New Growth Women’s Business Center! Open House events March 8-12, 2021, across 15 counties in Missouri and Kansas will celebrate women in business. They will also launch a new rural resource for all entrepreneurs, the New Growth Women’s Business Center.

APPLY BY MARCH 10. Launch U is a proven one-on-one, six week course for getting businesses going and growing. Participants put their plans together with intensive guidance and support from business counselors, other entrepreneurs, and experts that every business needs to consult for legal, financial and other questions.

West Central Missouri Community Action Agency (West Central) and the Missouri Rural Health Association (MRHA) seek volunteer drivers to help with healthcare rides in the region. Drivers receive a mileage reimbursement of $.80 per loaded mile, volunteer insurance coverage, flexible schedules, and training as HealthTran drivers.

The third-annual Farm to Fork Summit goes online in 2021 with big picture perspectives, practical workshops, and evening entertainment the first three Tuesdays in February (Feb. 2, Feb. 9, and Feb. 16.) Attendees also enjoy 24/7 access all month to recorded sessions and networking opportunities, such as discussion boards and exhibitor spaces. A mobile app lets attendees tune in and participate on the go, too.

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced rural west central Missouri will soon operate one of the nation’s newest Women’s Business Centers. To be based in El Dorado Springs, Missouri, the New Growth Women’s Business Center will serve 15 counties: 13 in Missouri and two in Kansas.

Appleton City, Missouri, is a small town, quite far from any major highway, that is quietly and deliberately building new Main Street culture and commerce. It’s a great story about innovation and investment in our rural west central Missouri region.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is an international celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups and bring ideas to life. Founded by the Kauffman Foundation in 2008, it has since expanded to more than 160 countries.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has awarded one of 30 national microenterprise assistance grants to West Central Missouri Community Action Agency. The one-year, $98,000 award will support West Central’s work with affiliate community development corporation

There is power in making your place, your hometown, a wonderful place to live. This may be obvious, but quality of life is often an afterthought in the economic development work of growing jobs and businesses.

CAUTION: This article starts with a platitude, and then it hits you with reality. You’ll be glad you read it, because you will find a way to make a difference. Platitude (cliché truism): If you give someone a fish, you will feed them for the day. If you teach someone...

Raydonna Biles makes lunch for her son every day. It keeps them both healthy. “I cook better for him than I would for myself alone. … Last time I went to the doctor, the doctor said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’ My blood sugar was down. I’d lost weight.”

The global pandemic of 2020 has made starting and building a small business in west central Missouri even more difficult. Now a regional effort to develop micro loan financing for rural entrepreneurs is gaining the steam it needs to help local businesses get going and...