Iowa Center to expand business services in Muscatine

MUSCATINE, Iowa – The Iowa Center recently announced a contract award from the U.S. Small Business Administration to expand and enhance the small business support services offered here by its Eastern Iowa office to include a Women’s Business Center (WBC). 

The Iowa Center is an economic development organization that delivers three lines of direct services to empower entrepreneurs to launch or grow their small businesses: Business Coaching, Credit + Lending, and Tax Services.

The Iowa Center Women’s Business Center is a business coaching program that delivers training and counseling focused on women who want to launch or grow a small business funded, in part, by an agreement with the SBA. Visit www.TheIowaCenter.org to learn more.

The Iowa Center’s headquarters in Des Moines has been home to Iowa’s only WBC for more than 30 years. The Iowa Center’s Business Coaching Department designed the WBC intake process, curriculum, and service delivery model which will now be offered through its locations in both Des Moines and Muscatine.

“The classes and one-on-one counseling that we offer through our Women’s Business Center are an important component of our comprehensive service model to empower Iowans to launch and grow successful and sustainable small businesses,” Megan Milligan, president and CEO of The Iowa Center, said in a news release. “The addition of a Women’s Business Center to our Muscatine office will enhance and diversify the small business support services available to small business owners in Eastern Iowa.” 

She added that by collaborating with the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine and Muscatine Community College, the WBC “will drive small business growth and economic development for Muscatine and communities across eastern Iowa.”

The Iowa Center established its physical presence in Muscatine in 2021 with support from the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine and Muscatine Community College as part of a three-year pilot program funded by the Stanley Family and the Kauffman Foundation. The pilot assessed the need for small business support services in Eastern Iowa and identified a Women’s Business Center as one of the critical tools to empower small business ownership in this area.

“Entrepreneurialism, job creation, and small business growth has been and will continue to be the bedrock of our community’s success. Community leaders, Dick and Mary Jo Stanley, recognized the vision of The Iowa Center decades ago, and planted the seeds for this partnership,” said Charla Schafer, the community foundation’s president. 

She added “We are grateful that this vision has culminated in a new Women’s Business Center that will foster small business growth and economic development in and around Muscatine, as well as establishing Muscatine County as a leader in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Eastern Iowa.”

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