NBIC Growth Hub

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NBIC Growth Hub Nashville's long-standing incubator program helping entrepreneurs to scale businesses since 1986.

09/30/2026

Anna Fields of Bubble Love took the Biz Quiz not entirely sure what to expect. What she got was an honest, if humbling, answer. "I realized I was way down, like I'm just starting out. I really don't know what I'm doing."

The quiz pointed her to Foundations. Every week brought homework, and every week brought the same realization, the more she learned, the more she saw how much she still didn't know. Even without meeting in person, she says, she was getting real value out of it.

The bigger shift came next: a one-on-one mentor. "I learned so much from her, having a one-on-one mentor that I could get really deep into the books with." What made the difference wasn't just expertise. It was distance. Bubble Love is deeply personal to Anna and her team, "this is our baby," and her mentor helped her step back from that emotion long enough to actually read the data. To take care of her people. To decide, clearly, what kind of entrepreneur and what kind of boss she wanted to be.

If you're not sure where your own business stands, the Biz Quiz takes about five minutes and points you to the program built for exactly where you are.

09/28/2026

Mikki Brown of US Bank has watched a lot of business owners miss what was right in front of them.

Not because their clients weren't telling them. Because they weren't listening in the right way. "Your clients are talking to you constantly," she says. "You ignore it, and it does not mean they're verbally talking. Pay attention to behavior."

She describes it plainly: a customer base shrinking with no clear reason, when the reason was likely said out loud months ago and missed. A client fidgeting in a waiting room, communicating impatience without a single word. "They are communicating, but we ignore it."

Her fix isn't complicated. Ask. "Do you do surveys for your business? Why not? If you got five or six people saying the same thing, it's true, and it's an opportunity to pivot and do something different."

Her closing line is the one worth sitting with: "You're a business owner. You can't afford to guess. You have to intentionally know."

That's exactly what the Biz Quiz is built for, five minutes to stop guessing and find out what your business actually needs next.

09/25/2026

No two businesses are exactly alike.

Some are just getting started. Others are gaining traction and preparing to grow. That's why a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work.

The Biz Quiz helps us understand where your business is today, so we can connect you with the resources, programs, and support that make the most sense for your goals.

In just a few minutes, you'll gain clarity on your next step and discover opportunities designed with your stage of business in mind.

09/24/2026

Kathryn Swanton didn't wait until MetKat was struggling to ask for help. She'd known about NBIC long before she ever launched, so the day she finally did, calling them wasn't a last resort. It was the first thing on her list.

That first call led to a long conversation with Angela Crane-Jones, NBIC's CEO, about marketing, growth strategy, and the direction the business was headed. Kathryn expected to talk shop about the creative side of the business, the part she's naturally good at. What she didn't expect was how much of what followed, both that conversation and the courses after it, would be about operations.

"I am not an operations person," she says. "I am a creative."

And yet: "NBIC courses really taught me how to run a successful business, more on the operations side."

That's the part of building a business a lot of owners don't see coming. The skill you need most is often the one furthest from your natural strength, and the fastest way to close that gap is rarely to do it alone.

09/23/2026

Here's an honest question: are you Future Ready? Not a trick question, just an honest one, because everything moved online, the way we get paid, the way customers find us, the way work gets done, and nobody handed any of us a manual for it.

That's what Future Ready is. The manual. Free, hands-on training from NBIC, real skills and real tools, just two hours, at no cost to you thanks to the State of Tennessee's Department of Economic and Community Development. It's running across Davidson, Maury, Rutherford, Sumner, and Wilson counties.

If you've got a job, this is how you stay ahead in it: using AI to get more done, building a LinkedIn profile that actually opens doors, picking up the digital skills your next role is going to expect anyway.

If you're just trying to keep up with life online, this is the confidence to bank on your phone without second-guessing yourself, catch a scam before it catches you, and finally understand the tech your own family already lives on.

And if you run a business, this is your operating system: AI that handles the busy work, getting paid online, follow-up that doesn't fall through the cracks, a Google listing that actually brings people through the door.

So, are you Future Ready? Let's find out together.

09/22/2026

Your manager asks if you can use AI for a project. You say yes, because saying no feels like admitting you're behind. Then you spend the next hour quietly figuring out if that was true.

You're not the only one doing this. AI has moved from a nice-to-have to the baseline expectation faster than most workplaces have caught up, which means a lot of "yes" answers right now are more hope than fact.

Future Ready is free, two-hour training for working professionals right here in Middle Tennessee, built to close that exact gap before the next time someone asks.

09/21/2026

Most people are not against AI. They are just tired of being told it changes everything without being shown something useful thing to do with it.

Those pulling ahead are not doing anything unique. They are drafting the newsletter, answering the same ten customer questions automatically, and catching up on the marketing they never had time for. Future Ready keeps it that practical.

Take one training, then take the Biz Quiz to find the program that fits.

09/18/2026

Your dad calls, a little rattled. He got a text saying his bank account was locked and needed to be "verified" right away. He almost clicked it. Something felt off, so he didn't. Next time, will he catch it as fast?

That's the gap Future Ready exists to close, for you and for the family members using the same phones and apps you do. Sessions cover staying safe online, banking securely on a phone, and getting comfortable with the tech your family already relies on every day. No jargon, just the plain-language version of exactly what to look for.

09/17/2026

Kathryn Swanton, founder of MetKat Marketing, hit a wall many owners recognize: having real skill and no clear sense of where to point it.

"NBIC provided me with a framework that was simple, that was easy for me to take a look at my business and kind of figure out the direction of where I wanted to go," she says. "What I want to do, what I don't want to do, what drives me, what excites me, and kind of where it could go from there."

That clarity, not just more effort, was what actually moved her forward.

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