By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A fledgling small business in St. Joseph has leaned heavily on the expertise of the Northwest Missouri State Small Business Development Center.
Rachel Neil says when she first went to the Small Business Development Center, she had a lot of questions.
“How am I able to get all of my ideas into a business and have it thrive? How am I able to market my business? How am I able to even just jump start this idea?”
The idea Neil has is to start a business called Heirloom Diaries, in which she helps families preserve family history in a form that can be passed down from one generation to another.
Neil says the center more than answered her questions. She came away with the answers she needed to get started.
“I was able to come up with a sales pitch, a summary, creating milestones, creating budgets,” Neil tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “So that was a huge resource.”
Neil says she has toyed with the business model for quite a while.
“All the way back from college days, I realized just how important my family’s story was to me,” Neil says. “And I want to be able to connect others with their family the way I have connected with mine.”
Neil hasn’t established a brick-and-mortar business, yet, but says that might be coming.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.