The first Winter storm of 2024 was hours away, but that didn’t deter four business owners from Iowa City’s South District Market from attending a final mini-Venture School class Jan. 8 sponsored by the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC).
The four businesses: Early Bird Café, Cachua Cakes, Artesanis Mar & More, and Royceann’s are located at 947 US-6 on the south side of Iowa City. The building is owned by SouthGate Companies and is part of the South of 6 Business District, a self-supporting improvement district known for bringing people and ideas together to create change.
“They are much stronger working together as a group than they are individually,” said Scott Swenson, adjunct instructor at the University of Iowa.
Swenson, along with Paul Heath, regional director of the Small Business Development Center, taught a scaled down version of Iowa JPEC’s actual Venture School, which is primarily for unproven business ideas. The four businesses in South District Market are functioning lifestyle businesses, and they are all operated by minority owners. Their curriculum focused on marketing so the companies could capture market share and build revenue.
Janet Marceleno runs Artesanis Mar & More where she imports artisan crafts that her cousins and friends make in southern Mexico.
“I learned how to manage my business, especially marketing,” Marcelno said through an interpreter. “I learned how to use Facebook to promote my business and how to make more events to promote the south district.”
After cooking in the community for more than 20 years, Royceann Porter opened her soulfood restaurant, Royceann’s, on March 25, 2023. On Jan. 7, she promoted a Soul Food Sunday at her business and sold out of everything. For Royceann’s customers, it’s all about fried chicken, fried catfish, and fried pork chops. She also serves greens, macaroni and cheese, candy yams, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, and green beans.
“I have also done red beans and rice with cornbread dressing,” Porter said. “That’s a southern, southern, southern meal.”
At the end of mini-Venture School, Porter raved about what she learned.
“The strategic planning for the marketing of your business,” she said. “To know, to grow, and to keep. Just knowing what it is that I need to do to be successful is good.”
Swenson said the mini-Venture School was a one-time event. It was also rewarding to him as an instructor.
“Watching them put their heads together collaborating on these events in terms of making them more viable was nice to see,” Swenson said. “They have to create their own attraction because they are new and learning to connect with the neighborhood and appeal to diverse cultures.”
Iowa JPEC fosters entrepreneurship and innovation across the state of Iowa by providing a range of educational and training programs and support services for entrepreneurial ventures and existing small-to-medium size businesses. Iowa JPEC is dedicated to nurturing the growth of new ventures and assisting them in reaching their full potential.
