Are you a female entrepreneur seeking to scale your business? Would you be interested in competing for awards totaling $40,000 and gaining pitch experience and valuable investor feedback? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you could join a select group of Iowa women entrepreneurs who will take...
Back by semi-popular demand (thank you to my 4 loyal readers, ok 3), we present the latest in our award winning Seinfeld on Startups column. Which award it was really isn’t important right now – instead let’s keep the focus on growing your firm. Today we are going to take...
By Casie Larette, Advance Iowa Program Assistant To us, the benefits and importance of family businesses networking together are clear. Our mantra ‘family businesses are different’, is not just a catchy phrase. We believe family businesses are different due to the result of the unique challenges during their start up, and those which...
By University of Iowa Staff Entrepreneurial Management Institute (EMI), students serve as consultants to Iowa business organizations and entrepreneurs. They collaborate as a team with company leaders to develop unique strategic market research, competitive analysis, and financial assessments. Participation is a win-win, as students earn three semester hours of credit...
By Joe Bolick, Markecting Director, UNI Business and Community Services Professional development, networking events, summits, conferences, peer learning...the list can go on forever. Invitations to these type of events are EVERYWHERE!! I see them all over social media, email, my office mailbox, even the bulletin boards at offices and coffee shops...
By Cally Reed, Program Associate, UNI Center for Business Growth and Innovation When it comes to electric fencing insulation, Insulights is the name to know in Iowa. The company founder, Bill Brown recently won first place in the John Pappajohn pitch competition with his company Insulights at Entrefest in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I...
We know that it's no small thing to run a business.... So in honor of Small Business Week this May, NAWBO and Microsoft are once again holding the “No Small Thing” video contest. Women small business owners are invited to highlight in a 2-minute or less video the “one thing” that has contributed...
Hello, I’m Debi Durham, Director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Many of you are familiar with Iowa’s Targeted Small Business program or TSB as it’s commonly called. It was created by the legislature in the mid-1980’s to provide access to procurement opportunities and financial resources for businesses owned by women,...
While Iowa may be known around the country for farming and insurance, we have so much more going on, including a bustling manufacturing industry. Tomorrow, being the first Friday of October, we acknowledge Manufacturing Day (Learn more about Manufacturing Day by viewing this infographic). To honor this day, let’s take...
Three-quarters of Iowa manufacturers right now are betting that being good will be good enough. According to a recent survey, roughly 75 percent of manufacturers are playing an old-school game – one focused largely on making higher-quality products than their competitors and hoping that this advantage will woo more customers to...
