NCMBF Small Business Expo
On Wednesday, March 20 the North Central Missouri Business Facilitation (NCMBF) held a Business Expo at North Central Missouri College in Trenton. Local speakers covered a variety of topics including finance, insurance, hiring, marketing and advertising.
During the Expo they had a panel of experts in the fields of lending and economic development share their ‘do’s and don’ts’ of business financial needs. Duane Kohlstaedt was the moderator while Mark Ayers of Hamilton Bank, Greg Baston with the USDA, Jon Ecker of Mo-Kan Development Inc. and Kinnison McCay with Farmers Electric Coop were panelists.
A session covering the general insurance needs of a business and was conducted by Susie Rollheiser and Mark Baker, of Cameron’s JBLB Insurance Group. Another session covered how to hire and keep employees, Rick Daly of the REDaly Consulting Group explained this topic. Doug Schmitz, AlphaMedia Communication spoke on marketing and advertising during the “Local Market, National-Like Impact” session where Doug explained how it is a myth that marketing and advertising for national companies like McDonalds or General Motors was easier than marketing and advertising for small businesses, especially single-location small businesses. The keynote speaker for the day was Mark Stombaugh, Director of the Regional Engagement team for NCMBF.
During the Expo attendees heard from Bryan Caplan a Google Support Trainer. Bryan is a speaker for the Grow with Google partner program and travels the country presenting a wide range of digital marketing topics aimed at helping small businesses, grow, succeed and elevate their digital marketing. Stephanie Williams, NCMBF Facilitator said that Bryan was a huge hit and gave a great session and everyone was highly impressed with his presentation. She summarized the purpose of the Expo when she said, “One of the things we want to get across is that we are really focused on the future of rural communities. Trying to make sure that small business owners and entrepreneurs have access to information they may need.”
NCMBF is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization that provides free, confidential assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners in Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb, Grundy, and Harrison counties. The group is focused on the future of rural communities. Please call Stephanie at 816-617-6144 with questions or check out their website at www.ncmbf.org.
