Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator

Take your business to the next level.

A comprehensive business innovation program designed to assist for profit, not-for-profit and family owned businesses to take them to the next level of success and sustainability.

August 25 – December 15, 2021

Registration for the 2021 Program now open.
Registration accepted through August 23, 2021.

Presented by:

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Innovate. Accelerate. Achieve.

Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator is designed by entrepreneurs to help for-profit, family owned, and nonprofit businesses innovate and increase profitability. If you approach the business the same way as you did in the past, it will limit future profit growth. Now is the time to innovate with cutting edge best practices in business management, leadership, planning, branding, marketing, sales, accounting, purchasing, raising capital, information technology, human resources, time management, new business development, operations and distribution. The Program will help you identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in each department of your company to track, monitor and accelerate the success of your business. Peter Drucker said, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

For-Profit

Whether your business is a startup (1-3 years old), existing, or in a scale-up phase, Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator can help you innovate and take your business to the next level.

Family Owned

Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator is designed to not only grow your business and increase profitability now, but also help with a family business transition. The skills learned can help the next generation of a family business better prepare for a future business transition.

Nonprofits

According to By Soren Kaplan the author of The Invisible Advantage, “Nonprofits face a fundamental “business” challenge: they’re nonprofits. Most of the 1.5 million US nonprofits don’t support themselves through “competing” by creating and selling better products, services, or business models. They fund-raise, get donations, and find grants. The problem with the typical nonprofit business model is that it’s based on dependence – many nonprofits look for funding every year from unpredictable grants, donations, and even bake sales. But if you’re truly a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, can you really innovate? The answer is yes, and in fact, business model innovation has arrived in the nonprofit sphere. In today’s world, running a nonprofit doesn’t mean eliminating profit from your thinking. Whatever you’re doing to serve the world, you can likely do more of it, in a more predictably sustainable way, by innovating your business model.” The sessions listed below give examples of how the Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator can help your non-profit.

Blue Ridge Community College and the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce have partnered once again to offer the Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator, a five-month, ten-course program.

August 25, 2021
Business Best Practices and KPI (Key Performance Indicators) Checklist by Department Identifying Opportunities for Acceleration

September 8, 2021
Management and Leadership

September 15, 2021
Human Resources, Legal and Insurance

September 29, 2021
Capital and Purchasing

October 13, 2021
Competition and Competitive Advantage

October 27, 2021
Branding, Marketing and Sales

November 10, 2021
Customer Service and Information Technology

November 17, 2021
Business Logistics: Best ways to meet customer needs

December 1, 2021
Accounting and Finance

December 15, 2021
Business Acceleration Plan Presentation and Graduation

Sessions run Wednesdays, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. except 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on August 25 and December 15, 2021.
Cost for the course is $295.

For more information, call Blue Ridge Community College at (828) 694-1779.

A Blue Ridge Community College Continuing Education Program

Gary Heisey,
Executive Director Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator

Blue Ridge Community College empowers individuals with knowledge and skills to enrich our communities and build a competitive workforce.

Prior to directing the Mission Acceleration Business Accelerator, a Blue Ridge Community College Continuing Education Program, Gary for eleven years was the award winning Blue Ridge Community College Small Business Director. During this time, he directed the Small Business Center, rated number one SBC training center in North Carolina. Gary personally taught over 600 business seminars and assisting over 1,000 start-up, growth and scale-up companies with management advice, branding, marketing, social media, access to capital and business planning.

Gary has been recognized by:

Small Business Administration
National Association of Entrepreneurship
2016 North Carolina Community College Staff Person of the Year Award
2014 Dr. Molly A. Parkhill Blue Ridge Community Staff Person of the Year
Mountain Bizworks (Currently serves as the Board Chair and on the Lending Committee)
SCORE (Service of Retired Executives)

Prior to being the SBC Director for Blue Ridge Community College, Gary for four years was the Economic Planner for Transylvania County where he assisted the County Economic Development and Planning Department rebrand and position the county after the loss of their large manufacturing base.

For more information, call Blue Ridge Community College at (828) 694-1779.

The program directors also created a self-test that asks a variety of questions intended to help you decide if the program is right for you. You can take the self-test at: Mission Acceleration Program Self-Test.