Siouxland Magazine - Volume 3 Issue 2

Strong Resources to Help You Succeed.
By Todd Rausch
Strong Resources to Help You Succeed. Most people
reading this are naturally strong individuals with a
vision for their lives. If you are a business owner, you
have the amazing internal strength to even launch
a business. The question is, did you know there are
strong resources to help you become even stronger?
Siouxland Magazine | Grow/39
To begin with, of course, I will talk about the SBDC.
We are Federally and State Funded with one goal
in mind, and that is to help you become successful
in your business ventures. There are 1300 centers
across the nation with 15 being here in Iowa, along
with our State office.
Our services are free!
The center for this area is hosted by the truly amazing
Western Iowa Tech Community College and my office
is in the Corp. College building on campus in B113.
Our phone is 712-274-6454 and our email is todd.
rausch@witcc.edu.
So, what can we offer? My answer is always the same,
what do you need? Our primary focus is not on
startups as many people think. Even though 30% of
our time is dedicated to startups, we spend 70% of our
time with existing businesses. We help them expand,
access capital, and in many instances succession plan
to exit their business.
We do a lot of help with planning your business,
whether it is a startup or an established enterprise.
We do a lot of financial forecasting for our clients.
We also do a lot of market research, not primary
source meaning we don’t go around asking people
questions. Ours is more database driven. We have
access currently to four very good databases that can
give us really solid numbers on markets.
Also, amazingly sometimes, we are here only to be a
sounding board. The last year especially we have been
used simply to sound things out so an owner can talk
an idea through. That is particularly rewarding as we
encourage them to make decisions not on emotion
but on strong data and judgment.
One of the things we are most often used for is to
connect owners with additional resources to meet
their needs. Other resources in our area that are truly
strong to help the small business owners include:
Our awesome local Chambers of Commerce, The
Small Business Administration, The USDA, The SEDC
Siouxland Economic Development Corp., our local
economic developers, our local Revolving Loan
Funds, our private Banks who are the primary source of
lending for small businesses. Local lawyers, CPAs, and
Insurance Agents are also very helpful.
Also, the Iowa West Coast Initiative is a wonderful resource
to help you. Iowa Source link is truly an awesome resource
to help people. They are out of UNI. Other resources
include Venture School from U of I and Startup factory
from ISU. Our three-pitch off competitions are also a
good resource for grant money and sound advice. Those
include Dream Big Grow Here, Swimming with the Sharks,
and Innovation Market.
That is a small list of 14 resources that you can immediately
reach out to. You can be strong on your own. It is simpler
to be strong with the help of others. That is what we exist
for. Please, use us to help you succeed in 2021 in your
business.
Stay Strong in 2021.
Todd Rausch, Regional Director for the Small Business
Development Center at Western Iowa Tech Community
College.
America’s SBDC Iowa provides free, confidential,
customized, professional business advice and consulting
in all 99 Iowa counties to entrepreneurs.