Kansas launches new resources for small businesses, entrepreneurs

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Taylor Overton leads the new Kansas Department of Commerce Small Business Office. She spoke Tuesday at the Tee Box in Topeka. (Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Tools for small business owners are now available through the Kansas Small Business Office, leaders with the Kansas Department of Commerce announced Tuesday while highlighting the need to encourage entrepreneurship and business development in the state.
Connect KS, a resource website that will answer questions of small business owners and help them find resources in their part of the state, is part of the SBO, said Taylor Overton, who heads up the new office.
The resources were announced at an event at the Tee Box in downtown Topeka that drew entrepreneurs from across the state to share the importance of finding programs and information to help them succeed. In addition, many spoke about being part of a Kansas delegation recently at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Indiana.
'One of the reasons why this is so important is that new businesses under five years old create the most net new jobs in our economy,' said Jason Grill, with Right to Start, a nonprofit organization that advocates for small businesses. 'They also grow GDP, and they increase lifetime incomes. They increase community wealth, very much so, in lifetime incomes, they diversify our goods and services in our communities, and they fight inequality and poverty.'
Grill told about 50 people gathered that for every 1% increase in entrepreneurship in a community, there is a 2% decrease in poverty.
Joshua Jefferson, deputy secretary of business development at the commerce department, said the coordination of resources throughout the state is key to the new initiatives.
'We're here to commit to the work of a new era in small business support here in Kansas,' he said. 'The COVID 19 pandemic exposed that the Kansas Department of Commerce was not doing enough for small businesses in the state of Kansas. In the wake of a once-in-a-century economic crisis, we examined the way that the agency was working, and in the process, we discovered that we really weren't supporting small business as much as we could, or that we should.'
Jefferson said the creation of the SBO, along with resources like Connect KS, was the culmination of those efforts to change the state's support network.
'We can do more, and we will do more,' he said.
He outlined resources included in the SBO and stressed that part of the task has been making them easier to navigate and accessible to all Kansans.
'By creating a coordinated statewide hub for entrepreneurs at every stage, we're coordinating key resources and creating centralized points of contact for entrepreneurs who are navigating the tough work of business development certifications, permitting access to capital, mentorships and much, much more,' he said.
Much of the work of the SBO is connecting people with opportunity, and Overton said she was excited to take a Kansas delegation to the global congress to network with people from around the world.
Wichita business owner Kristin Kienzle, who attended the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Indiana, said she is learning about creating a successful franchising model that can be replicated nationwide as she explores opportunities to expand into Oklahoma.
Kienzle, who owns Utopia Modern Salon Suites, grew her unique approach to offering salon services from one site to three in Wichita, with more on the way.
'I learned some tactical things. I learned some inspirational things and then I also just kind of learned some things about myself,' she said.
Being with other entrepreneurs helped her realize how little people understand about what it takes to start a business and manage all the risks.
'As an entrepreneur, we just do what we do,' she said. 'So being in the room on a grand stage with all these people who have done great things, everyone from Mark Cuban down to the guy who started this business six weeks ago, and everything in between was just so it just made me realize, wow, these people, and this is a really unique crowd.'
Trademark attorney Julie Grabbe, of Hays, said meeting people from other countries was valuable.
'I'm in west Kansas, so we're in a different situation than a lot of the more metropolitan cities,' she said. 'But commerce is very important to us. We want to be able to keep our young talent. We want to keep growing our cities. We want it to be a vibrant place to live. I think one of the ways to do that is really to have the support of the state to go out and do these kinds of things and get these ideas.'