whats happening iowa - entrefest! 2011
DESCRIPTION
The Iowa landscape of help for entrepreneurs and small business owners is hard to navigate. The Business Concierge is Iowa's first service to assist small business owners to connect with organizations and people to help them start or grow and provides advanced market research information... all for free! This presentation was given in February of 2011 at the annual Iowa EntreFest! conference for small business owners. More information at http://www.entrefest.com.TRANSCRIPT
WHAT’S HAPPENING, IOWA?
Call, Click or Chat Free business assistance!
Rob Williams,Business Concierge
I want to start a business, where do I start?
I’ve been in business for 10 years, how can I grow?
WHAT CAN WE HELP YOU WITH?
Quality Referrals…
The Iowa Waste Reduction Center assists Iowa small businesses in complying with environmental regulations through free and confidential environmental consultation.
Quality ReferralsWho can we help you connect with?
Hi C,
Here is a personal referral to Frank Morosky. Frank is the President of the Iowa Inventors Group. This email should serve as an introduction for you to contact him; I've copied Frank to make it easy for you to follow up. Frank may have other ideas on where to look as far as finding assistance marketing your product to manufacturing companies.
Frank MoroskyPresident, Iowa Investors [email protected]://www.iowainventorsgroup.org
The next Iowa Inventors Group meeting is Feb 11 at 7 p.m. at the Community Savings Bank in Robins, Iowa. Their speaker is the Executive Director of the United Inventors Association- so if you can make it to that meeting, it might be an opportunity to network with another person who probably has a lot of contacts that could be beneficial.
Frank Morosky, PresidentIowa Inventors Group
Quality ReferralsWho can we help you connect with?
Good morning M,
Back in October, you posted a message on my bulletin board on MyEntre.Net (http://www.myentre.net) asking for assistance in potentially exporting to Africa and Liberia. I left you a voicemail, but did not hear back from you. We recently did a webinar with Patricia Cook on Exporting Essentials for Small Business and I thought this might be especially relevant to you. You can find a full copy of that webinar here: http://www.myentre.net/tabId/75/itemId/759/Export-Essentials-for-Iowa-Businesses.aspx.
More importantly however, I'd like to give you a personal referral to Patricia Cook. Patricia serves as an International Trade Specialist at the Des Moines office of the U.S. Export Assistance Center (http://www.buyusa.gov/iowa/). This email should serve as an introduction for you to contact her; I've copied Patricia to make it easy for you to follow up. Patricia's office provides free one-on-one consulting to small business owners like you who would like to get into exporting. Please give her a call or follow up with an email to set up a time to learn more about how they can help you get into exporting.
Patricia Cook, International Trade SpecialistU.S. Department of Commerce
Quality ReferralsWho can we help you connect with?Hello D,
My name is Rob Williams. I am the Business Concierge and part of the team at MyEntre.Net. Your email about the small business you are working to open in Hartley came to me and we are glad to be of assistance!
There are many ways we can help you. First, check out the other business owners on MyEntre.Net (http://www.myentre.net). There are more than 8,600 small Iowa companies online there and more than a few housekeeping businesses. Many small companies find they can easily seek advice from other small business owners on MyEntre.Net. I'd encourage you to use the interactive map under the 'Find A..." tab to search for other housekeeping businesses in the state and ask some questions. Most folks are flattered to be asked their opinion and you'll likely meet some other great small business owners doing exactly what you want to do. Most importantly however, I'd like to give you a personal referral to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) that serves small businesses in your region. Kelly McCarty is the SBDC Director who serves Hartley. This email should serve as an introduction for you to contact him; I've copied him to make it easy for you to follow up. Kelly's office provides free one-on-one counseling to small business owners like you. Please give him a call or follow up with an email to him directly to set up a time to learn more about how they might help you.
Kelly McCartyNorthwest Iowa Small Business Development [email protected]
Starting a business is exciting and difficult, but you've taken the first good step in joining the community at MyEntre.Net. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance as you get started. You can always reach me by clicking on the Business Concierge icon at MyEntre.Net.
Kelly McCarty, DirectorNorthwest Iowa SBDC
Quality Referrals Who can we help you connect with?
State Requirements:I called over to the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade and spoke with someone in that office named Betty. Betty said that the group organizing this event should be getting you the tax documents. You might want to contact them right away to see what they say. Just in case they don't, I had her share with me what you will need to do for the state. The first application to check out is the 'Sales Tax Special Event Application' for the Colorado Department of Revenue. You can find that application here: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1214992372945&pagename=Revenue/REVXLayout. The document number is DR 0589. The tax return can also be found on that same page, under DR 0098, 'Special Event Retail Sales Tax Return'.
Local County/City Requirements:You will also be responsible for local county and city state sales tax. I called the City of Denver, Treasury Division (the option under 'Sales, Use, Lodgers, Occupation Priviledge,' etc- http://www.denvergov.com/ContactUs/tabid/424604/Default.aspx) and asked them about local county and city sales tax collection. I talked with Carla Galletti. She said you will need to fill out the special event packet (attached to this e-mail) and return it. If you have any questions about the local requirements, you can contact Carla directly at [email protected] or 720-865-7018.
From what Carla shared with me, you're going to have to collect 7.72% tax on everything sold; then give 3.62% of that to the city of Denver, and the remaining 4.1% to the state. I was assuming you are only selling t-shirts, so these percentages may be different depending on what you will be selling.
WHAT CAN WE HELP YOU WITH?
…Research Services
FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS
High Rent & Target Market Map
POTENTIAL PET PRODUCT BUSINESS
Objectives: - Determine feasibility for this product in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls MetroKey Facts: - ~60% Households own Pet, also know what subset own dogs - Business was profitable in Dubuque market - Know the market sizes and differences between two regionsFindings: - Waterloo/Cedar Falls not a strong market for this product now
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Winery WagesCompany Profiles
Demographics
Financials
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CONTACT INFORob Williams
Business Concierge, MyEntre.NetBusiness Analyst, University of Northern
Iowa
http://www.MyEntre.Net