West Plains, MO – 2022 was a landmark year for the Ozarks Small Business Incubator (OzSBI) – our team spent nearly 400 hours working one-on-one with area business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. We also saw a record number of unique tenants and coworkers, 41 in all, utilize our offices. Additionally, we awarded just over $320,000 in microloans to entrepreneurs in the region who took advantage of our program to launch new businesses, create new product lines, or expand their businesses.
The OzSBI staff expanded with the addition of Autumn Shirley as our Business Development Specialist. She brings a deep skill set in entrepreneurship, business marketing and communications, and business mentoring. Together, the OzSBI team continued to travel around our region with our free Smart Start: Developing a Successful Business workshop, taking them to Thayer, Mammoth Spring, Birch Tree, and Mountain Grove, and also hosted them locally every month. This workshop has assisted many local small businesses with the first steps to creating a business plan and understanding their finances. In addition to the Smart Start workshops, we held 49 other workshops and events that attracted 1,171 people throughout the year.
One of OzSBI’s goals is to assist the entrepreneurial workforce with the creation of sustainable jobs through the growth of their businesses. Last year, OzSBI clients and tenants created 54 new jobs – a significant economic impact for our region. To expand upon that impact, these businesses generated a gross revenue of $13,937,729 in the most recent full year and in December paid an average of $384,700 in monthly salaries and wages to employees.
Last year, we also rolled out the area’s first Pop Up shop in one of our Washington Avenue storefronts. Pop Up shops are low-cost, temporary retail spaces that are open for a limited time, typically for a few days or weeks. They are an excellent way to test a new market, generate buzz and create a sense of exclusivity or urgency. Pop Up shops can also be used by artists, designers, or entrepreneurs as a way to showcase their work and sell their products. Our first Pop Up shop tenant is the GO FARM Farmers Market.
Finally, we celebrated our ten-year anniversary with an open house and an ambitious rebranding campaign, which involved a completely redesigned logo for OzSBI and a new website built from the ground up. This effort involved the input of OzSBI staff, many of our tenants and coworkers, and the OzSBI Board of Directors. After many months of working together, we rolled out our new logo in November and our new website went live on February 1st. Signage in and around the building continues to be updated with our new logo.
OzSBI’s goal for 2023 is to continue to help grow strong businesses and spur new ideas and innovation right here in the Ozarks. We are expanding our outreach and working to engage aspiring entrepreneurs where they live. To learn more about the incubator’s mentoring services, microloan fund, Pop Up Shop, and workshops, visit ozsbi.com.
