Presenter: TJ Daniels, WBC Program Director & Alex Polzin, Dir of Finance & Administration Date: July 27, 2022 Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm Location: Online Register: Here As a small business owner, you won’t ever really know the unexpected challenges or opportunities that await you in life and business. Always Ready: Financials is a working session for you to learn how to financially prepare your small business for the next step in your journey. The Iowa Center staff will show you what you need to do to always be ready to make financial moves in your business, including applying for a loan or buying/selling new goods. This class is especially for you if you’ve ever been denied a loan or need a helping hand to get your financials on track. About our speakers TJ Daniels is the official cheerleader of The Iowa Center. She’s a vibrant supporter of our mission, programs, clients and staff. As a Certified Credit Counselor, she assists clients with their credit, budget, financial statements and so much more. She also works with our lending programs assisting clients from start to finish, and often times well after the loan has closed making many friendships along the way. Alex is responsible for Iowa Center accounting and governmental reporting, he also helps with lending and education programs provided by the Iowa Center. Click here to register!  

Presenters: Impact Fitness & Nutrition Date: August 5, 2022 Time: 12 – 1pm Location: Online Register: Online Come and listen to the stories of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and community members making their mark in Iowa. As you create your own story, treat yourself to this time each month to rekindle your entrepreneurial spirit and connect with others. Join us as we listen to the story of Impact Fitness & Nutrition About Our Speakers... Impact opened its doors in December 2018 but the idea was conceived much earlier. Pushing my body beyond its capabilities and getting injured in the process wasn’t fun and not keeping a consistent workout schedule only made it worse. Losing my corporate gig earlier in 2018 was the impetus to begin a journey of creating better movement and better strength in ways our body intended to move.  People get caught up in just doing exercises and not movement patterns. It limits how our body can perform. When we improve in movement patterns we get stronger in those patterns but also stronger overall. We blend group (and personal) fitness with training in 3 movement planes. We live in those movement planes so why not train in them? We use kettlebells, resistance bands, suspension trainers, lever bells, and of course the almighty sandbag to improve the efficiency of our movement. We don’t do our style of fitness to be different. We just do it differently.  Growing our business meant exploring new business opportunities including aerial yoga with Autumn and more importantly our popular nutrition program. It was a natural extension of our programming to help our athletes and others to understand the positive influence of the holistic approach to living a healthier lifestyle. We won’t use the word “diet” but we help people understand the proactive steps to...

Presenter: Sierra Smith, Client Services Coordinator & Jordan Lloyd, Client Services Coordinator  Date: August 10, 2022 Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Location: Online Register: Here Turn your dream into a plan with this small group, one-hour business planning class. The Iowa Center staff will help you kickstart your business plan by providing you a road map on completing your plan and taking the next steps towards business ownership. Also connect with other aspiring small business owners to refine your business ideas as you put them into real plans. About our hosts Sierra and Jordan spend their time at The Iowa Center meeting with new clients to help connect them with the best resources and events for education and advancement. They work to make sure people are aware of the countless opportunities available at The Iowa Center and in the community. Click here to register! 

Presenter: Amanda Elliot, Founder of Letters From Elliot Date: August 23, 2022 Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Online Registration: Click Here Join us as we discuss marketing strategies, promotions, and finding your market--and how to tun that information to turn a niche/unique hobby into a successful business. *** About Our Speaker...Amanda Elliot Hi, I'm Amanda Elliot and I am the artist and calligrapher at Letters from Elliott located in Muscatine, Iowa. I create custom hand lettered designs that are perfect for nearly any occasion. I offer many personalized products and can letter on just about anything! My passion is creating handmade, one-of-a-kind items with a personal touch. My husband Nick and I live in a very small town in southeastern Iowa with our dog Juno and our cat Pete. We both grew up here and our roots are sewn deep with our family and businesses in this area. We love our small town life but also enjoy traveling as often as we can and always have a trip planned. We have season tickets to the Chicago Cubs and spend a lot of time in Chicago watching them play at Wrigley Field. Many weekends in the summer, you will find us enjoying the big city taking in a game or two while we're there. We also spend several weeks a year at my family's vacation home in Negril, Jamaica. Nick and I visited Jamaica for the first time in 2009 and fell in love with the island and the people who live there. We were married there in 2012 and have visited countless times since. We are so blessed to be able to call Jamaica our second home and have friends there who are more like family. When I'm not working or traveling, I enjoy cooking, reading, taking glorious naps, shopping,...

Presenter: TJ Daniels, WBC Program Director & Alex Polzin, Dir of Finance & Administration Date: August 24, 2022 Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm Location: Online Register: Here As a small business owner, you won’t ever really know the unexpected challenges or opportunities that await you in life and business. Always Ready: Financials is a working session for you to learn how to financially prepare your small business for the next step in your journey. The Iowa Center staff will show you what you need to do to always be ready to make financial moves in your business, including applying for a loan or buying/selling new goods. This class is especially for you if you’ve ever been denied a loan or need a helping hand to get your financials on track. About our speakers TJ Daniels is the official cheerleader of The Iowa Center. She’s a vibrant supporter of our mission, programs, clients and staff. As a Certified Credit Counselor, she assists clients with their credit, budget, financial statements and so much more. She also works with our lending programs assisting clients from start to finish, and often times well after the loan has closed making many friendships along the way. Alex is responsible for Iowa Center accounting and governmental reporting, he also helps with lending and education programs provided by the Iowa Center. Click here to register!  

