THREE THEMES THAT EMERGED FROM LAST MONTH’S WORKSHOP
Written by Jessica Murray
Last month, I hosted my third &Grow lunch-and-learn workshop at Ampersand Studios in Nashville. Ampersand is a coworking space geared toward creative entrepreneurs, and they aim to further support their members’ businesses through tailored programming.
The topic of the most recent event was “Setting 2025 Up for Success.” Fitting for a January session, right?
My colleague, Katie Parker, and I explored the foundations of effective goal-setting and collaboration, emphasizing why, no matter the size of your business, these are crucial foundations.
Setting the tone
We had three objectives for the workshop:
Objective #1: Clarify why emerging entrepreneurs should prioritize collaboration and goal-setting early in the year.
Objective #2: Provide practical tools attendees could immediately apply.
Objective #3: Deliver an interactive session geared toward action.
To underscore the importance of these themes, I shared three key data points:
Teams that set goals obtain 20-25% improved work performance.
Poor communication can cost up to 18% of total salaries paid annually.
Highly aligned teams achieve 58% higher revenue and are 72% more profitable.
I think the above made it clear: collaborative teams with clear goals outperform.
Then we got into the core content, with key takeaways summed up as:
Teams perform better when goals are clear and aligned to strategy.
Frameworks create focus and unifying language, enabling teams to move forward and stay motivated.
Collaboration doesn’t help us only achieve goals; it multiplies impact.
Structure doesn’t need to be a creativity killer. It’s often the unlock for better ideas and innovation.
The magic in breakout sessions
After laying the groundwork, we divided the audience into groups of three.
The task?
Each person presented a specific business goal or collaboration challenge. Then, the other two members brainstormed solutions or ways to advance the goal with their third partner.
As Katie and I walked around the room, it was clear how valuable it is for entrepreneurs to have peers as a sounding board. The conversations were engaged, candid and solution-oriented.
We then regrouped to share learnings and discuss sticking points.
While each narrative was slightly different, three themes really emerged:
Theme #1 - Adding resources doesn’t always lead to immediate relief: Entrepreneurs experience tension when they can finally add teammates. Balancing onboarding, setting standards, introducing processes, aligning expectations and delegating can feel daunting to get right.
Theme #2 - Narrowing priorities remains challenging: Many attendees were still refining their 2025 goals. They joined seeking accountability and guidance.
Theme #3 - Business owners crave seamless collaboration: Workflow and process challenges create friction with collaborators, both internal and external.
While these are distinct, they all tie back to core processes and business systems that may not be in sync. Misalignment here impacts productivity, growth and customer delivery. If you were in that room, you’d have felt just how much these entrepreneurs wanted to break through these barriers.
The good news
All of these problems have solutions, even if they feel overwhelming.
I’ll tell you what I said to the attendees in that room:
When you reach that point where these areas of your business feel too messy or there’s too much ambiguity, step back and focus on a couple of key basics:
Theme #1 - Don’t overlook onboarding. Invest the time to get this right so you don’t waste more effort later. Bringing new team members on board requires upfront effort (there's no way around it), and it's a two-way street. Build a lightweight process to align expectations and set them (and you) up for success.
Theme #2 - Define your top three objectives for the year. Then, take those bigger goals and break them down into smaller, actionable milestones.
Theme #3 - Identify the bottlenecks and outline the end-to-end workflow first. Don’t skip to the solution.
Each attendee left the workshop taking at least one step forward for their business, which is always my goal when I work with a business 1:1 or in a group session like this.
If any of these themes or challenges feel all too familiar and you’re interested in more of the content from the workshop, get in touch and I’ll be happy to share more.