Chicago Business Growth Workshop: Build Your 90-Day Growth Plan

Stop collecting growth ideas. Decide what you're actually going to do for the next 90 days.

You probably don't need another list of 20 marketing tactics.

You need to know:

Where are your next customers most realistically going to come from?

Which part of your growth process deserves attention first?

What can you test without wasting the next three months — or your entire marketing budget?

Chicago Business Growth Workshop is a focused, hands-on business growth workshop for Chicago service-business owners, consultants, freelancers, independent professionals, and small operators who already have something real they are trying to sell or grow.

Instead of spending three hours listening to generic advice, you'll work directly on your own business.

Bring one real growth challenge.

Maybe you need:

• More qualified leads
• Better referrals
• More repeat business
• A clearer offer
• Stronger local visibility
• Better partnerships
• More consistent outreach
• A more reliable customer pipeline

During the session, you'll identify your most important growth bottleneck, map realistic customer opportunities, refine one offer, design one practical growth experiment, and turn everything into a focused 90-Day Growth Map.

This is not about leaving with more theory.

It's about leaving knowing:

What am I testing?

Who am I trying to reach?

What will I do first?

How will I know whether it's working?

WHO THIS WORKSHOP IS FOR

This workshop is intentionally focused on people who already have an offer, service, business, or active project they want to grow.

It is designed for:

Small service-business owners

Independent consultants

Freelancers

Creative service providers

Professional-service businesses

Local business operators

Boutique agency owners

Solo business owners

Independent specialists

Operators building an existing customer base

This workshop is especially useful if:

You already have something you sell, but customer acquisition feels inconsistent.

You have several growth ideas but aren't sure which one deserves your attention.

You rely heavily on word of mouth but want to create more deliberate referral activity.

Your offer works, but prospects don't always understand why they should buy.

You have tried marketing tactics without a clear way to decide what is actually working.

Probably Not the Best Fit If:

You are only exploring a business idea and do not yet have an offer, service, customer type, or project to work on.

The exercises are most useful when you can apply them to something real.

WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON

PART 1 — Find the Real Growth Bottleneck

Before adding another marketing channel, identify where growth is actually getting stuck.

You'll work through: Awareness → Leads → Conversion → Repeat Business → Referrals → Partnerships

Instead of trying to improve everything simultaneously, you'll identify the one stage most worth focusing on during the next 90 days.

Takeaway

Growth Bottleneck Snapshot

PART 2 — Map Your Best Customer Opportunities

Next, map where realistic customer opportunities could come from.

Potential channels may include:

Existing customers

Customer reactivation

Referrals

Local partnerships

Strategic collaborations

Direct outreach

Organic content

Community visibility

Events

Digital acquisition

Repeat business

The goal isn't to use every channel.

You'll narrow the list to the two opportunities most appropriate for your business, customer and available resources.

Takeaway

Customer Opportunity Map

PART 3 — Make One Offer Easier to Buy

More traffic cannot fix an offer customers don't understand.

Use a simple framework to examine one real offer:

Who is this for?

What problem does it solve?

What outcome does the buyer receive?

Why should they choose it?

What's the easiest next step?

You'll rewrite or clarify one current offer during the session.

Takeaway: Offer Clarity Worksheet

PART 4 — Design One Growth Experiment

Instead of committing months of time and money to an untested idea, choose one growth hypothesis you can test.

You'll build a simple experiment around:

Audience + Offer + Channel + Action + Measurement

Possible experiments could include:

Customer reactivation

Referral campaigns

Partnership outreach

Targeted prospecting

A revised introductory offer

Local collaboration

A small event

A focused content series

Strategic outreach

You'll define:

What you're testing - Who you're targeting - What action you'll take - What resources it requires - What result would make the test worth continuing

Takeaway: Growth Experiment Planner

THE GROWTH EXCHANGE

Useful networking — without turning the entire workshop into a mixer.

Midway through the workshop, you'll participate in a structured Growth Exchange with other Chicago operators.

In small groups, each participant briefly completes three prompts:

I'M GROWING...

What business, service, customer segment, offer or project are you currently trying to grow?

I'M LOOKING FOR...

What customer type, specialist, introduction, resource or collaboration would help?

I CAN HELP WITH...

What knowledge, capability, connection or professional resource can you realistically offer someone else?

The format creates a natural way to uncover:

Referral relationships

Potential collaborators

Local professional resources

Partnership opportunities

Complementary service providers

Useful introductions

There is no formal stage pitch.

Networking supports the workshop rather than replacing it.

BUILD YOUR 90-DAY GROWTH MAP

The final section turns your ideas into an execution sequence.

DAYS 1–30 — TEST

Launch one focused growth experiment.

Define:

Target customer

- Offer

- Channel

- First action

- Measurement

DAYS 31–60 — IMPROVE

Review what happened.

Identify:

- What gained traction

- What created friction

- What should change

- What deserves another test

DAYS 61–90 — SCALE OR REPLACE

If the experiment works, invest more deliberately.

If it doesn't, use the evidence to select the next most promising opportunity.

Before leaving the room, every participant identifies their first three actions.

WHAT YOU'LL LEAVE WITH

Paid attendees receive the complete workshop system:

✓ Growth Bottleneck Snapshot

Identify which stage of your customer journey deserves attention first.

✓ Customer Opportunity Map

Identify realistic customer acquisition, referral and repeat-business opportunities.

✓ Offer Clarity Worksheet

Improve one existing offer.

✓ Growth Experiment Planner

Turn one idea into a measurable test.

✓ 90-Day Growth Map

Convert the workshop into a 30 / 60 / 90-day action sequence.

✓ Growth Exchange

Meet other Chicago operators through structured peer conversations.

✓ Digital Follow-Up Pack

Keep editable versions of the planning tools available after the event.

The desired outcome is not:

“That was interesting.”

The desired outcome is:

“I know what I'm doing Monday morning.”

Event venue & nearby stays

Two Thirty, 230 West Superior Street, Chicago, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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