Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses is an investment to help entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity by providing greater access to education, capital and business support services. To date, more than 9,100 business owners have graduated from the program across all 50 states in the US, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Meet our newest alumni in Iowa:
Elizabeth Hoppe, DejaBrew LLC
Emmetsburg, Iowa
"10,000 Small Businesses made me very confident. You don’t ever want to have to deal with uncertainty or unexpected change—but I feel like I have the tools to handle it and to predict it too. Right now, small towns are encouraging kids to leave…if we can give one or two people that full-time job that keeps them in the community, that’s the secret to keeping this community alive and growing."
Izaah Knox, Urban Dreams
Des Moines, Iowa
“We are a nonprofit, however—no margin, no mission. You should be able to run a nonprofit like a for-profit business. They’ve had us look at how we can grow, and they walked me through the whole process on how to do that."
"We’ve already expanded to two new cities. We’ll dominate this state in two years. I never thought in a million years we would.”
Benjamin Pingel, Pingel Farms
Badger, Iowa
“It’s such a beautiful thing to go plant this little seed and then watch it grow. My dad built this giant legacy right here and I’d like to see that continue."
"One thought that I took away [from the program]: If I was gone tomorrow, would this business be able to keep going? And it would not. Part of the program showed me that I need a clear exit strategy that either is going to let one or both my boys into it."
Dylan, BigDeal Car Care
Adel, Iowa
"By the end of [the program], I knew the route I needed to take my business. I hired a salesman, I hired a sales assistant. The 10KSB program showed me how to do it and gave me resources to be able to do it."
"Ever since the Goldman Sachs program, I have been working on the business instead of working in the business. Now we’re making more sales, we’re producing more leads, we’re selling as much as we can. That’s what’s going to keep this business around”
Jenny Steffensmeier, Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing
Pilot Grove, Iowa
“Business ownership is a tough deal… it is just tough. The 10KSB program just nailed it, from cash flow to programs... Working right there alongside you, putting your numbers in. Learning about forecasting [was] absolutely invaluable."
"There I was in a roomful of 36 other me’s. We all are having the same problems, the same questions, the same issues. The program showed me – nobody else knows all this stuff either. We’re all asking questions, we’re all trying to figure it out."
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