(music) Hey everyone, I'm Sheila Jenkinson and you are listening to the Growing Small Town Nebraska Podcast where my co-host, Marcie Sextro, and I ask community leaders and business owners about their efforts in revitalizing the Cornhusker State. If you love your small town and you're looking for ways to make it even better, or maybe you're interested in what this revitalization movement may mean for you and your family. Join us as we talk with small town Nebraskans making our state the definition of "The Good Life."
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Hello, everyone. We have been on a bit of a break. After months of traveling and recording, we needed a break for a little while.
Yeah.
So today we are back in the intersect podcast booth, located in the Intersect Co-working and Incubator space here in downtown Norfolk. intersect co working has a variety of spaces designed intentionally to give you everything you need to maximize productivity. Get round the clock access to your space, conference rooms, community spaces, and blazing fast internet. Check out more at intersectcoworking.com.
Today we are chatting withAlisha Juelfs, an entrepreneurial navigator for Cheyenne County E3. Welcome so much to the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
So Alisha, our listeners may not know what an entrepreneurial navigator is and how you help small business owners. Can you explain how you help?
Absolutely. So an entrepreneurial navigator is in essence, a one-stop shop for businesses to come and get resources they need no matter where they're at with their business life stage. So whether they are startup, growing, or transitioning, I help them get the resource that they need; whether that be funding, marketing, legal help. The variety of topics that entrepreneurs have to juggle, I navigate them in the right direction. So this position is through Cheyenne County E3, which is a pilot program. It is a brand new role. And so there's still a lot to be defined. But in essence, I am a first point of contact for businesses when they don't know where to go.
Well, that's very nice. I just need that in my daily life, I think. Can you navigate, like my daily comings and goings?
(laughing)
Well, et me be clear, I help businesses.
Okay.
There you go.
It was worth it was worth a try. So Alisha, can you share about a couple of businesses that you've helped as an entrepreneurial navigator?
Absolutely. And these ones. I do have permission to share. What I do is extremely confidential, just to ensure that protection, in case it's a side business that becomes a full on opportunity. There's a lot of businesses with growth opportunities as well. So I just want to be clear that it is very confidential. I do have a couple of people that are letting us share. And one of those is Boss City Brewing. If anyone is familiar with this area, it is a local brewery that started as a collaboration with Sam and Louie's Pizza. And now they are branching out and growing into a new location. And the owners are highly involved in E3 as well. And what has happened is I'm able to pair other startup businesses with them. And so that's been a really fun, interesting, dynamic (is) these collaborative through creative collaborative, I guess, different products that they can come together to sell. So different events that they can come to do together from having a pop up in their business. On that like funding side of things letting Boss CIty know about the GROW grant. They applied, it's still pending, but just to get the opportunity in front of them so that they could.
One of the parent companies with them with Savor and Grace, which is a cheese shop that we have. And she started in this little building and is now moving into Boss CIty's former location. So just to be able to pair those two together. And the owners of Boss City have been really good mentors to Savor and Grace as far as what contractors they use, what accountant they use, what kind of funding opportunities. So it's really fun to see those relationships build even among businesses.
It's great! We got to eat at the pizza place and also Savor and Grace while we were there; and I follow Savor and Grace on Facebook, and I'm so excited to see the things that are going on. We were, you know, she was talking about being able to grow her business while we were there.
We had the cutest charcuterie cup things. I don't even know...they were this....I took pictures of like every little thing in it.
I know, it was it was very good. And we had pizza at the brewery as well. So...
It was yummy...
... that was really nice. Yeah.
And it just shows that your creativity should not be limited on where you live. Who would have ever thought there would be a tea shop in Sidney, Nebraska?
Yeah.
Not only did she bring it in, she's dominating it you know, and so now she's able to grow into a space that will even allow her to do lunch-type menu offerings and do special events. So it is extremely exciting to see them grow as a business.
She needed the space. You know, she even had some gifty-type things there. In fact, I bought a Christmas gift for my daughter while I was there...a little like herb growing kit and yeah, very, very cool.
Yeah, it's I think it's Savor and Grace Mercantile. So she will continue to do that with local businesses.
