IASourceLink Blog

After launching a startup, everyone needs a little help! Did you know that the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center’s Business Consulting Services assist startups and businesses across the state of Iowa? This program provides affordable strategic results for clients, while also exposing students to real-world experiences.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has launched a new round of InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge, a nationwide business competition offering $70,000 in prizes.The competition, backed by the Sara Blakely Foundation, focuses on products and services that make life easier, and last year's winner was Iowa businesswoman, Elizabeth Craven, founder of Upcraft Club.

Rural Ventures Accelerator (RVA) is a program of the Iowa Foundation for Microenterprise and Community Vitality (IFMCV to provide business technical assistance to strategic rural ventures. The first year RVA pilot is conducted in collaboration with Ag Ventures Alliance (AgVA) and the Community Vitality Center (CVC) at Iowa State University. Seed funding for the RVA pilot is provided in part by a USDA Rural Business Development grant with match from AgVA and CVC-ISU.

The coming of a new year always seems to provide a clean slate with which to write your next chapter. Resolutions are made and goals are set. We tend to think of goal-setting on more personal terms such as developing healthier eating habits or exercising more. But as community leaders, this is also a good time for review and envisioning goals for the future prosperity of your city.

Coworking locations have been growing across Iowa over the past few years. These facilities offer community, convenience and a flexible workspace for entrepreneurs and remote workers, but they require some tender loving care to become sustainable and to thrive. In this quarter’s Resource Partner update, we called on Darcy Swon, founder of inTANDEM workspace in Webster City, to share her thoughts on launching and growing a cowork facility.

With an emphasis on company culture in this month’s IASourceLink, I hit the jackpot for the entrepreneur spotlight. It was recommended I reach out to Sean Abbas, Co-Founder and President of Threads in Cedar Falls, IA. A little background about Sean as an entrepreneur - he has over 25 years of real-world experience managing people and leading companies and aside from Threads, he is also the owner of a manufacturing company called Baird Mounting Systems and a member of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry Board of Directors.

When you think of company culture, what comes to mind? Big employers like Google, Facebook or Zappos? Companies that have ping-pong tables in the rec room, outdoor basketball courts or a coffee barista on-hand to keep employees caffeinated continuously throughout the day. Or maybe you think of more intangible things like letting employees set their own hours or work from home.

Does your company value its employees and place an importance on people? In the midst of the stresses that comes with running a business, a healthy company culture can be easily forgotten. This month I sat down with Dan Beenken, Director of Advance Iowa at the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Business Growth and Innovation to talk about how to jump-start your company culture with the help of some valuable resources offered by Advance Iowa.