It only took 11 weeks for Cleveland entrepreneur Kazell Pugh to see results.
He said his sales at TLC Springwater increased 55 percent in 2012 over 2011 and he has added three new employees.
On Monday, he graduated with the first class of Goldman Sach's 10,000 Small Businesses in Cleveland.
"Three people may not sound like a lot to you," Pugh said to the crowd of about 300 people at the commencement address at the Cuyahoga Community College Eastern campus. "But it's a 100 percent increase over what we've done in the past."
And he was far from alone.
One by one, before each of 36 graduates received a certificate from Gary D. Cohn, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs read off a list of accomplishments and changes at each graduate's business.
"We do believe in small business," said Cohn, who grew up in Cleveland and said that both his parents and grandparents had small businesses in the city. "As you can see, Northeast Ohio looks like it's in pretty good shape with graduates like this."
The 36 business owners represented a wide variety of industries and businesses including manufacturing, catering, marketing and IT services. Participants spent 11 weeks at Tri-C studying a business and management curriculum designed by Babson College, the top ranked school for entrepreneurial education. Curriculum customized by Tri-C faculty covered accounting, human resources, negotiation, marketing and, finances among other topics.
The diverse group included start-ups with at least $150,000 in sales to businesses like Federal Gear, a 99-year-old custom gear manufacturer.
Federal Gear President David Hegenbarth said participants gained just as much from other students as instructors throughout the program.
Pugh said a referral from another classmate helped him get a $90,000 line of credit from Huntington Bank.
"One day somebody said I need help with bonding and four hands shot up, but it wasn't advisers, it was other students," Hegenbarth said. "It was really cool." he said.
Janet Gosche, director of client services for JurInnov, a technology firm at the Idea Center located at Playhouse Square, said the program helped her to learn to be more strategic and enter new markets.
"It gave me the encouragement to think bigger and consider the possibilities about what we need to do in order to differentiate," she said. The 12-person firm plans to hire 10 more people this year and 30 employees in the next five years. The program which started in 2010 in New York City, is now in 10 other cities including Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.
Diana Ross, center, owner of Faithful Companions in Mentor, claps with her fellow graduates of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses inaugural Cleveland program. Goldman Sachs is investing heavily in helping small businesses to grow. So far the program is in 11 cities and about 1,300 small business owners have graduated.
So far about 1,300 small business owners have graduated. A Goldman Sachs official said the financial firm generally commits to five years in each city. A preliminary survey of some of the graduates indicate an average 70 percent increase in revenues and 50 percent increase in new jobs.
The Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), JumpStart, Inc., the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Urban League of Greater Cleveland all help recruit local small business owners and assists in providing technical assistance and business support services.
But perhaps none of the graduates were as happy to be selected for the inaugural class as Kathi Howard-Primes. The chief executive officer and co-founder of Momentuum Tutoring in Cleveland Heights said she needed the program after all of her school district contracts were canceled-- following her most successful year in business.
"I learned not to put all of my eggs in one basket and found out that there are other growth opportunities," she said. "Now I'm increasing my private clientele."
During the commencement speech, Pugh sounded like a weight-loss commercial when he told the crowd, "It works. It absolutely works," referring to progress at his seven-year-old water business. Learning to be more strategic, he said, helped him to rekindle the fire and commitment he had when he first started his business
And one by one, other graduates offered similar testimonies.
"The program helped me to focus and get motivated again," Hegenbarth said. "It's my responsibility to make sure our company lasts another 100 years and now we have a growth plan to help get us there."