NICI Grantee Spotlight: Think Big!
May 2, 2024
In 2018, Dr. Sheila Hill and Duntai Mathews' reflected on the challenges they faced as entrepreneurs and wished to share those experiences with fellow business owners. They wanted to provide a space where opportunities and resources could be shared. So, what began as a one-time expo soon turned into Think Big! — a Rockford nonprofit that provides resources and education for minority entrepreneurs looking to start, sustain, or expand their businesses.
Through grant support from Northern Illinois Community Initiatives (NICI), Think Big! has been able to expand its School of Business, a four-week program for entrepreneurs at every stage to learn skills and receive coaching that will strengthen their businesses. Expansion has included one-on-one coaching, one-off workshops that address financial planning and credit repair, and make-up classes for when life gets in the way of attending a course.
Dr. Hill spoke with NICI to discuss how Think Big! came to be, the ins and outs of the School of Business, the resources they provide to minority business owners, and how NICI’s support goes beyond a dollar amount.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Photo caption: Sheila Hill, co-founder of Think Big! in Rockford, receiving the 2024 Outstanding Service in Leadership Award at a Women's History Month celebration at the state government building in Chicago.
1. How did Think Big! get started?
Think Big! started in 2018. It was a vision of Duntai and I to give back to the community and entrepreneurship space. With some of the challenges that him and I have faced in starting our own businesses, we thought it would be nice to do something to be able to help up and coming entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. We gathered a team of individuals together and we started planning what initially started out to be just a one-time thing called Think Big! Expo. We’re going to come together, we’re going to do two days with entrepreneur workshops, panels, some speed networking for entrepreneurship, a keynote speaker, music, food, vendors, all that good stuff, right? It was overwhelming. We had over 1,000 people that were in attendance — I want to say close to 1,800 over those two days, if I remember correctly.
We came back together to talk about it and we realized that there's really a great need for this. We continued to meet and plan for the next year, when in the meantime, people started reaching out to us: “Hey, help me with my business.” So, we launched the Think Big! School of Business, which is a four-week course that is offered for entrepreneurs starting up, sustaining, and scaling up their business.
Our focus for the School of Business has been clear from the beginning. We really have not deviated from our four focal points. Week one is Formalizing your Business: Side Hustle to Legit, week two focuses on Business Credit: It Takes Money to Make Money, week three is Branding and Marketing: Seeing is Believing, and four is Developing your Business Plan: Starting From the Bottom Now You’re Here. That very last class, we have a template of a business plan, and we help by walking them through their business plan on that fourth week.
2. Tell us about Think Big!’s School of Business and the resources the program provides for entrepreneurs.
We’ve put together what we call Activity Books. We call it an Activity Book on purpose because we found that some people maybe didn’t finish school, or they had some past experiences with school where we noticed they weren’t going to get it done because they thought of it more as homework instead of as their business plan. The Think Big! Activity Book is their business plan, and it aligns with classes every single week. The classes are three and a half hours long and our presentations are walking through the book step-by-step. They also have time within the class to complete the book and ask any questions. And then at home, we ask them to work on their activity book as though they were in business, so however many hours you would dedicate to working on your business — if it’s three hours, we expect you to work in your activity book for three hours to ensure that you complete everything by week two.
And then after 2019, we had shut down because of COVID and in about 2021 when we came back offering our classes, what we added was coaching. Four weeks was not enough, right? So, we offer one-on-one coaching to each participant that completed the School of Business, and they have an opportunity to sit down with a business coach to help them in the four focus areas. How do you start your business? They help with your credit, maybe you need some assistance with your marketing, or you need help with your business plan. Those are also the focal points for our coaches. Our coaches are also the same individuals that facilitate our classes.
We also provide them with all the resources in that community like where they can go apply for their liquor license, or maybe if they need to file for their state license — like cosmetology or something like that — we have already compiled a list of different licenses they may need in the city of Rockford or the surrounding areas. We provide them with those resources as well as with any websites they may need. That includes the IRS and the Secretary of State. All those different types of entities are included in this resource that they get.
In 2023, we noticed that we started getting more individuals that were interested in starting not-for-profits. So, in week one, we’ve started to incorporate talking a little bit about not-for-profits. We don’t go into great detail. What we now think is more than likely a need is to help not-for-profits understand why they should be in business or how they should be in business, and how they can serve or give back to their community. We find ourselves dismantling any type of myth that may be out there as it relates to a not-for-profit versus a for-profit. And we have an organization in town that's called [Northern Illinois Center for] Nonprofit Excellence so we would refer people there if they needed those services. The Small Business Development Center, SBA, [Rockford Local Development Corporation] RLDC, there are other places that we would refer people to if they were ready for a merger, acquisition, or something like that. We have a bank of banks that we work with, so we refer them to banks.
We also have a “How to register your business” class. It’s a separate, one-day workshop, about two hours, where you can bring your laptop, your iPad or tablet, so we can walk you through registering your business on the spot.
3. What challenges do you see entrepreneurs — particularly minority entrepreneurs — face in Rockford and the Northern Illinois region?
I think that number one would be finances. “How do I get the money to start my business? Where do I get the funds from?” Most people think, “I’m just going to apply for a grant,” not understanding that most people are applying for the same grant, and most people are not giving grants for people that want to start a for-profit business.
We’re focusing on finances during the School of Business, but this year in particular, we have had two courses on financial planning and all things finances. Like, even if your business is unsuccessful, now what? You spent all your savings and now what do you do? And then there was another class on credit repair. So, two classes on finances and one on credit repair, because we found that finances are still an obstacle for many minorities in our community.
We also have a lot of people that start the class but don’t complete it. It’s because, you know, life is happening. Maybe daycare is the issue. Life is overtaking and they can’t make it to class. I know that’s not really something that an institution might track, but the reason why we felt we needed to see that as one of our challenges was because of the high number of people we touch. We’ve had 500+ people we’ve touched since we started the School of Business in 2018, but we have only graduated over 150. We were like, why are our numbers so far apart? Well, because life is happening for people, for whatever reason — they had to go back to work, or their business went out of business. So, for us, that’s high on our list, and Think Big! has make-up classes. Maybe you've completed week one through three and you need to make up number four, we have a Wednesday where you can come to make-up classes. I think that’s important to know. You can come to a makeup class, or you can just come to another class at the next cohort that we start. So, if you’re in cohort 13 and you miss week one, you can come to cohort 14 and make up week one and still graduate in the next graduating class.
4. How has Northern Illinois Community Initiatives’ (NICI) support empowered the organization's work?
They’ve been our funder since we started Think Big! Their support is huge. For the Think Big! School of Business, and the coaching, and the workshop, and even the networking that we do — all of that is being funded by NICI. And we would not even be able to do classes without them. So, financially they’ve been very supportive. But the other thing I love is the fact that [our Program Manager] Nikki does check in. I love that NICI just calls and says, “Hey, how's it going? I’ve seen in your newsletter that you shared this, what is that all about? How’s that going? Are you going to continue to move it forward?” Just knowing that it’s not always about the dollars, but it’s sometimes “We want to see what else you’re doing, we want to see you be successful.” And I think for me, we don’t get that from a lot of funders. It’s not just because we’re following our dollars, we care about what you’re doing in your community, and we see the impact that it’s making, and we want to know how else we can come alongside you to continue your efforts to impact your community. That’s what I get from my conversations with NICI.