The Nebraska Enterprise Fund (NEF) is hosting two area forums focused on coordinated support for entrepreneurs and business development in Nebraska.  On November 30, 2010, the first “Area Entrepreneur /Small Biz Resource Forum” will be in Beatrice with the Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce as the co-host along with NEF. The second forum location will be in Grand Island on December 7, 2010 with the Grand Island Chamber as co-host with NEF.

The forums are designed for small business lenders /bankers, E-ship coaches / microenterprise development specialists or mentors and resource providers that assist small businesses.  Entrepreneurs and small business owners are welcome to attend!

Shawn Kaskie, Director of Center for Rural Research and Development at UNK, will present information on Market Research and Survey Services for businesses.  Other speakers and topics will include a presentation by GROW Nebraska on using social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for marketing. Staff from REAP and NEF will discuss collaborative business financing.  The forums will conclude with roundtable discussions on service gaps for small business development and coordinating efforts among area resource providers.

To register for either forum, or for more information, please call 402.685.5500 or 402.645.3096 or e-mail janeo@nebbiz.org.

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The Nebraska Enterprise Fund (NEF) was established in 1994 to support programs that serve Nebraska’s small and micro businesses.  NEF is a Certified Community Development Financial Institution that provides capital to programs and in participation with other lenders, provides gap financing for businesses.

Forum Registration flyer

It’s no secret that entrepreneurs — well known for working unconventional hours on side projects, often while holding down full-time jobs — fit squarely into that time-strapped demographic. It’s the very nature of those day-devouring schedules that spurred the creation of NxBizSuccess, an online portal that automatically brings entrepreneurs the information they need, often before they know they need it.

“The purpose of NxBizSuccess is to get real-time business information to entrepreneurs when they need it and where they want it — a lot of times, startups need this information yesterday,” said Tonia Franklin, NxBizSuccess web project manager and regional coordinator for NebraskaEDGE. “This portal serves as a way for individuals to go online and receive the information they’re looking for in an interactive way.”

Connected to 9 different social media outlets and boosting an impressive stash of 125 educational videos (ranging in content from small business profiles to how-to interviews with resource providers), NxBizSuccess certainly has plenty of information to dish out. But the crown jewel of the portal’s infrastructure is by and large its prestigious entrepreneur podcast.

Automatically uploaded to users’ iTunes accounts, NxBizSuccess’s instructive podcasts have enjoyed prominence as Top 25 downloads on iTunes U. iTunes U is a subsidiary of iTunes dedicated to educational content, attracting uploads from universities the world over, including the likes of Yale, Harvard and Oxford. Since the portal went public in November 2009, eager entrepreneurs have downloaded over 1200 CDs worth of NxBizSuccess podcast data.

Tonia Franklin, NxBizSuccess web project manager and regional coordinator for NebraskaEDGE

“The economy today is mobile — people are liking this attitude of having everything within their handheld devices,” Franklin said. “Entrepreneurs are very busy people. A lot of Nebraskans hold multiple jobs at once, so obviously time is an issue.”

The entire project was built from the ground up with entrepreneurs in mind. Originally conceived as a way for rural entrepreneurs to educate themselves while waiting for a NebraskaEDGE course to be offered in their area, NxBizSuccess was brought into existence by a grant from the Nebraska Enterprise Fund following an increase in state financing of projects related to microenterprise expansion.

In addition to its videos and podcasts, NxBizSuccess also posts entrepreneurial-themed scholarly articles and keeps a running, statewide list of all available training courses. The portal also recently added a new mechanism that allows organizations such as chambers to have their own private forums.

“This is a way for us to encourage entrepreneurial growth across the state of Nebraska, especially while entrepreneurs are waiting for that EDGE course to come to their community,” Franklin said. “It’s a social platform for entrepreneurs in general to come online, get info and also communicate with other members who are out there and really learn from each other.”