renew rural Iowa

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ENSPIRE Newsletter

Renew Rural Iowa Exclusive: Mentoring Key to Your Future
Whether you’re opening a new business, trying to make some changes to your existing operation or have been established for decades – business mentoring is useful for your company’s future growth and success.

Small business owners who have attended an Iowa Farm Bureau Renew Rural Iowa seminar are eligible for free mentoring through the Entrepreneurial Development Center (EDC) with Curt Nelson, President of the EDC and consultant with Renew Rural Iowa. Nelson said that mentoring is essentially the same as coaching– and in this instance is consulting for free, since the tab is paid by Iowa Farm Bureau for Renew Rural Iowa attendees.

To read more, click here.

Nominations Being Accepted for Iowa Women of Innovation
The 2008 Iowa Women of Innovation will recognize women in the workforce who are innovators, role models and leaders in technology, science and engineering. A special event will be held to recognize these women from 5-8 p.m. on November 11 at the Des Moines Marriott.

Nominations are open to women in the technology, science and engineering communities, in business or academia and employed in Iowa. Each nominee must meet the basic definition of the award category for which she is nominated. Individuals can self-nominate and submit multiple nominations for the eight categories. Deadline for nominations is September 26.

To nominate or to register to attend the event, visit: http://www.technologyiowa.org/women/2008/.

Economic Gardening - How Does Your Community Grow?
Economic gardening is designed to “grow your own” jobs through entrepreneurial activity within the community. The concept of economic gardening originated with Chris Gibbons in Littleton, CO who 20 years ago decided that it made more sense to work with existing, fledgling and new businesses in the town rather than trying to compete with the 35,000 other economic development organizations in the country to recruit businesses.

Economic development plans typically include four key tactics: business recruitment, retention, expansion and entrepreneurial development.

For complete article by Jack Schultz, The Agurban/Boomtown Institute, click here.

New Business Creation Across the U.S.
Each year, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation releases the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, which is a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States.

The index captures new business owners in their first month of significant business activity – thus the measure provides the earliest documentation of new business development across the country.

In 2007, .30 percent of the adult population or 300 out of 100,000 adults created a new business each month – representing about 495,000 new businesses per month. This total rate of business creation increased slightly from .20 percent in 2006.

For complete report, visit the 2007 Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity.