Business training that meets people where their money story starts.
I build and facilitate programs for underserved entrepreneurs, and I coach owners one-on-one and in groups. People leave knowing their numbers, their next step, and what has been stopping them.
A culture of repayment
Financially competent, confident clients who understand what they borrowed and repay it.
People who finish
Cohorts and sessions designed with cultural relevance, delivered through trauma-informed facilitation, with business concepts people actually understand.
Action, not attendance
Every session ends with a decision and implementation, so progress happens during sessions and between them.
Growth you can report
Measurable participant growth and feedback you can put in front of your funders and your board.
Whether you are building a program or building your business, there is a place to start.
Facilitation, training, and subject matter expertise
For community development organizations, entrepreneur support organizations, workforce boards, reentry programs, and lenders. You get a business educator who has run the business, secured the funding, and built programs that are both measurable and transformative.
What you can book
- Single workshops and multi-week cohorts, virtual or in person
- Coaching benches and office hours for your participants
- Curriculum design, or adaptation of a program you already own
- Conference sessions, keynotes, and staff training
Who I work well with
- Entrepreneurs who have historically been underserved
- Small, micro, and home-based business owners
- Owners carrying high-cost debt or rebuilding after a loss
- People building income after incarceration
- Workers facing layoffs, pivots, and reentry into the workforce
One-on-one and group coaching
For owners and professionals who need a clear next move, not another course. Work with me privately, or bring your people together for group coaching.
What you walk away with
- Prices and margins that cover your real costs
- A plan to become fundable, and the documents to prove it
- Operations and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that run without you in the room
- A business model and go-to-market plan (how you reach your first customers) you can act on this quarter
- A restructure plan when the business has stalled
The money work underneath the business decision.
Weekly sessions where entrepreneurs look at their relationship with money and with themselves: where financial trauma shows up in how they price, borrow, spend, and avoid — and how to work through it.
This is the piece most business training skips, and it is usually the reason the rest of the training does not stick.
What participants leave with
- Their own money triggers named, so they see them before they act on them
- Personal finances managed on purpose instead of by reaction
- Pricing and borrowing decisions made from numbers, not fear
- An understanding of responsible borrowing — what to borrow, when, and what it costs
- A clear plan for repaying the debt they already carry
- A way to sit with hard financial facts long enough to fix them
- Language for what has been happening, and a practice that holds after the circle ends
What I am booked for most.
Any of these run as a 90-minute session, a half day, or a multi-week series.
Launch and rebuild
A defined path from idea to open. Participants leave with a tested business model, a plan on paper, and the steps in the order they need to happen.
Price, profit, and fundability
Participants leave knowing their break-even, their margins, and what a lender needs to say yes.
Debt, credit, and banking
Participants leave with a payoff order, a credit plan, and accounts that separate the business from the household.
For workforce programs, I also deliver career pivot, reemployment, upskilling, and AI-at-work sessions, including a 30-day plan for the next job and a 90-day plan for the next skill.
Courtnee Hawkins
I built and ran a multi-million dollar healthcare services company. I met payroll, hired and let people go, handled licensing and compliance, priced services against reimbursement, and grew it past the point where I could hold it in my head. I know what it costs to run something real.
Then I moved to the other side of the table. In community lending I have reviewed the financials, seen why applications get declined, and built the programs that get owners ready before they apply. Today I direct business programs for a community lender in Columbus, Ohio.
That is the range I bring: operator, lender, and program designer. When I teach pricing, capital, or credit, I am teaching from decisions I have made and files I have reviewed — not from a curriculum I read last week.
I also know healthcare and other licensing-heavy service businesses well, which matters when your participants are running home care agencies, clinics, or staffing companies.
A graduate of Mount Vernon Nazarene University, I hold certifications in Trauma of Money, Financial Social Work, Master Life Coaching, and Mindfulness Meditation Facilitation.
How I teach
- Practical business strategy from running and financing real companies
- Behavioral economics — why people decide the way they do under pressure
- Trauma-informed and contemplative practice, so participants stay with hard numbers
Partnering with me
Everything your team needs is in one folder: my full CV, short and long bios, headshots, and program descriptions.
Open the partner folderWhere I teach in public.
Underserved Economy is my channel and community — a weekly series and podcast for entrepreneurs building without a safety net. It is free, it is where this work shows up first, and it is how most people find me.
Let's talk about the people you are trying to reach.
You do not need a finished plan or a budget to start a conversation. Tell me a little about who you serve, or where you are stuck in your own business, and we will figure out together whether I am the right fit.