Presenters: David Tracy, Founder/CEO of Northgate Marketing Inc. Date: September 9, 2022 Time: 12 – 1pm Location: Online Register: Online Come and listen to the stories of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and community members making their mark in Iowa. As you create your own story, treat yourself to this time each month to rekindle your entrepreneurial spirit and connect with others. This will be our first event back IN PERSON at The Iowa Center! Join us in person to see our new space, network with local small business owners, and have a treat or two! (There will be a virtual registration option for those who can't attend in person.) Join us as we listen to the story of Northgate Marketing Inc. with Founder and CEO David Tracy. About Our Speakers... David Tracy is an award-winning marketing and advertising strategist with a global perspective whose specialty is to curate effective, in-depth marketing campaigns that bridge international and cultural gaps. He is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the American Marketing Association of Iowa and has traveled to over 40 countries, gathering a multi-cultural and multi-lingual team that push creative boundaries that fuse styles and perspectives. David is well equipped to dive deep into consumer psychology in order to understand why people from many backgrounds gravitate toward certain aesthetics, design, and marketing messages and translate that into effective brands and marketing strategies. As a result, he has attracted clients like Swiss investment brokers wanting to target clients throughout Latin America and businesses in Asia seeking to export and conduct business in North America. For clients in Des Moines, David’s multilayered approach has opened a welcomed broader perspective. Register here!  The Iowa Center Women's Business Center is funded in part by U.S. Small Business Administration.

Date: September 12, 2022 Time: 9:00 am - 11:00 am Location: Online Registration: Click Here Work for Yourself@50+ is a webinar to help you gain the knowledge, support, and resources you need to make informed decisions about working for yourself and take the right first steps toward successful self-employment. The decision to start your own business can be both exciting and daunting. Work for Yourself@50+ breaks the choices down for older adults in an approachable way through five steps: 1. A careful consideration of the potential benefits and risks of working for yourself 2. Exercises to help develop the self-employment idea 3. A realistic overview of what it takes to pursue a self-employment opportunity 4. Guidance to help avoid pitfalls and scams 5. Ways to find trustworthy support and services This is an online webinar. In order to access the webinar, you will need to use either a computer, tablet for smartphone. You will receive instructions on how to join the webinar in your registration confirmation or your reminder email that will go out prior to the webinar. Please do not share the webinar access information with anyone who is not already registered. Click here to register!    The Iowa Center Women's Business Center is funded in part by U.S. Small Business Administration.

Presenter: Sierra Smith, Client Services Coordinator & Jordan Lloyd, Client Services Coordinator  Date: September 14, 2022 Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Location: Online Register: Here Turn your dream into a plan with this small group, one-hour business planning class. The Iowa Center staff will help you kickstart your business plan by providing you a road map on completing your plan and taking the next steps towards business ownership. Also connect with other aspiring small business owners to refine your business ideas as you put them into real plans. About our hosts Sierra and Jordan spend their time at The Iowa Center meeting with new clients to help connect them with the best resources and events for education and advancement. They work to make sure people are aware of the countless opportunities available at The Iowa Center and in the community. Click here to register! 

Presenter: Mark Juffernbruch, Client Services Coach at The Iowa Center Date: September 27, 2022 Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Online Registration: Click Here Join us as we discuss the 10 common pitfalls to starting a business. Things to watch for or keep in mind when starting a small business. *** About Our Speaker...Mark Juffernbruch, J.D., C.P.A. Mark's career includes over 30 years of work in various business and business development areas. Most of these years have been spent working with and teaching others the technical and soft-skills involved in becoming a successful business leader. As a tenured professor and a transformational and cross-functional communicator, I am confident this is the organization and role for me. Mark’s primary role at The Iowa Center ​​is to work directly with clients to help expand their knowledge on owning and operating a small business in Iowa. Click here to register!   

Presenter: TJ Daniels, WBC Program Director & Alex Polzin, Dir of Finance & Administration Date: September 28, 2022 Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm Location: Online Register: Here As a small business owner, you won’t ever really know the unexpected challenges or opportunities that await you in life and business. Always Ready: Financials is a working session for you to learn how to financially prepare your small business for the next step in your journey. The Iowa Center staff will show you what you need to do to always be ready to make financial moves in your business, including applying for a loan or buying/selling new goods. This class is especially for you if you’ve ever been denied a loan or need a helping hand to get your financials on track. About our speakers TJ Daniels is the official cheerleader of The Iowa Center. She’s a vibrant supporter of our mission, programs, clients and staff. As a Certified Credit Counselor, she assists clients with their credit, budget, financial statements and so much more. She also works with our lending programs assisting clients from start to finish, and often times well after the loan has closed making many friendships along the way. Alex is responsible for Iowa Center accounting and governmental reporting, he also helps with lending and education programs provided by the Iowa Center. Click here to register!