Texas State’s SCALEUP LIFT Program creates marketing confidence for 350 Small Businesses

SAN MARCOS, Texas — Rebecca Acosta-Ojeda, owner of Salon One 12 in Buda, Texas, didn’t just complete Texas State’s Learning and Insights for Forward Traction (LIFT) accelerator with a better Instagram strategy; she left with an actionable marketing playbook and began teaching her salon team how to develop content and analyze performance.

Acosta-Ojeda’s experience is among more than 350 small-business stories from Texas State University’s Sustainable Cultivation and Advancement of Local Enterprises with University Partnerships (SCALEUP)-led program, which focuses on turning marketing challenges into opportunities for small-business development.

Participants in the program strengthened their digital marketing strategies — nearly tripling their marketing confidence — over six weeks and are now positioned to grow their businesses, strengthen local economies, and create jobs nationwide.

LIFT was developed as a program of the university’s SCALEUP initiative in response to research focused on better understanding the challenges that various types of small businesses face as they grow.

“We conducted interviews and surveys with small business owners across the state, and the top challenges faced when growing their businesses are financing/expenses, marketing/advertising, and competitors,” said Dr. Josh Daspit, director of SCALEUP and an associate professor in Texas State’s Department of Management.

The LIFT program’s first cohort drew more than 3,000 applications nationwide — a strong indicator of the demand for accessible, practical marketing education.

“Over the past six weeks, participants turned social media from a challenge into a tool and from a tool into an engine for visibility and growth,” said Dr. Marlene Orozco, LIFT program lead and a research fellow with SCALEUP. “They didn’t just learn new tactics, they built lasting habits and confidence that will strengthen their businesses for years to come.”

Program data show quantifiable shifts in how business owners approach marketing. The share of participants who felt “very confident” using social media rose from 28% before the program to 73% after, and nearly all program graduates reported setting clear marketing goals by the end of the six weeks.

Participants also increased adoption of core planning practices, including written strategies, content calendars, and key performance indicators, moving from about 20% of businesses using the tools to more than 80%.

Orozco said many entrepreneurs began the program without the structure necessary to develop and execute effective marketing strategies.

“Most business owners were posting reactively, without defined goals, a written strategy, or a clear sense of who their audience was and how to reach them,” she said. “By the end of the six weeks, that changed dramatically. The biggest shift was psychological. Entrepreneurs walked out with the confidence, structure, and language to market with intention.”

In addition to building foundational skills in social media strategy, content creation, audience engagement, and brand development, LIFT equipped participants with guided resources created to simplify the implementation of marketing strategy beyond the program.

Entrepreneurs also provided insight about how the program translated into day-to-day operational change. Jose Cortez, founder of Eagle Eye LLC, described how learning about and using artificial intelligence tools expanded his capacity for online advertising.

“Prompt engineering changed everything,” Cortez said. “I can now plan 30 to 45 days of marketing content with AI tools that I used to think were out of reach.”

At the program’s Nov. 6 closing ceremony, several participants described more focused strategies and stronger engagement. Acosta-Ojeda said integrating platforms helped boost performance and made it easier to reach customers more effectively.

Orozco pointed to Acosta-Ojeda as a standout example of LIFT’s impact on small businesses and their marketing plans. After refining her platform strategy and content approach, Ojeda began mentoring stylists in her salon, building shared content habits, teaching them to engage audiences with relevant content, and helping the team analyze data to improve results through effective marketing practices.

“That ripple effect, one business owner gaining confidence and then transferring that confidence to an entire team, is exactly what LIFT is designed to spark,” Orozco said.

According to Daspit, research on small-business growth challenges and the first cohort of the LIFT program were supported by a multi-year grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

“The foundation’s support was instrumental in us conducting this important research and developing the LIFT program. We gained insights that will help us deliver this, and similar, programs in the future,” he said, referring to the demand exceeding available seats and that community partners played an important role in spreading awareness about the opportunity.

Given the amount of interest in the program, Daspit said SCALEUP is exploring options to offer LIFT again and expand participation. He also emphasized the importance of collaborating with organizations aligned with small-business growth, including foundations, corporations, financial institutions, and chambers of commerce, to support future cohorts.

Small business leaders interested in future cohorts and related opportunities can register for updates through the SCALEUP website. scaleup.txst.edu ✯