Strengthening business ecosystems and building economic resilience with human capability infrastructure for the AI Economy
For Government and Industry Partners
25eight helps governments, industry bodies and ecosystem leaders build the strategic, digital and AI capability of small and medium businesses at scale through diagnostic-led growth programs
Local First
We’re like an operating system that is used in conjunction with local facilitators, coaches and mentors. We want to ensure local capability is built deliberately. We train local business leaders to be accredited coaches and invite past participants to be local mentors, strengthening local ecosystems, building local capability and investing into the local economy. We preference local venues in hybrid delivery models whilst connecting people online nationally.
Real Skills Uplifted
We go beyond measuring attendance or completion of a program by measuring skills acquired and the application of those skills within the business. This means your business community doesn’t just know what to do, they know why, how and are supported to action it. This results in faster progress and the long-term benefit of the participant being able to action in their business again without the need for further support. It also builds resilience and vital ‘human’ skills necessary for the future.
Profit for Purpose
As a certified Benefit Corporation, we take our impact seriously. We are legally required to consider the impact of every decision we make in our business on our stakeholders. This makes us mission-driven to create thriving communities beyond the deliver of a business program. We thrive in high-stakes, high governance environments and produce comprehensive impact reports after every engagement. Our flexible and adaptable approach is backed by research and evidence for a credible solution for your community.
Why a skills-based structured program is important
The world is changing at an accelerated pace and our small and medium business communities need help to adapt.
Traditional industries are transitioning or transforming, local supply chains are shifting, populations are increasing and many need new skills, especially leadership/human and digital/AI skills, to stay competitive.
Ensuring the success of the backbone of local economies has a positive impact on society. But because smaller businesses often face the greatest challenges, have fewer resources and the time to develop their skills (or know what skills they need to develop) many of them don’t succeed past five years of operation.
We have to go beyond delivering one-off knowledge based workshops to build vital business and digital skills, but in a way that is relevant to smaller business to ensure they build the skills they need.
That’s where we come in.
Why workshops alone don’t work
Workshops are great to inspire people, but if you want to build real skills, rather than surface-level knowledge that is often forgotten, they are what we might call a ‘vanity metric’. They look good, but they don’t actually move the needle or achieve an outcome.
Here’s why:
The Forgetting Curve: Most workshops follow a model where you attend a single session research shows that people forget approximately 70% of what they learn within 24 hours if it’s not reinforced
No Ongoing Support: Without follow-up coaching, mentoring or refresher sessions, participants quickly revert to old habits, especially when facing high-pressure, daily work tasks
Inaccessible: A workshop assumes that you can attend at a certain time or certain day, which limits attendance from those whose lives need flexibility. Those with lower processing speeds or from whom audial learning is challenging or for whom English is a second language don’t get the same benefits.
Application Gap: Workshops excel at teaching what to do, but not how to do it consistently in real-world scenarios. A workshop may explain how you can use Chat GPT for social media, but it assumes you know why you might use it for you situation, and only repeated real-life practice builds the actual skill of using it.
Information overload: Condensing complex skills into a few hours often leads to overload, attendees cannot absorb everything.
One-size-fits-all: Workshops often cater to a wide audience, which means the content might be too basic for some and too advanced for others.
Disengaging: If the workshop is poorly designed or just a routine ‘sit and listen’ session and it fails to produce any meaningful change, the attendee will feel like it’s a waste of time (and potentially money) and not engage in any further learning opportunities.
To build lasting skills for your community (especially vital business and digital skills) rather than just surface level knowledge that can be forgetten, workshops should be a part of a larger ecosystem.
What we do
25eight designs and delivers short, high-impact programs that build clarity, confidence, digital capability and entrepreneurial skills that businesses need to thrive.
We work alongside councils, government agencies and community organisations to deliver existing or co-design custom practical, measurable programs that achieve economic development outcomes.
Our programs bridge the gap between traditional education and real-world application; turning learning into action, and action into results. Busy small business owners don’t have time to complete a traditional business course, but they need more than one-off workshops or coaching and mentoring alone to build the vital skills they need to thrive.
We have worked with the Australian Government, State Governments, Local Government Authorities, industry organisations and many corporations that want to provide the greatest impact for their business community.
“You can’t change the way people think, all you can do is give them a tool, the use of which will change their thinking.”
— R. Buckminster Fuller
Our methodology identifies capability gaps, personalises learning to each business, and embeds practical AI adoption so businesses can adapt, compete and grow in a rapidly changing economy.
Clarity before action
Every small and medium business sits at a different stage of growth.
What works in the early years will not sustain scale.
What builds stability will not necessarily support expansion.
And in a rapidly changing economy, digital and AI capability must be integrated deliberately — not reactively.
25eight’s Growth Architecture ensures businesses receive stage-appropriate, measurable and future-focused support.
