Iowa's Targeted Small Business (TSB) program, which was established to help women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, or service-disabled veterans in establish and grow a business in the state, is receiving a number of upgrades following changes approved by Governor Kim Reynolds and Lt. Governor Adam Gregg of Iowa and developed with input from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA).
The IEDA, which administers the TSB program, has been working in tandem with the Iowa Department of Administrative Services and Department of Inspection and Appeals in order to simplify the TSB certification process in order to get more qualified businesses meeting the certification criteria through the process with a minimum of difficulty.
Towards this end, a new online certification portal has been developed, through which the requirements for certification have been simplified, and searchability upgrades to the certification directory have also been made. In addition, other improvements have been made, based on feedback received during an IEDA listening tour, including the removal of certification fees, the launch of a quarterly newsletter, and hosting networking events.
"I am pleased to see the TSB program continue to evolve and improve," Lt. Gov. Gregg said. "These new features will minimize hurdles for prospective TSBs and create awareness of, and access to, the diverse small businesses within our state."
The new portal is available at https://www.iowaeconomicdevelopment.com/tsb, and includes numerous features such as ease-of-use design elements, detailed profiles for TSBs, email notification capability, and more.
Through the use of the portal as well as other upgrades, IEDA has shortened certification lead time from more than a month to a week or less, and is looking forward to continuing to certify more TSBs.
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