REEL

Recovery & Entrepreneurship Elevating Lives

is aimed at giving recovery center residents across the country an opportunity to acquire entrepreneurial skills during treatment that will provide them with an edge on a new life post-recovery. REEL is a comprehensive 7-week program designed to teach clients in recovery how to start their own businesses. Our program covers all aspects of business development, including Success Planning, Marketing, Financial Planning, Operations Planning, and digital marketing.

Over the course of 4 weeks, we meet for 4 classes, each lasting 2 hours. During these classes, we focus on the basics of writing a business plan, and clients are given access to Be Boss Online, an online platform that teaches participants how to use digital marketing to promote their business via social media, website, and targeted advertising.

Weeks five and six are practice weeks for their business pitch presentation.  We meet with each team individually to develop their business idea, pitch, and slide deck.  Week seven is the final pitch competition. Each recovery center has a team that works together to develop a business idea and pitch. Our program equips participants with the skills needed to develop a business plan and eventually start their own business post-recovery.

Each of the four classes covers a different aspect of business development.

In addition to our classes, clients have access to Be Boss Online, which provides 25 systematic, real-world marketing training videos, covering topics such as the customer journey, social media for business, how to run digital ads, building a website, local search engine optimization, analytics, cyber security, tools, tips, and tricks, customer service online and more.

The participants themselves best describe the success of the project. Here’s what some have to say:

What our participants say:
“Exactly what I needed to fulfill my dreams.”
“For the first time, I feel like I can succeed in life.” “I’m a better asset to the community, thanks to this program,”
“It helped me step outside my comfort zone and grow in ways I couldn’t have otherwise.”

Meaningful employment is a crucial goal of the “recovery ecosystem” model promoted by the Fletcher Group Rural Center of Excellence, according to the London, Ky.-based organization’s Director of Employment Services, Lori Baier. Activities are divided into on-the-job training, more traditional vocational education programs, and entrepreneurial training.

“REEL KY is a good example of the latter,” Baier said. “So far, it’s helped rural residents in five Eastern Kentucky recovery centers find a new sense of worth and purpose by providing them with the skills they need to start their own businesses. There’s an abundance of talent within the recovery community, and gaining new entrepreneurial skills has let that talent shine.”

SKED Small Business Training Director Amanda Kelly provides the four-week online training directly to the recovery centers via Zoom calls. “REEL encourages participants to believe in themselves and their possibilities,” Kelly said. “I want the participants to walk out of this program knowing that if owning a business is their dream, they can accomplish it. Our goal is to give them the information, experience, and support needed to realize their dream. Recovery is about changing the future; REEL is about creating another avenue to that future.”

After a successful pilot program in Kentucky, SKED and the Fletcher Group is proud to offer this program nationwide. For more information, contact Amanda Kelly at amanda@skedcorp.com or (606) 416-2008.

To learn more about how SKED helps small business owners do business better, visit www.skedcorp.com.