Coming this September 9, 2025! AI Podcast Entrepreneurship Training

ReachBack Contributor: Daphane Simmons, Executive Director of ReachBack and Small Business Founder of Nvest Wise, LLC

🗺️Strategic Growth Overview

Success doesn’t happen by chance—it’s the result of intentional planning, focused execution, and the ability to adapt. At ReachBack, we help keep your goals front and center so you stay on track. By adding Strategic Growth to your learning journey, you gain the tools to:

Turn vision into measurable momentum.
→ Being strategic helps you align your actions with long-term goals, so every step moves you forward with purpose.

Maximize impact with minimal wasted effort.
→ Strategy helps you focus your time, energy, and resources on what really matters, avoiding distractions.

Build resilience by planning for change, not just growth.
→ Strategic thinking equips you to adapt, pivot, and thrive in evolving markets or careers.

Our Training Curriculum Serves Dual Purposes: Business and Career Success

Entrepreneurship Mindset training isn’t just for business owners—it builds skills that every professional needs. Whether you're launching a company, leading a team, or managing your own career, entrepreneurship training strengthens your ability to solve problems, think strategically, manage risk, and lead with vision. It's a mindset that prepares you to take initiative, navigate change, and create value—no matter your path.

Entrepreneurs

💼 Strategic Growth Training for Entrepreneurs & Founders

MainStreet businesses are the backbone of the community. As pandemics, talent, and economic dynamics continue to bring challenges, it’s more important than ever for small business executives and their team to plan out their strategies for competitive advantage. To help entrepreneurs build out a winning strategy, the learning outcomes include crafting a more strategic and effective approach to increasing sales, identifying great talent, boosting marketing and sales efforts, and transforming digitally.

Career Professionals

🚀 Career & Business Training Benefits for Youth & Young Adults

Youth and young adults are the next generation of changemakers. Whether you're launching a school club, starting a business, or leading a community project, it’s essential to build the mindset and skills of a founder. The ReachBack training guides you through hands-on strategy work—helping you shape your ideas, test them in real-world settings, and build out action plans using frameworks like the Business Model Canvas. Along the way, you’ll develop the 6 Essential Skills from the DeBruce Foundation: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, proactivity, adaptability, and technological acumen. You’ll finish with the confidence to lead with purpose and turn strategy into real-world impact and care about your community.

📌 Start-up Business Planning

Business Owner - Every new project and growth strategy plan, for example, expansion, opening of a new location, requires business planning. The Business Model Canvas is a tool to explore new business models whether you are a start-up or an existing business.

Career Professional - Learn how to turn your ideas into real projects. Whether you want to start a business, create a community initiative, or lead a school club, this training shows you how to think like a founder using tools like the Business Model Canvas. You’ll gain confidence in planning and launching ideas that matter.

💰 Financial Modeling

Business Owner - Grow your financial awareness and become a more self aware leader. If you have a new project or startup, understanding business valuation and the relationship to your idea (s) or current revenue business model can help you form or create new strategies that work.

Career Professional - Master your money mindset. Understand how money flows through a business and how your own income can grow. You’ll learn to set financial goals, explore business valuations, and think long-term—skills that are critical whether you're managing a paycheck or launching a side hustle.

⚠️ Risk Management Planning

Business Owner - All areas of your business could be at risk, but knowing key areas to keep on the radar can save you thousands of dollars.

Career Professional - Plan ahead, avoid setbacks. Things don’t always go as planned—learn how to spot risks and create backup strategies. This module teaches you how to protect your ideas, finances, and time, while helping you make smarter choices in your career path.

🧭 Strategic & Exit Planning

Business Owner - Winning companies owe their success to creative strategies and models and the end in mind, whether that is selling your business or merging, creating a franchise, or going public. With local communities depending on small businesses, it’s essential entrepreneurs have a roadmap.

Career Professional - Think like a CEO—even at the start of your journey. Learn how successful leaders make decisions and map out their future. Whether you're launching a brand or developing your skills for the job market, you'll build a vision for success and plan how to get there—step by step.

🤝 Partnership Planning

Business Owner - No business owner does it alone, learn how successful business owners craft strategic partnerships to grow revenue and customers. One company that knows how to do strategic partnerships, Starbucks has locations in restaurants, grocery stores, bookstores, and college campuses.

Career Professional - Team up with purpose. No one succeeds alone. Learn how to build meaningful partnerships—whether it’s co-founding a startup, working in teams, or collaborating with local mentors and employers. This training helps you understand how strategic relationships lead to bigger opportunities.

⚙️ Operational Planning

Business Owner - a company thrives when it has great talent and its business processes are streamlined and best practices are maximized. Knowing how to create best practices for every department and key performance indicators is part of the process.

Career Professional - Build your work ethic like a boss. Understand how great businesses operate behind the scenes and how you can apply that to your own habits, school projects, or internships. You’ll explore systems thinking, time management, and what makes a workplace run smoothly.

📣 Sales & Marketing Planning

Business Owner - Digital technologies are forming the new marketing norm. Ensure your team knows the latest trends and strategies to generate more value for customers and more business growth.

Career Professional - Promote yourself and your ideas. In today’s digital world, knowing how to market a product—or yourself—is essential. This course helps you craft your personal brand, create messages that resonate, and understand the strategies used by today’s top brands.

🤝 Deals & Negotiation Planning

Business Owner - Increase your skills in learning to approach deals from a strategic perspective and control the tactical aspects of it, doing so, give business owners the confidence of a winning deal and an optimal value for all players.

Career Professional - Speak up, get what you’re worth. Learn how to ask for what you need—whether negotiating a job offer, pitching an idea, or collaborating with a team. Gain practical negotiation skills to help you become a confident communicator and decision-maker.

Why Strategic Planning Isn’t for Everyone

Being strategic takes time, intention, and a willingness to pause before acting. That’s not the right fit for everyone—and that’s okay.

Some people thrive on quick decision-making, diving right into action, and figuring things out as they go. For them, planning may feel slow, frustrating, or even unnecessary. If you’re someone who prefers to “just start” without mapping things out, strategic training may feel like it gets in the way of momentum.

Here’s the honest truth: strategy requires patience, reflection, and discipline.
It means asking hard questions, anticipating obstacles, testing ideas, and waiting until the foundation is strong before moving forward. That process can feel too slow or abstract—especially if you're used to fast-paced results or constant motion.

Pros of Strategic Training:

Gives you clarity and direction before investing time and resources

Helps you spot blind spots and risks early

Builds confidence in your decision-making

Makes your efforts more sustainable and scalable over time

Cons (or what might feel frustrating):

Slower upfront progress

Requires commitment to learning and reflection

May feel too structured or “theoretical” if you're used to improvising

Is This Training Right for You?

If you believe planning gets in the way—or if deep thinking drains your energy—this kind of program may not feel like a good fit. But if you’re ready to slow down now to go further later, strategic training like ReachBack can give you the tools, mindset, and systems to grow with purpose and clarity.