The West Liberty Business Association (WLBA) will be holding its annual meeting next week.
The meeting will be held Friday, Feb. 10, from 12 – 2 p.m. at the West Liberty Community Center with lunch being provided courtesy of West Liberty Foods, said WeLead Director Ken Brooks.
The guest speaker will be Lindsay Trumbull, a client services coach with the Iowa Center for Economic Success, in Muscatine.
“They recently opened an office in Muscatine,” Brooks said. “The services they provide are for the whole community. They focus on helping people who want to open a business and people who have their business expand their business.”
Trumbull graduated from Muscatine High School in 2000. She graduated from Drake University in 2004 with a degree in public relations with emphasis on marketing and management, according to her biography on the website for the Iowa Center for Economic Success. Her job was to assist small business owners get capital to fund the purchase of owner-occupied real estate and/or heavy machinery. As a result, she has interfaced with hundreds of clients across dozens of industries and all along the spectrum of maturity, from startup operations to generationally family-owned institutions and everywhere in between.
“I will be speaking about The Iowa Center for Economic Success and our expansion efforts in Muscatine and the eastern side of the state,” Trumbull said. “This includes our classes and workshops, financing programs and networking opportunities, as well as future plans to expand our VITA initiatives in the area.”
WeLead also provides these services but Books said he was happy to partner with another non-profit organization so they assist the business owners as much as possible. He looks forward to having this organization come to West Liberty on a regular basis.
“Part of their program is they offer workshops both online but also in person out of their Muscatine office several times a month but what we’ll be doing is hosting them here at the WeLead building – to host some of those workshops on a monthly basis,” Brooks said.
Brooks is happy to collaborate with another non-profit so focus on other items he would like to get done, he added.
There will also be updates given from the city, the school district and the county.
“And then our favorite part is the opportunity to do a roundtable and get business updates and community updates from everybody that’s attending,” Brooks said.
Brooks would like those interested in attending to let him know at kbroooks@weleadiowa.org.