What are your one or two of your favorite resources to help businesses in your county? So I know you talked a lot about resources. But do you have a favorite couple of them that you like to tell people about?
I do partner a lot locally, but there's a lot of statewide resources that don't get a lot of exposure. So that's been good to have someone here to promote those services. Sourcelink Nebraska is still very young, as well. You know, they're they're under the umbrella of NBDC, the Nebraska Business Development Center. And with SourceLinkNebraska, you can go on, they are a statewide Resource Navigator. So what I do, but on a state level, not only is the team great to work with, their website is packed with information for entrepreneurs. And they interlink with any other entities. It's not...they're not recreating information, they create a document. But then it's interlinked to SBA to, you know, to all these other departments that already exist and have that information. So I think it can still get a lot more exposure. But they are a great team to work with, they have a lot of free trainings, a lot of free resources. So that's a big one for me, everybody hears about SourceLink Nebraska when I get a chance to talk.
(laughing)
The other one is, like I said, they're under Nebraska Business Development Center. But the other program through them is a business writing platform. That is huge. In order to get funding or these grant opportunities and just stick to your goals and understand the direction of your business, you should have a business plan. And that is not something that comes comfortably to everybody. NBDC has a platform, if you register through them, you get free access. And that has been huge. We've had many I don't know exactly how many have completed it. I've referred it to every single client that I work with. And we've had at least four clients that have utilized life plan and have received a grant because they had their business plan together. So that is a beautiful resource. It's still under-utilized, in my opinion. So there's a lot of great programs, but those would be the two that I think have been the best promoted through my services. SCORE is also another one with a lot of online resources and trainings as well.
Well, we agree with you on those resources NBDC has worked with us as well as SourceLink has us listed as a podcast resource and somebody that people can reach out to for information or advice.
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You know we've seen throughout the state, Alisha, that collaboration comes from a lot of different areas. So who would you say have been your most successful or helpful collaborators in building up Cheyenne County's economy and job opportunities?
That's a hard one to answer. I feel that I've come in a little bit late into that game, because there's been a lot that happened prior to me taking this role a year ago. However, just from what I have seen being in this role and being a part of E3. Our committee members or community members it was important that it was nonprofit, there's still some things to define there. But I would say the people that show up to our meeting have had a huge impact on the success of growing our communities. Because we have, the chamber is there, the tourism director, economic development is represented. We have bankers, we have people that work for legal offices, we have insurance agents, we have such a variety of individuals that have shown interest in this program, and they have this huge network of people that is crucial to success, in my opinion. I don't have the answers to all these things, but let me get it for you. And that's what's really key with these state resources and local resources, is just finding the right person, there's no wrong door, but let's start somewhere and let me navigate you to who that person may be. So on a local level, it may be someone's looking for space. And not everybody posts their things for sale. I can do an email blast to my committee, and ask for referrals for this space for this type of business. And immediately I get a response. So really, the collaboration comes from having multiple networks from different industries, different livelihoods, even I would say, because you still need to get the stay at home moms and a homeschool kid. There's a lot of different networks of people, and you need all of them.
So, things have really changed in the small town downtowns and throughout the state, because there's just a lot of businesses that don't do as well as they used to that were really, you know, imperative to small town community living before. But you've seen such a change in what is popular, have you seen a change in that? In the small businesses that you're helping to kind of come into the community?
I think it comes down partly to the individual, you have to be able to creatively work through problems. And sometimes it's finding those new solutions. So there has to be this passion, but also this grit that comes with entrepreneurs, that won't give up easily. So I feel that there's going to be challenges, no matter what, there's all these tax things that are trying to get passed. Locally, you're going to have some economy changes, there's going to be increases in your product. So the key is to really be creative when it comes to facing those challenges. And sometimes it may not be having a new product, it might just be reaching out to that network of people and trying to boost your business and awareness of your business, I do feel that there's an opportunity for these rural communities to do better at marketing. We rely so heavily on word of mouth, which is extremely important. But we're also recruiting people to move to these areas that are not from here. And they may not know people, and their only outlet is social media, or online platforms to learn about our communities. So there are different avenues to be taken. And part of that is not knowing where to go. So I think I'm filling that gap of you don't know where to go, you should go talk to Alisha. And you should figure out what's available to help you with this current opportunity or struggle whatever it may be.
