Construction Owner 2 CEO

In collaboration with the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association, our business accelerator program is custom-designed to cater to the needs of up-and-coming construction businesses, including education on the contract bid process, project management, construction finance and legal knowledge.

Application Due Date
January 6, 2026
Start Date
January 20, 2026
End Date
March 26, 2026
Gallery
Application Due Date
January 6, 2026
Start Date
January 20, 2026
End Date
March 26, 2026

Take Action

About

A 10-Week Business Accelerator Program to help you strengthen your access to industry expertise and build your business's competitive advantage, Sales, Project Management, Contract Bid Process and More!

Commitment

  • Out-of-class assignments will be required
  • Participate fully-leave your cell phone at the door
  • Create an Accelerator Strategic Action Plan
  • Complete an initial assessment and follow-up assessments

Recommended Eligibility

You must be a construction Business owner.

Business Criteria:

  • 2+ years in operation
  • $200,000 revenues in the most recent fiscal year
  • 2+ employees (owners may be included in this count)

Schedule

Tuesday's & Thursday's from 6-8 pm

Entrepreneurial Leadership Development & Delegation

Knowing who you are as a leader, your strengths and weakness will be the basis for developing a growth mindset and moving from working in the business to working on the business.

  • Perfecting an effective elevator pitch
  • Understand your personal BOSI DNA and how it impacts your performance
  • Understanding employee’s mindset and intrapreneurial skills
  • Improve your own personal performance, develop personal objectives
  • Creating effective delegation strategies, including monitoring and performance management


Planning and Strategy for Growth

  • Review the foundation of your business, mission, vision and values, & SWOT
  • Understand scalability and how it impacts your business
  • Identify methods and opportunities for growth
  • Develop skills to create an effective strategic plan for growth
  • Examine current business plan, business situation and organizational structure for best fit with your business model


Human Resources

Growing companies require people. They are the most expensive resource most companies will have so hiring decisions are amongst the most important and potentially costly decisions a business owner will have to make. In this session we will be looking at the HR function and understanding how it impacts business growth.

  • Understanding and creating the company culture for your business and how it can impact growth
  • Appreciate the legal background to employment activities
  • Identify critical issues related to Human Resource function and the potential traps for business owners
  • Assess current workforce situation
  • Develop appropriate job descriptions, policy manuals and compensation plans
  • Developing an effective management team
  • Understanding generational issues, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace


Understanding and Using Financial Information to Manage Growth

Established businesses have a CPA to create financial statements and manage tax reporting. Growing a business however, requires review of company financial data as a tool to manage day to day business transactions for growth and profitability.

  • Know how to use financial information from your accounting software to manage business growth, effect change and improve performance and profits
  • Appreciate the value of budgets, costs and pricing strategies to manage people and processes in the business
  • Understanding break even analysis and ratios and how they are used to plan growth
  • Identify cash flow bottlenecks before they arise and know how to resolve them if they do happen
  • Understand what lenders look for to make financing decisions


Content & Communication

Going beyond the normal concept of marketing to evaluate the importance of developing and managing strong marketing content and solid methods of communicating your marketing message to your clearly identified customer base.

  • Understanding how your purpose and your customer’s needs interact
  • Know how to create and use meaningful value propositions to increase sales
  • Understand how buyers make purchase decisions
  • Determining appropriate media for your market
  • Create effective communications for use in a variety of media
  • Understand how digital and traditional marketing approaches interact to get the best out of both in a changing business environment


Sales & Lead Generation

No sales, no business. In this session we will be building on the content and communication session to create a plan for the development of a solid pipeline of sales leads and how to implement the plan to maintain the pipeline and close sales.

  • Tools to develop a sales pipeline
  • Procedures for tracking leads and secrets on how to act on those leads
  • Techniques for opening and closing a sale
  • Methods for delivering exemplary client care and generating repeat sales
  • Creating an effective sales and lead generation operational plan
  • Internal sales or an external sales force, what are the factors that need to be considered


Contract and Contract Bidding

Learn how to pull together all of the information and documentation from construction estimation into a professional bid proposal for a range of contractors.

  • Requests for Proposals (RFP’s)
  • Getting bid opportunities
  • Types of bidding, bid lists and markups
  • Winning more … while maintaining margins


Project Management

Discover the steps needed to develop a proper construction plan, and learn how to transform that plan into a schedule. Learn how to inspire a sense of shared purpose in a team, and how to manage projects from beginning to end using proven project-management techniques.

