Scale Up Miami Accepting Applications From Business Owners

The Idea Center is accepting applications for Scale Up Miami, a free program aimed at improving business management and growth, until July 13.

Training begins Aug. 4. The program is in partnership with TD Bank’s Charitable Foundation.

To be eligible, applicants need to have a business with an annual revenue of less than $150,000, have no more than four full time employees and have been in operation for less than two years but at least six months.

Launched earlier this year, Scale Up Miami seeks to provide hands-on experience through workshops.

“This can be described as a ‘mini MBA’,” said Claudia Mercado, program coordinator for Scale Up Miami. “Through this program, we’re looking to strengthen foundations so they can properly scale through better operations management, marketing and team-building.”

The curriculum consists of 40 hours of training, divided into five eight-hour sessions scheduled on Saturdays, followed by an additional three months of free business coaching.

With its first round of 19 cohorts having finished training, Scale Up is looking to expand and include 30 more business owners in its next session. After 18 months, the program hopes to have trained roughly 75 small business leaders across Miami.   

“[Scale Up] is a great experience that allowed me to get a refresher on what I learned through my MBA,” said Eve Zygnerski, who participated in Scale Up’s first cohort and is the founder of Mind Warehouse, a company that leases work spaces for other companies.  “I came out of this learning more than I had expected. I had attended a more formal education experience but this helped me retrain my focus to areas that weren’t strengths at first.”

To apply for Scale Up Miami, visit http://theideacenter.co/scaleupmiami.