Each growth program integrates:
Structured diagnostics
Evidence-based business education
Live workshops
1:1 coaching
Industry mentoring
Practical implementation
Creating confidence, adaptable and resilient business owners
Sustainable growth requires capable leaders.
Beyond skills acquisition, our programs develop:
Strategic thinking
Decision-making confidence
Commercial judgement
Digital fluency
Adaptability in changing markets
Leaders leave not only knowing what to do, but confident to do it and refine it as conditions evolve.
25eight Programs
Uplifting business & digital skills for a sustainable future.
We help small and medium businesses create structure, systems and strategy to grow sustainably as well as strengthening their connections within the community.
We help communities impacted by industry change, supporting new market expansion, adaptation for existing businesses and enterprise creation as a re-employment solution.
We help individuals adapt to new technologies and ways of working. Technology is embedded into our programs, increasing confidence quickly.
We see entrepreneurship as a powerful solution to economic development challenges and can deliver short, applied programs empowering people to create their own work opportunities.
Each program:
Is evidence-based and human-centred, tailored to the cohort and region
Has measurable outcomes within a 8-12 week period
Is scaleable and accessible to ensure maximum reach and inclusivity for equal chance of success for every participant with offline learning, multi-language and format content and flexible scheduling
is impact-measured pre, during and post-program that tracks traditional and human impact measurements
Has a hybrid program design; with our basic programs aiming to meet with most annual education/business support budgets
Aims to achieve a consistent World Class NPS score about 60 (current NPS is 73)
Is covered by $20 million professional and public liability
Fuelled by our commitment to create benefit for all
Includes real relatable case studies & access to Industry Mentors from a wide range of industries
Why partner with 25eight?
We have supported over 10,000 Australian Startups & SMEs through business growth and digital programs.
We have engaged in 3.5 years of research and development to diagnose exactly what a small business needs to focus on to grow.
We have been a certified Benefit Corporation for nine years which ensures we are committed to achieving beneficial outcomes for all of our stakeholders as well as high standards in social and environmental impact. This isn’t just a workshop series, we care deeply about skills and outcomes.
Our programs are designed for immediate implementation, which delivers measurable results in weeks, not months.
We consult with our partners and local organisations to ensure that our programs are relevant, accessible and provide a real solution.
We have a ‘Local-First’ policy and allocate facilitators, educators, mentors and contractors based on experience and proximity.
We encourage past participants to become Industry Mentors on new programs to strengthen connections and the business ecosystem locally and nationally.
We manage the end-to-end delivery including recruitment, selection and impact reporting.
Business skills programs that increase decent work and economic development whilst strengthening local communities.
We ensure our business education, coaching and mentoring programs are accessible and immediately applicable for everyone, to create meaningful outcomes and greater impact for all.
Our expertise
The development of the skills a business needs to succeed takes time and can’t be achieved in a workshop alone. We help you provide real support to achieve real outcomes and advocacy for your region from your local businesses. Backed by extensive research and measured results, we can provide programs that meet with many levels of budget and support requirements.
Business Growth & Digital Programs for Small and Medium Business
Business Planning & Innovation Programs for transitioning regions
Regions are transitioning. Traditional industries are closing or transforming and local supply chains are shifting.
Many small and medium sized businesses are or will face a significant impact to their business. This is the time to adapt. We help you support your local businesses to develop a strategy to expand into new markets/industries or adapt their offering based on their capabilities ensuring their sustainability through any transition.
Entrepreneurship & Digital Literacy as a pathway to employment
In communities with cohorts who face barriers to employment or lower digital literacy rates and perhaps even low engagement in formal training, 25eight offers programs that use entrepreneurship as a pathway to employment. Bridging the gap between accredited training and employment services by providing a practical bridge between learning and doing and connecting learners with local small businesses for work experience.
Regional Growth Project
Growing up in a small mining town in regional England, our CEO Sam is incredibly passionate about creating an even playing field for regional and rural small and medium sized business. Sam knows a one-size all approach doesn’t work and wants to help more regional businesses get more regional work. She believes a connected community is a stronger one.
The Regional Growth Project was established in 2019 by 25eight Pty Ltd in partnership with the State Government of Victoria and Local Councils across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
It has now grown into a national project that supports business leaders and their teams to adopt innovative practices (business strategy, growth, digital, and innovation) to scale their business.
Our goal is to create a community of like-minded business leaders who come together around common challenges and ambitions to build better business outcomes.
The success of the Regional Growth Project will be measured by growing the number of healthy, sustainable and scalable businesses throughout Regional and Rural Australia.
Holistic approach to building thriving communities
Other Services
Let us help you make impact
Click the button below to speak with our CEO Sam Hurley who would love to discuss how we can partner to create impact for your community.