Greater Cincinnati Microenterprise Initiative Case Study
April 11, 2022
A Cincinnati Nonprofit Instills a Sense of Usefulness to Help End the Cycle of Poverty Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Number of employees: 2 Clients served annually: 150-210 Launch of the Ice House curriculum: 2015 OVERVIEW: Cincinnati has a reputation as a powerhouse in terms of Fortune 500 company headquarters, an up-and-coming destination for startups. The metro area also faces ongoing challenges with equity and opportunity for all its residents. The Greater Cincinnati Microenterprise Initiative…
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Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce Case Study
May 17, 2022
The Benefits of Keeping the Ice House Model Running in the Background Location: Fresno, California Number of employees: 11 Small businesses and entrepreneurs served in 2021: 360 Number of members: 511 OVERVIEW: The Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce engages, educates, and empowers small business owners and entrepreneurs of color. They provide technical assistance to start, scale, or restart a business and help them access capital. Some of its programs are very intentional…
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Nashville Public Library Case Study
July 12, 2022
A New Library Resource for Solving Problems and Pursuing Passions Location: Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee Number of branches: 21 Launch of NPL Means Business: 2021 OVERVIEW: Nashville is booming, and the ripples affect everyone. These include the public library system, which serves the city and surrounding Davidson County. Planners expect the metro area to grow by 140,000 people in the next 20 years, up from 700,000 today. Its residents are predominantly English-speaking, with…
Read more“Only in Toledo: Be inspired by the story of DeShawn Willis and Lake Lawns”
June 30, 2022
Originally posted in our June 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. For inspiration and to demonstrate to principles we’ve been thinking about this month, the ELI team wanted to highlight one entrepreneur who is making it work no matter what, DeShawn Willis. Owner of Lake Lawns in Toledo, Ohio, DeShawn is a prime example of the power of vision and persistence while showing us you do not need significant investment to start something sustainable. In this short…
Read more“Growth comes from repeatable scalable sales processes”
Originally posted in our June 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. While we’re considering paths towards growth and innovation, we also need to think about developing effective systems to channel these goals. As this piece from 2019 suggests, many entrepreneurs treat each sale opportunity as a way to uniquely meet their clients’ needs. Initially, this is great for them to try out many little tweaks to their proposed solution. However, it very quickly limits you from scaling…
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