategic plan development
• Mission, vision development, and goal setting
• Industry and market analysis, and customer segmentation
• Unique value proposition and competitive positioning
• SWOT Analysis
• Financial reports, projections, and forecasting
• Business profitability modeling 

Financial management 

• Impart financial education and literacy, including how to read and interpret financial reports
• Provide financial counseling
• Assist in the development of a budget, cash flow, and other financial reports necessary to run a business
• Collaborate to create financial projections and forecasting
• Review product/service pricing, cost of goods sold, and other factors that affect profitability
• Conduct profitability modeling 

Idea stage 

• Coaching to refine the business idea
• Define the problem the product/service solves for
• Guidance through completing a business lean canvas
• Formulation of mission, vision, and unique value proposition
• Identify product(s)/service(s) offered
• Assistance understanding the market and industry
• Define target customers or creating a customer avatar
• Support client in testing and validating business concepts, size markets, & initial steps
• Equip client to evaluate the viability of their business idea
• Assist clients with entity formation, seeking legal and accounting advisor input as needed
• Refer to other advisors as appropriate

ConnectUP! Institute is a social finance and enterprise development studio. We provide education, consulting, and collaboration on innovative social finance as well as enterprise development for entrepreneurs from underestimated communities. We provide community, content, connections, and capital for businesses 0-10 years old that are non-tech. We focus on supporting you in developing your ‘back office’ through three critical areas of business growth and development: operations, communications, and financials.