Elevate. Empower. Equip.
The economic outcomes of growing and sustaining a business transcends the immediate outputs and touch every facet of the entrepreneur, their teams, the communities they operate within, and the individuals they serve. For women of color founders and CEOs this sentiment is a driving factor within their continued entrepreneurial journey. The Women's Center for Economic Opportunity launched the Hire 1 Women's Business Accelerator to be your resource in catalyzing your growth specifically by deepening your business knowledge and skills, expanding your business network in high growth industries, funding, mentoring and coaching.
APPLICATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED FOR COHORT STARTING 6/30/22
What Our CEOs Are Saying
Program Experience
Engage. Master. Coach. Thrive.
Hire1 Accelerator (H1A) offers a comprehensive 6-month program consisting of over 100 hours of master-class style instruction, coaching, and mentoring.
Our curriculum focuses on helping established
women of color CEOs position themselves to expand into high-growth industries like tech, healthcare, financial services, e-commerce and more attain enough traction to hire at least 1 full-time employee.
Unique within the business ecosystem, we integrate local experts with lived entrepreneurial experience, and corporate growth partners willing to break down barriers to entry, mentor and provide contract opportunities as the critical force-multiplier
for our program participants.
Developed using a human centered approach, H1A consists of three multi-session workshops over a six month period:
1
BUSINESS CONTINUITY
Building stability & solving your business challenges in a business environment still dominated by an uncertain economy
2
BUSINESS
UPSKILLING & GROWTH
Further mastering the core business competencies, while expanding knowledge into new areas.
3
BUSINESS LEADERSHIP
Extensive learning on what it takes to lead your business through innovation and grow your CEO presence.
For Participants
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Capacity-Building, Growth-Centered Curriculum
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Executive-level Coaching and Mentoring
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Direct Connections with Business Leaders & Growth Partners
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Receive Business Certification Funding & Application Support
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Compete for a $25,000 Business Grant
Criteria To Apply
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Women of color in business for 3+ years
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Minimum revenue of $50,000
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Seeking to pivot or grow their businesses as a supplier in Ohio's fast growing industries like ecommerce, healthcare, retail, small manufacturing, tech/chip manufacturing, food, transportation
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$99 Nonrefundable application fee
Application Deadline: June 10, 2022
Become a Growth Partner
Our growth partners are made up of enterprise level organizations truly seeking to strengthen their supplier-diversity programs with procurement-ready vendors. A partnership with us not only translates into accessing new organization's suppliers but also a pathway to further develop your organization's current vendors. As a growth partner you will play an active role within the accelerator as a mentor to program participants, as well as helping
to open up potential contracting opportunities for our graduates.
Become a Strategic Sponsor
Our sponsors play a critical role in helping us to achieve H1A’s programmatic outcomes. These outcomes aim to achieve root-level impact for women of color entrepreneurs across the state of Ohio. We take a lot of pride in being stewards of your support, and work to ensure your organizational priorities are translated in a way that maximize the impact of your contributions.
For more information on becoming a growth partner or sponsorship opportunities, please reach out to Keena Smith via email at keena@womensceo.org
What Our CEOs Are Saying
