Advance Iowa
is the State of Iowa’s comprehensive consulting program designed to work with midsize companies to enhance their growth.
It is often lonely at the top for business owners, we are here to be a third party sounding board and trusted advisor. Advance Iowa assists firms in overcoming their obstacles and helps to identify new opportunities.
Benefits
The team at Advance Iowa understands that running a business can be a tedious, time consuming task and there is often a feeling of being lonely at the top. Many of our past clients have expressed that they don’t have someone to bounce ideas off of, ask advice or direction when making decisions. Advance Iowa is here to be the third-party sounding board you’re looking for.
We customize everything to your schedule and your needs but bring to the table the resources available to our team through the University of Northern Iowa and networks to connect you to other business leaders. These resources become your tools for growing your business and becoming a better business leader.
Our Process
Our process is driven by your business needs. The key part of our program is that we can be flexible to your requests. We have the size, scale and resources to work with your firm on a small project or engage as a long term strategic partner.
Advance Iowa partners with economic development organizations across the state to identify and recruit midsize growth companies. All Advance Iowa clients are encouraged to apply for our program in partnership with their local economic development organization.
Purpose
Traditional economic development focuses on recruitment of large companies to their region. While this is important, extensive research by the Kauffman Foundation, Lowe Foundation and others in the field suggest that a large share of job growth is being generated from midsized companies. The economic development landscape is filled with resources for small startups and large companies. Advance Iowa fills the gap between the startup stage and large companies.
These midsize companies, are looking to grow from within the current boundaries of their infrastructure. Many times this is by launching a new product, amping up marketing, redefining the customer base and/or many other small strategies to the company. Advance Iowa is assisting these midsized companies in a way that has been primarily under-served.