Millennials as Entrepreneurs

By Deb Brown | March 11, 2015 |

The Kauffman report was recently released and it talked about Entrepreneurs and the Millennials and Baby Boomers.  Jack Schulz from Agracel first shared the news with us.  Today we’re reprinting the section on Millennials (Friday – Boomers).  What are your thoughts/? Millennials (born from 1981–1997) have created fewer and fewer businesses since they entered the…

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Invisible People: @home on PBS

By Deb Brown | March 7, 2015

I‘m sharing this press release in hopes that my readers will share it as well – and watch the special on PBS.  Everyone so often we are blessed to meet angels in real life.  I had the good fortune to meet Mark Horvath at a 140 Conference in New York several years ago.  His story…

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Marshmallow Love

By Deb Brown | March 4, 2015

I met Nathan at a Misfit Conference in Fargo.  Nathan and his family make marshmallows.  Their company is Wondermade. The entire business started because Nathan needed to buy a Christmas gift for his wife.  The internet led him to candy which led him to marshmallows.  After noticing that all their friends wanted to order marshmallows…

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Hashtag Campaign for RAGBRAI Pass through

By Deb Brown | February 25, 2015

RAGBRAI is coming through Webster City!  We are excited and thrilled to welcome approximately 25,000 bike riders to our town early in the morning of July 21. We’re currently putting together a hashtag promotion and asking everyone to enter their ideas about the perfect hashtag at http://visitwebstercityiowa.com/pass-through.htm. The idea is to create a hashtag we can…

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Chef: A lesson for small businesses

By Deb Brown | February 23, 2015

If you have not seen the movie Chef and you own a small business, stop what you are doing and go watch it.  I used Netflix to see it. Besides being a feel good movie about a dad and his kid, it’s a better movie about how to use social media for your small business.…

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He Said What?

By Deb Brown | February 18, 2015 |

I just read that CTO of T-Mobile said “We believe the metro stuff is most important.” (find link here http://vzwmidwestarea.com/verizon-rural-matters/) My first response is: Are You Kidding Me?  20% of the population lives in rural America.  You’re willing to give up that business?  Then I realized Mr. CTO has no clue why it’s important that…

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Maslow, Again

By Deb Brown | February 6, 2015

Joshua McKenna, Executive Director of the Knoxville, Iowa Chamber wrote an interesting article about addressing your basic needs.  He has graciously allowed me to share it! Director’s Desk Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a concept that I very much have a love-hate relationship with. I love how this concept plays into so many different decisions…

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Are Rural Needs Being Met?

By Deb Brown | January 7, 2015 |

36% of Iowa is rural.  51% of Hamilton County is rural. I found these numbers on a newsletter I get from SmallBizSurvival.com  (click here to subscribe, email me at deb at debworks dot come and I’ll forward you the newsletter article that prompted this blog post.)  Becky McCray talked about how state and city conferences are…

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