  • P.M. concepts
  • Initiating a project
  • Planning a project
  • Estimation
  • Critical path
  • Risk Management


Legal Knowledge for the Construction Industry

  • Subcontractors
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Litigation avoidance
  • Legal aspects of bidding
  • Mechanics liens


Insurance and Bonding

  • Bid bonds
  • Performance Bonds
  • Payment bonds
  • Subcontractor default insurance
  • Builders risk insurance
  • Hold harmless agreements

About

A 10-Week Business Accelerator Program to help you strengthen your access to industry expertise and build your business's competitive advantage, Sales, Project Management, Contract Bid Process and More!

Commitment

  • Out-of-class assignments will be required
  • Participate fully-leave your cell phone at the door
  • Create an Accelerator Strategic Action Plan
  • Complete an initial assessment and follow-up assessments

Recommended Eligibility

You must be a construction Business owner.

Business Criteria:

  • 2+ years in operation
  • $200,000 revenues in the most recent fiscal year
  • 2+ employees (owners may be included in this count)

Schedule

Tuesday's & Thursday's from 6-8 pm

Entrepreneurial Leadership Development & Delegation

Knowing who you are as a leader, your strengths and weakness will be the basis for developing a growth mindset and moving from working in the business to working on the business.

  • Perfecting an effective elevator pitch
  • Understand your personal BOSI DNA and how it impacts your performance
  • Understanding employee’s mindset and intrapreneurial skills
  • Improve your own personal performance, develop personal objectives
  • Creating effective delegation strategies, including monitoring and performance management


Planning and Strategy for Growth

  • Review the foundation of your business, mission, vision and values, & SWOT
  • Understand scalability and how it impacts your business
  • Identify methods and opportunities for growth
  • Develop skills to create an effective strategic plan for growth
  • Examine current business plan, business situation and organizational structure for best fit with your business model


Human Resources

Growing companies require people. They are the most expensive resource most companies will have so hiring decisions are amongst the most important and potentially costly decisions a business owner will have to make. In this session we will be looking at the HR function and understanding how it impacts business growth.

  • Understanding and creating the company culture for your business and how it can impact growth
  • Appreciate the legal background to employment activities
  • Identify critical issues related to Human Resource function and the potential traps for business owners
  • Assess current workforce situation
  • Develop appropriate job descriptions, policy manuals and compensation plans
  • Developing an effective management team
  • Understanding generational issues, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace


Understanding and Using Financial Information to Manage Growth

Established businesses have a CPA to create financial statements and manage tax reporting. Growing a business however, requires review of company financial data as a tool to manage day to day business transactions for growth and profitability.

  • Know how to use financial information from your accounting software to manage business growth, effect change and improve performance and profits
  • Appreciate the value of budgets, costs and pricing strategies to manage people and processes in the business
  • Understanding break even analysis and ratios and how they are used to plan growth
  • Identify cash flow bottlenecks before they arise and know how to resolve them if they do happen
  • Understand what lenders look for to make financing decisions


Content & Communication

Going beyond the normal concept of marketing to evaluate the importance of developing and managing strong marketing content and solid methods of communicating your marketing message to your clearly identified customer base.

  • Understanding how your purpose and your customer’s needs interact
  • Know how to create and use meaningful value propositions to increase sales
  • Understand how buyers make purchase decisions
  • Determining appropriate media for your market
  • Create effective communications for use in a variety of media
  • Understand how digital and traditional marketing approaches interact to get the best out of both in a changing business environment


Sales & Lead Generation

No sales, no business. In this session we will be building on the content and communication session to create a plan for the development of a solid pipeline of sales leads and how to implement the plan to maintain the pipeline and close sales.

  • Tools to develop a sales pipeline
  • Procedures for tracking leads and secrets on how to act on those leads
  • Techniques for opening and closing a sale
  • Methods for delivering exemplary client care and generating repeat sales
  • Creating an effective sales and lead generation operational plan
  • Internal sales or an external sales force, what are the factors that need to be considered


Contract and Contract Bidding

Learn how to pull together all of the information and documentation from construction estimation into a professional bid proposal for a range of contractors.

  • Requests for Proposals (RFP’s)
  • Getting bid opportunities
  • Types of bidding, bid lists and markups
  • Winning more … while maintaining margins


Project Management

Discover the steps needed to develop a proper construction plan, and learn how to transform that plan into a schedule. Learn how to inspire a sense of shared purpose in a team, and how to manage projects from beginning to end using proven project-management techniques.

  • P.M. concepts
  • Initiating a project
  • Planning a project
  • Estimation
  • Critical path
  • Risk Management


Legal Knowledge for the Construction Industry

  • Subcontractors
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Litigation avoidance
  • Legal aspects of bidding
  • Mechanics liens


Insurance and Bonding

  • Bid bonds
  • Performance Bonds
  • Payment bonds
  • Subcontractor default insurance
  • Builders risk insurance
  • Hold harmless agreements
More information coming soon...

