On October 29, entrepreneurs from across Northeast Ohio will gather at Bounce Innovation Hub for The Startup Circle: A Comprehensive Development Conference. A full-day experience designed to fuel growth, clarity, and community for business owners at every stage. The agenda is packed with practical sessions led by experienced founders and experts who know the real challenges entrepreneurs face.
Among them is Nicole Kurtz, founder of Aducate Digital, who will lead a working session titled Building a Business with Intention. Nicole brings her unique blend of strategy and creativity to help entrepreneurs rethink what success looks like — and more importantly, how to design a business that sustains both your goals and your energy.
Why This Session Matters
Too often, small business owners move forward without a clear definition of success. They say yes too often, overextend themselves, and end up building businesses that burn them out. Nicole’s session is designed to interrupt that pattern and help you pause long enough to ask:
- What am I really building?
- Why am I building it?
- Does this business model actually support the life I want?
The goal isn’t to give you all the answers. It’s to give you the clarity and tools to decide whether your business is designed for expansion or for enough.
A Working Session. Not Just a Talk
Nicole’s workshop is intentionally hands-on. Attendees will move through two interactive worksheets designed to ground their ideas outside of their heads and into action:
- The Ikigai Madlib – A guided exercise to help you uncover your “why” and define the deeper motivation that carries you through the tough seasons of entrepreneurship.
- The Branching Map Decision Tree – A tool that helps you choose between building for expansion or building for enough, using real examples and honest reflection.
Later in the session, Nicole will also share The Time Tracker worksheet and reflection prompts, giving you a system to stress-test your ideas against your actual capacity. These tools are designed to help you stop chasing every opportunity and instead trust yourself to say: this is enough.
What You’ll Walk Away With
By the end of the session, participants will leave with:
- A clearer definition of what success means to them.
- A personal “why” statement that serves as a compass in tough times.
- A decision-making map that shows what their business is truly built for: expansion, enough, or a mix of both.
- Practical tools to stress-test ideas, protect mental health as a business metric, and design a sustainable path forward.
Nicole’s approach combines pragmatic optimism with actionable strategy. As she often says: “A sustainable business doesn’t come from chasing every opportunity. It begins when you trust yourself enough to say: this is enough.”
Join Us October 29
If you’re ready to stop building on autopilot and start building with intention, don’t miss this session. And with a full day of programming at The Startup Circle, you’ll walk away not just with clarity for your own path, but also with insights from other leaders on funding, models, and strategies to grow.
Reserve your spot today: Register on Eventbrite
Continue the Journey
If you’d like to explore these ideas before the workshop, Nicole has written more on the themes of clarity, capacity, and intentional growth. These posts offer a deeper look into the tools and perspectives she’ll expand on during her session. And they give you a head start on building your business with intention.