Olympia-area business owners with at least two years of operation and annual revenues above $75,000 can enroll in an eight-to-nine-week advanced training program at no cost, run by the Thurston County Economic Development Council's Center for Business & Innovation.

ScaleUp, which normally carries a $1,599 fee, is fully funded by the Washington State Department of Commerce and local partners. It covers 18 courses across market strategy, financial management and performance metrics, delivered through a hybrid format of self-paced online modules, live Zoom sessions and weekly peer roundtable discussions with business advisors.

Ashley Whitley, who was promoted to director of the Center for Business & Innovation on June 24, oversees the program. Whitley spent more than three years as program manager of the Washington Center for Women in Business before taking the expanded role, which also includes oversight of the Lacey MakerSpace and a range of advising and technical assistance programs.

"We are the only ones in the state who provide ScaleUp," Whitley said in an EDC-sponsored article published Aug. 6 on ThurstonTalk.

According to the EDC's program page, ScaleUp targets owners who want to break through profit plateaus and scale toward seven-figure revenues by stepping back from daily operations to focus on long-term growth.

A local success story

MediaRoom, an Olympia-based video production company led by principal Misael Martínez Melo, used the ScaleUp training series as part of its growth strategy.

The company won the Thurston EDC's 2026 Small Business of the Year award at the organization's business awards ceremony in June.

"Owning a small business means wearing a lot of hats and figuring things out as you go," Martínez Melo said at the June 24 awards event. "There are challenges behind every success, so being recognized with this award means a lot."

Whitley's track record

Under Whitley's leadership of the women's business center, the program held 50 training events totaling more than 4,000 hours, served over 100 new businesses and conducted 2,035 individual coaching sessions with businesses statewide. The center received the 2026 National Women's Business Center of Excellence award from the Association of Women's Business Centers.

Whitley is an entrepreneur herself. She started a cleaning business as a young single mother, and she and her husband, an active-duty airman at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, own and operate an IT business together.

The Thurston County EDC, a nonprofit founded in 1982, is led by executive director Michael Cade, who was named to Governor Bob Ferguson's new state Economic Development Council in June 2026.

The Center for Business & Innovation operates out of South Puget Sound Community College's Lacey campus. The EDC's website notes that ScaleUp's free status depends on continued grant funding, and the organization is seeking donations to sustain it.

The CB&I program page links to enrollment information for business owners interested in the next cohort.