There are 12 openings. To qualify, a business must have at least three to five employees, show growth potential, have at least one year of financial records and have basic infrastructure in place. Rena Huber, the academy's program director, said once applicants are accepted, graduate target dates are set and a core business curriculum is designed to meet the needs of the individual business. Students attending the academy are referred to as CEOs. In the program's boot camp, CEOs meet once a week in APS's downtown Phoenix office for two months and learn about marketing, finance, cash flow, strategic planning and time management.
Homework is assigned and due the following week.
This is not for everybody, but the ones that have been through it speak very highly of it. Sherry Sentgeorge, a business development officer for Southwest Business Financing Corp., is an adviser and is on the academy's resource council. She points out the advantages of the holistic approach of the academy. The banker is going to tell them what they feel is going to be of value to the bank. Many times it takes a group of people to sit down to have kind of an analytical approach and nobody takes offense to it.