Business & Balance: Progress over perfection

By Izzy Haywood, Program Manager for Events and Facilitation

At Spruce Root, we frequently encourage entrepreneurs not to be afraid to test their ideas and experiment so they can learn and grow. In 2023, we took our own advice by experimenting with the formatting of our Path to Prosperity Business Competition to train more participants, reach more rural and Indigenous entrepreneurs, and to share our resources more equitably with the rest of our growing programming.

Rather than offering our signature three-day, in-person Boot Camp, we offered two nine-week courses titled “Business & Balance” to train entrepreneurs who could then choose to apply for the Path to Prosperity Business Competition. Through two cohorts, we trained 43 entrepreneurs (28 of whom identified as Indigenous).

While this online format had its strengths, we realized that it missed the transformational nature and relationship-building of our classic in-person training. So, we will return to the threeday training in 2024, but will carry the lessons we learned into the 2024 cycle of the Competition.