Are you looking to take your business to the next level? Do you want your business to thrive and be successful? As an entrepreneur, it can be lonely and difficult. A business coach can be a beneficial sounding board and provide a helpful outside perspective on your business.
The Whitewater University Innovation Center offers a variety of coaching programs to suit your needs. Why do we offer various coaching programs? Each coaching program has its own philosophy and unique coaching approach. The variety of coaching programs allows us to tailor the coaching program to the client’s needs.
The majority of our business coaches are certified through one of three programs: GrowthWheel, Wendy Kennedy, or Innovatrium. In addition, we offer more informal as-needed consulting services through our iMentor program.
GrowthWheel
As an alternative to the conventional business plan, the GrowthWheel framework provides a 360 perspective on your business and helps the entrepreneur identify opportunities and challenges. The framework focuses on 4 key challenges – Business Concept, Organization, Client Relations, and Operations. The framework is designed to help you create an attractive business concept, build a strong organization, develop lasting client relations, and maintain profitable operations.
Learn more about GrowthWheel, https://www.growthwheel.com/
Wendy Kennedy
To turn an idea into an opportunity, Wendy Kennedy helps entrepreneurs discover the value of their ideas and unlock their full potential. Wendy Kennedy embraces the “So what? Who cares? Why you?” methodology to increase the success rate for new products and startups. Wendy Kennedy offers a step-by-step, easy-to-use design thinking tools to guide the customer discovery phase and explore the business value of a new idea.
Learn more about Wendy Kennedy, https://wendykennedy.com/
Innovatrium
The Innovatrium offers a customized approach to provide leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators with the best possible resources to innovate. The Innovatrium can help you create a roadmap to your desired future, build momentum around innovation, and develop innovators within your organization. Their approach is driven by the Competing Values Framework, which is a visual roadmap for understanding individual’s motivations, how they work best, and how opposing values create tension. The framework helps leaders and entrepreneurs identify their current culture as well as your future, desired culture. The framework can help you identify the people, practices, and purposes necessary to realize your goals.
Learn more about the Innovatrium, https://innovatrium.org
iMentor Program
Through the Whitewater University Incubation Program, the Innovation Center is able to connect our clients and affiliates with the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater professors, who are experts in their field. Their expertise includes entrepreneurship, innovation and technology, real estate, business and entrepreneurial finance, marketing, management, human resources, diversity and ethics, as well as nanotechnology, solar cells, and electronics.
Depending on the iMentor, some host weekly office hours while others are only available on an appointment basis. If you were to meet one of these experts through their consulting business, it would be a significant investment. However, through our incubation memberships, we are able to offer these consulting services to our clients and affiliates at no additional cost.
Each of the coaching programs is tailored to entrepreneurs and innovators, but each has its own approach and can be beneficial at different business stages. If you would like to learn more about our coaching programs or connect with a mentor, please contact us.