The Next-Level Growth Program

Who this is for.

The Next-Level Growth Program is for owners of small and medium businesses who are stuck, stretched, or standing at a pivotal moment.

You're capable. You've proven the business works: customers have paid you and liked what you do. What you don't have is a structured process for the part you weren't trained in, and what got you to this point isn't what gets you to the next.

This is built for you if:

Most decisions still come back to you, and you can feel that becoming the ceiling on your growth
You want a predictable pipeline instead of relying on referrals and personal effort
You want to step back from delivery and lead the business, without it falling over and without burning out
You know AI matters and you want to make good decisions about it, rather than fast ones
You want a business built around your own goals, rather than someone else's definition of success

If you want someone to come in and do it for you, this isn't the right program. Done-for-you thinking may solve this quarter, but it deepens the dependency on someone else's judgement. We help you build the capability and the systems so you keep making good decisions well after we've gone.

Strategy first. Systems second. AI where it helps.

25eight is a capability technology company rather than a course, a consultancy or a training provider. A decade of research and evidence runs through our platform, with tiered levels of coaching on top, to build capability: your ability to actually do something. And like learning to ride a bike, a structured program is what builds the competence and confidence to succeed.

The alternatives teach you their way:

AI trainers

Teach everyone the same curriculum, or train you in a narrow area without the foundations that make results stick.

AI consultants

Often start with tools and work backwards to a problem, rarely with depth in the business, leadership and human factors that drive growth.

Business trainers

A set curriculum, and even with AI embedded it rarely helps you design the best system for your business.

Coaches and mentors

May not touch technology at all, or know one system deeply, so you're taught their way instead of designing the best way for your circumstances.

We run the sequence in the order we know works, because AI applied to a business without a system multiplies the mess underneath it. That is the one sequencing error this whole program exists to prevent. And we help you choose technology to build on that can move between AI providers as they change.

How it works.

Diagnose where your business is

A comprehensive capability diagnostic across the areas that determine whether a business can grow beyond its owner. An evidence-based tool refined over a decade, it reads your growth stage, constraints and opportunities, and turns them into a personalised program pathway: the specific work you do, in the order you need it, rather than the same content everyone sits through.

Define your direction, design your growth system

You build your growth strategy against your own definition of success, then the operating design that makes it real: how the work flows, who decides what, and what stops running through you. You leave with artefacts you own, including your growth strategy, operating model, Growth System Blueprint and a quarterly planning rhythm you can run to.

Capture it in your Business Brain

As you define and design, you build a cloud-based Business Brain in your own storage that moves the business away from you as its single source of knowledge. Past participants rate it the most valuable thing they leave with, and the thing that makes everything else durable.

Make it intelligent, with AI where it earns its place

AI is a multiplier rather than an addition: ten plus zero is ten, and ten times zero is zero. Once there is a system worth multiplying, you decide where AI belongs. Tool-neutral, judgement-led and governed, and you leave with an AI Opportunity Map pinpointing your exact opportunities.

Measure and review, so you can see it shifting

A 90-Day Growth Capability Review reports the metrics that matter and shows your progress through the program, including the capabilities you have built.

What you get.

The outcome is a business system that's built exactly how you want it to be built, against your goals, how you work and what's important to you. And your confidence as a leader of your business significantly increases as you are super clear on what needs to be done to get to where you want to get to.

You don't have to do the things you think you have to do in order for your business to work. You don't have to build a business built on 'shoulds'. Build a business that works for you.

Along the way you build your Business Brain: a living, AI-enabled knowledge system that captures how your business thinks and works. Participants tell us it is one of the most valuable things they leave with, because decisions stop living only in your head. You build it in your own cloud storage, Google Drive or OneDrive, so it is yours from day one and stays yours after the program.

Sam Hurley facilitating a workshop at Federation Square

The Whittlesea Next-Level Growth Program cohort

The Next-Level Growth Program helps you:

Make confident business decisions
Design a business that works for you, rather than you working for it
Create systems that operate without you being a bottleneck
Create clarity and structure that you and your team need to do what you do well
Better serve your customers, so they keep coming back for more
Make smart use of technology, rather than following a trend or the latest tool
Achieve your personal and business goals

100%

Increase in capabilities

8.1/10

Confidence to grow at program end

World class NPS

11,300+

Businesses supported

Every part of this program has been tested and measured across more than a decade with thousands of owners. You are not the experiment. See how we know this works →

How this has worked for others.

Jodie

Jodie doesn't really like the business side of her business, she loves doing what she does best, legal advice. She has a multi-site business and is considering her exit options.

She loves working though, but realises she hasn't built the structure she thinks she should have and is considering employing a manager.