That's a great idea!
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So you have something new at the Sidney public schools, a new youth competition, and so I'm really excited to hear about it.
Yeah, so we launched our first ever youth entrepreneurship competition. We did this through Sidney Public Schools, in part of them having an extremely strong career pathways program. The school has also been very supportive of E3 in getting me this role. So we start with them. They have been a great partner. And we work together to get this curriculum that was possible through E2. So E3's pilot is after E2 in Kansas. And there is a teacher in Kansas that has written the curriculum and they've done these competitions even from junior high up. We just started with seniors. We started with a passionate Sidney public school teacher she was raised in this area came back as his teaching at the same school she graduated with, again that passion, and I just think that's so important to note with all these success stories. It's the passion. We launched a competition, we got local sponsors, we got tech, we got money. So the top three prizes got a dollar amount, plus some type of tech donated from Nelnet. And with that they could put that money towards their business, or they could put it towards ongoing education. So the top prize was $5,000 iand a MacBook, and this was to a gal that is in livestock and does artificial insemination. She's already doing it. So she can use those funds to go by to tanks or whatever she needs to do her to do her idea. So it was extremely fascinating.
So, it was basically an entrepreneur competition, they brought their idea of what kind of business they wanted to start? Is that kind of what it was?
Yes, the whole class was based on building a business. So they had to learn how to write a business plan. They we had a guest speaker every week from different industries to talk about what they were doing. So they could help with that idea generation. There were three phases. So the business plan, they had to do a pitch to a panel of judges. And then there was like a vendor fair, where public could come in and vote on who their favorites were. And we had an amazing turnout, we had to keep printing surveys, we had over 200 people from the public that came in support.
Great idea!
Very, very good. I like it, Alisha, is there anything else that you want to bring up that maybe we missed here today,
I just think that it's important for entrepreneurs to know that they're not alone. And that the state of Nebraska has a lot of resources, and they're out there. I think it's hard to know where to start. But every community has organizations that are there to help. And it might be the Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development, Area Development. My role is very unique. But there are different organizations that are in every community to be helping. So, and if you don't, then SourceLink Nebraska would be a great place to start because they can get you going. But you should never feel alone. There's a lot of resources, a lot of podcasts, you know, that is all very relatable to know that you're not the only one that's going through these things, and there are resources to help you.
Oh exactly. All right. Well, we appreciate it all. We do have one final question for you. And it's one that we ask everybody. But Alisha, what do you love about living in small town, Nebraska.
This is home, I was raised in Potter, I returned to Potter. I do love the sense of community. And I do love the passion that you see in the individuals that came back. And so, I think it's the best way for me to raise my children and give them the best opportunities. But especially now, we're in a very exciting time where there is no bad idea. We just have to find the right strategy. So I love the passion of the community and the closeness that brings us all together.
Well, we really appreciate having you on today. And we are excited about the things that are going on that we saw and that even more has happened since we were there over this fall. We are happy that you were on with us today. We just thank you so much for taking the time.
I really appreciate you having me on here. I enjoy your podcast. I think everyone needs to hear the stories throughout Nebraska. So keep trucking on. I like your guys's podcast.
Oh, thank you so much. We will talk again soon.
All right, sounds great.
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(music) The Pierce County Visitors Bureau welcomes you to explore the communities of Hadar, Osmond, Pierce, and Plainview. Grab the family and enjoy Willow Creek Recreational Area or a beautiful small town park, shop in our charming downtowns, or check out one of our many festivals. Come and explore our communities! Pierce County is proud of their many unique opportunities and high quality of life!
If you're interested in being a sponsor for the podcast, you can find out more information on our website or email us at growingsmalltownne@gmail.com. The Growing Small Town Nebraska Podcast can be found on Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon, Pandora, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. We have new episodes the second and fourth Tuesday of every month. Join us again next time as we talk with business and community leaders who are working to revitalize the Cornhusker State. Thanks for listening!