Search & Filter

Reset
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Audit Master Pro

Website
Audit Master Pro

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Audit Master Pro

Website
Audit Master Pro

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Chicago Biofuels

Website
Chicago Biofuels

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Chicago Biofuels

Website
Chicago Biofuels

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
EN5 construction management LLC

Website
EN5 construction management LLC

Website
Commercial & Industrial Goods & Services
Commercial & Industrial Goods & Services
EN5 construction management LLC

Website
EN5 construction management LLC

Member Information
Commercial & Industrial Goods & Services
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Website
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Website
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Havenshine Inc.

Website
Havenshine Inc.

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Havenshine Inc.

Website
Havenshine Inc.

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Natural Science

Website
Natural Science

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Natural Science

Website
Natural Science

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Noah Systems

Website
Noah Systems

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Noah Systems

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
SOLUTIONLY

Website
SOLUTIONLY

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
SOLUTIONLY

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Website
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Website
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Shock Aerospace

Website
Shock Aerospace

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Shock Aerospace

Website
Shock Aerospace

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Website
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Website
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Vissers Battery Corporation

Website
Vissers Battery Corporation

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Vissers Battery Corporation

Website
Vissers Battery Corporation

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability

Program Staff

No items found.

Sponsors

Program Partners

Media Partners
Enterprise Partners
Municipal & Chambers of Commerce
Academic Partners
Program Sponsors
Investment Partners
Research Advisors
Founding Partners

Program Graduates

Members

Search & Filter

Reset
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Audit Master Pro

Website
Audit Master Pro

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Audit Master Pro

Website
Audit Master Pro

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Chicago Biofuels

Website
Chicago Biofuels

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Chicago Biofuels

Website
Chicago Biofuels

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
EN5 construction management LLC

Website
EN5 construction management LLC

Website
Commercial & Industrial Goods & Services
Commercial & Industrial Goods & Services
EN5 construction management LLC

Website
EN5 construction management LLC

Member Information
Commercial & Industrial Goods & Services
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Website
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Website
Hanford Technology Services, Inc

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Havenshine Inc.

Website
Havenshine Inc.

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Havenshine Inc.

Website
Havenshine Inc.

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Natural Science

Website
Natural Science

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Natural Science

Website
Natural Science

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Noah Systems

Website
Noah Systems

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Noah Systems

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
SOLUTIONLY

Website
SOLUTIONLY

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
SOLUTIONLY

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Website
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Website
Semiautomatic Semiotics

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Shock Aerospace

Website
Shock Aerospace

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Shock Aerospace

Website
Shock Aerospace

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Website
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Website
Sorto’s climate solutions LLC

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Vissers Battery Corporation

Website
Vissers Battery Corporation

Website
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability
Vissers Battery Corporation

Website
Vissers Battery Corporation

Member Information
Clean Energy Tech & Sustainability

Testimonials

Melvin Henley
PAC Leaders

The Construction Owner to CEO program was really phenomenal. It allowed me to do exactly what the title suggests: go from being an owner to a CEO! I highly endorse this program, so much so we had our Vice President come in the next season and benefit from it as well!

Eduardo Salgado
CS Architectural Woodworking

As a graduate of the Construction Owner-2-CEO program, I can tell you first hand, that Innovation DuPage has helped me scale my business. If you are a small business owner looking to take your business to the next level, enhancing your network, or searching for peer group of likeminded entrepreneurs, Innovation DuPage is the place for you.

Jackie Gomez
HACIA

It's a really unique opportunity to create and curate a program designed to help business owners succeed and build their business in a very competitive environment. We are excited to partner with Innovation DuPage to create a more diverse and inclusive construction industry.

Workshops

Member

Female Founders Roundtable: A Pilot Program for Women Entrepreneurs

Aug 28
5:30 pm
Glen Ellyn, IL
Member

Female Founders Roundtable: A Pilot Series

Sep 18
5:30 pm
Glen Ellyn, IL
Public

Lender's Forum

Sep 24
5:30 pm
Glen Ellyn, IL
Member

Female Founders Roundtable: A Pilot Series

Oct 23
5:30 pm
Glen Ellyn, IL
Member

Female Founders Roundtable: A Pilot Series

Nov 12
5:30 pm
Glen Ellyn, IL
Public

The Midwest Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit 2025

Nov 13
9:00 am
Glen Ellyn, IL
Member

Female Founders Roundtable: A Pilot Series

Dec 4
5:30 pm
Glen Ellyn, IL

Ready to scale?

Connect