Through the Next-Level Growth Program, she realised she could just focus on what she loved. She used AI to help her build and maintain her business brain and empower her existing staff in their roles. She loves to mentor them, which they find really beneficial, and both value the structure the system provides.

Adam

Adam uses his AI tool as a strategic partner to soundboard his expansion plans. He's building 'Alfred' as his internal knowledgeable assistant to help him remove himself as a bottleneck and continue to focus on business development.

His 43% revenue growth within the program could be attributed to the foundations he laid or how fast he is now able to go with the systems and foresight in place.

Tash

Tash doesn't want to grow a big team, she just wants to do what she loves and not have to worry about the business side of things. She hadn't really considered where the business would take her and what she would do when she retired.

She realised that building a system now would not only help her keep the flexibility that drove her to start the business, but it would add value to the business for the future.

Tash struggles with overthinking things, as many people who have great brains do, and she uses her AI tool to help her stay focused and be succinct.

Jesse

Jesse's team has to source electrical diagrams from across the web for almost every job they do. The challenge is finding the right diagram and being able to access it offline, which is needed when they're out on the job in some places.

With an amazing business infrastructure built already, Jesse's systems were ready to implement quickly, so that he could start using AI to tackle some real challenges.

Using Local AI, Jesse started building his own database of electrical diagrams and training a model to be able to assist his team on the job, online or offline.

What the program really does.

This program focuses on building your capability as a business leader to build an AI-enabled intentional business. Everyone gets a tailored outcome, specific to their situation, but some things are universal:

Helps you understand what stage your business is truly at, where it is getting stuck and what needs to change to move forward
Guides you to develop a clear, evidence-based growth strategy and tech-enabled system that works in your business, rather than copy a generic model or someone else's blueprint that doesn't quite fit
Teaches you how to use AI to explore options, test ideas, improve decision-making and create efficiencies without adding complexity, ensuring it is considered and safe. And without tying you to one specific tool
Builds your confidence to lead your business through uncertainty, growth and increasing demands
Moves you from reacting to problems to making deliberate, well-informed decisions, increasing your confidence as a business owner
Shows you how to focus your time and energy on what will actually drive results
Ensures you run your business, rather than your business run you

Sam chatting with owners working on laptops in a program workshop

An owner working through the program with notes and a laptop

One method, three ways to build.

There are three options for delivery dependent on your budget, need for speed or level of support required. Whichever you choose, by the end of 8 weeks a system is in place.

Start any time

Self-Guided

Build your growth strategy at your own pace.

$1,795

plus GST, or 2 × $997.50. Your first payment on enrolment unlocks the diagnostic and resources; your second when you book your diagnostic debrief and unlock your tailored learning plan. If you choose not to continue after the diagnostic, the second payment is simply never taken.

“I work through things on my own and rarely need feedback”

“I already have a coach or adviser who can support me”

“I want an affordable entry point to get results, and I can add coaching later”

The full online pathway: comprehensive capability diagnostic, a 30-minute diagnostic debrief with Sam, your tailored learning plan, the Business Brain build, your AI Opportunity Map and all planning artefacts. Add 1:1 coaching whenever you want it.

Structured Program

Guided cohort with coaching, feedback and accountability.

$3,995

plus GST, or 3 × $1,395 monthly. Workshops, coaching and feedback across 8 weeks of active support.

“I want structure, accountability and expert feedback”

“I'm stuck or stretched and I'm not sure what to prioritise next”

“I'm the kind of person who books the gym class, not just the gym”

Everything in Self-Guided, plus four live applied workshops, three 1:1 coaching sessions, group chat access to your coach, coach feedback in-platform and a cohort going through it alongside you.

Next intake: October

See dates and enrol

By application

Work Privately 1:1

Private facilitation for you and your leadership team.

$9,995

plus GST, or 3 × $3,395 monthly. Private delivery paced around your business, with a system in place within 8 weeks.

“I want individual, focused help”

“I have a leadership team that needs alignment around our growth priorities”

“I'm navigating a specific transition and need the program to fit my schedule”

The full program delivered privately: dedicated facilitation, 1:1 coaching throughout with direct access to your coach, and a dedicated review of your strategy outputs. Includes a facilitated team alignment session, with a Business Brain handover walkthrough, roles and responsibilities against the new operating design and a 30-day adoption check, because removing yourself as the bottleneck requires other people to use the system.

Apply to work privately

Not sure which is right?

The Capability Snapshot tells you where your business is right now and which pathway fits how you work. Under ten minutes, and you keep your results whether you enrol or not.

Take the Capability Snapshot

Compare the three in detail.

