Entrepreneurs often need key business intelligence to make decisions associated with starting or growing a company. Market and customer demographics, industry trends, competitor data and email/mailing lists are critical, yet most information of this kind is out of financial reach for young companies. The UNI Business Concierge provides on-call and online business intelligence for free, to startups and young companies in Iowa. UNI’s Entrepreneurship Outreach team assembled existing university database resources and trained a business concierge to offer custom and timely business intelligence to entrepreneurs, then connect them with the service providers needed to move them forward. All online. The Business Concierge is marketed by service provider partners who upload a iframed Business Concierge module into their own websites, where it is marketed as a free, local resource for small business through the city, county or regional economic development organization’s website. Early outcomes suggest the Business Concierge is effective. Between June 2011 and December of 2012, more than 840 small companies were served by the Business Concierge, averaging 3 hours per business served. Of 127 Business Concierge survey respondents, more than one third reported opening or expanding a business. Twenty three reported starting a new business and 13 more reported launching a new product or service. Many reported hiring employees (14 FTE jobs and 48 subcontract positions). UNI has scaled the technology, formalized the approach and is in early conversations to beta test the approach outside of Iowa as a cost effective, outcome driven resource to serve young companies. Read the Case Study: http://universityeda.org/value-to-members/best-practice-sharing/awards-of-excellence/awards-of-excellence-2013-finalists/the-iowa-business-concierge/

1. The MyEntre.Net Business Concierge
UEDA Awards of Excellence
October 2013
Patrick Luensmann, Program Manager
UNI MyEntre.Net
Patrick.Luensmann@uni.edu

2. Our Common Challenge
 Young Companies Need Business Intelligence
Expensive
Difficult to Find
Complex Data

3. What If We Could Provide
On Demand Business Intelligence to
Small Businesses?

4. The Business Concierge
Multiple Success Measures
Provide Easy Access
Eliminate the Cost Issue
Translate the Data
Actionable Information
Martha Norbeck,
C-Wise Design Consulting
Services, Iowa City , IA

5. The Business Concierge
 D&B MDDI
 DemographicsNow
 FINTEL
 Jigsaw
 ProfitCents
 Salesgenie
 Moz
Mailing lists
Pricing Comparisons
Demographics
Competition info
Industry trends
Sources for
Grants/loans
 SitetoDoBusiness
 ReferenceUSA
 LexisNexis
 IBISWorld
 Small Business
Reference Center
-Ask Us Anything

6. The Business Concierge
Bedbugs!
How Big is the Problem?
Universities and Community Colleges?
What is the Market Share?
Is it Growing? Declining?
Midwest Mailing List
Josh Rzpeka
Enviropest Solutions, Waterloo, Iowa

7. The Business Concierge
Online Technology
Chat, Email, Phone or Online
Rapid Turn-Around
Referrals
Program Format
Student Research Teams
Interpretive
“Your service is beyond invaluable when I
did not even know the questions to ask”
-Gail Chavenelle,
Chavenelle Studio Metalworks

8. The Business Concierge
256 Served in Six Months
11 New Business Starts
2 Businesses Acquired
8 New Products/Services
Carolyn Corbin Consulting
Decorah, Iowa
Industry Statistics &
Customized Mailing List

9. The Business Concierge
500-600 Requests Annually
3-4 Hours Per Request
I-Frame Available to Iowa EDO’s
Benefits Seen
Entrepreneurs
Students
Higher Education

10. The Business Concierge
Going Forward
Resources on Every Campus
Student
Baseline Databases
Sharable Technology
I-Frame
CRM w/Tracking
Patrick Quinn, Technology
Association of Iowa
List of every Iowa technology
Company < five years old