	Self-Guided	Structured Program	Work Privately 1:1
Price (plus GST)	$1,795, or 2 × $997.50	$3,995, or 3 × $1,395	$9,995, or 3 × $3,395
Rhythm	Your own pace	8 weeks of targeted support	Paced around your business and how fast you want to go
Intakes	Start any time	Three to four cohorts a year, limited places	By application
Comprehensive capability diagnostic	✓	✓	✓
Personalised capability building pathway	✓	✓	✓
Business Brain build	Self-guided	Coach-assisted	Facilitated 1:1
AI Opportunity Map and AI Use Policy	Self-guided	Coach-reviewed	Facilitated 1:1
Core artefacts: Priority Gap Strategy, Growth System Blueprint, 90-Day Roadmap, Operating Model	✓	✓	✓
Personalised artefacts across Business, Leadership, Capacity, Community and Digital & AI	✓	✓	✓
90-Day Growth Capability Review and Scorecard	✓	✓	✓
Live applied workshops	—	4 × group workshops	Private facilitation designed with you
Coaching	30-minute diagnostic debrief, add more any time	3 × 30-minute 1:1 sessions plus group chat access	Throughout, 1:1, direct access
Feedback on your strategy and outputs	AI-enabled in-platform	AI-enabled plus coach feedback	Dedicated 1:1 review
Team alignment session and handover	—	Self-guided if needed	Facilitated session plus 30-day adoption check
Cohort and community	Community access	Cohort plus community	Community access
CEO Circle Starter included	12 weeks	12 weeks	12 weeks
Best for	Self-directed owners, or those already working with a coach	Most owners, especially those who want structure and momentum	Owners with a team, a transition to navigate, or a schedule to work around

What participants say.

Beyond the clarity in messaging and business structure, I'd say the program's helped me shift how I show up as a business owner and leader for my team. It's nudged me out of the day-to-day and into a bigger picture mindset. I've started making decisions less reactively and more intentionally.

James, Trades business

I'd say that identity shift has been quite massive and valuable. I've managed to break a financial ceiling I had for 18 months last month and then again this month, which shows I've stabilised at a new level. I'm more aware of my metrics and I've noticed I'm thinking more like a leader now.

Cam, Creative business

Before starting the 25eight program, I felt scattered, constantly busy but lacking strategic direction. This program helped me shift from reactive to intentional. I now have complete clarity on my brand, my audience, and how to position my offerings for value and sustainability. I've built systems that reflect who I am, not just what I do, and that transformation has given me the confidence to show up as the face of my business with purpose and pride.

Rochelle, Creative business

Capability takes practise.

Everything runs on the 25eight Capability Platform: your pathway, diagnostic, tools, templates and AI-supported activities, along with the outputs you build and the feedback you receive.

Every pathway includes 12 weeks of CEO Circle Starter membership, which is what helps you keep momentum as you execute your strategy.

Stays accessible: your goals, artefacts, Business Brain and the education library
Gets reviewed: your quarterly plan, against a 90-day scorecard, to check the plan you made is still the plan you're working
The rhythm: a 90-day cycle, so priorities get revisited and refined before you set the next one
If you fall behind: the check-in is designed to catch it, because falling behind is normal, so we help before a bigger gap widens

After the 12 weeks, you choose: continue on a full CEO Circle pathway, or carry the rhythm yourself. Nothing renews unless you choose it, and whichever pathway you take, the system you have designed is yours.

Businesses we've supported.

Start with where you are.

The Capability Snapshot takes under ten minutes and gives you an honest read on your business, your constraint, and which pathway fits. You keep the result whether you enrol or not.

Take the Capability Snapshot See Structured Program dates

Questions owners ask.

How much time does it take each week?

Plan for a few focused hours. The work is your real work, so most of it replaces things you were doing anyway, just more deliberately.

Is my business too small or too big for this?

The program is built for owners past the startup stage whose business still depends on them personally. Industry, size and revenue matter less than that moment.

What if I fall behind the program?

The rhythm exists to help, and life happens. Your coach adjusts the pace with you. Everything you download or build in your own storage is yours permanently; your platform and education library access runs for the 12 weeks of included CEO Circle Starter membership, and continues for as long as you stay a member.

Do I need the Capability Snapshot first?

It is recommended rather than required. It names your weakest system, which shapes where your build starts.

What happens when the program ends?

You keep the system, and every artefact you have downloaded or built in your own storage is yours permanently. Every option includes 12 weeks of CEO Circle Starter membership, keeping your goals, artefacts and education library live with a 90-day rhythm that checks the plan you made is still the plan you're working. After the included 12 weeks you choose whether to continue in the CEO Circle; nothing renews unless you choose it. Alumni can continue in the CEO Circle or add the AI Layer.

Build the system that runs your business, so it stops running on you

When the business runs on you.