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MANHATTAN, KS – In a collaborative effort aimed at nurturing local entrepreneurship, $350,000 in new capital is now at the fingertips of area entrepreneurs for the upcoming year. This financial boost comes through the launch of two entrepreneurial funding programs—the Elevate Micro-Loan Program and the NetWork Kansas Empower Fund. A consortium of key entrepreneurial ecosystem partners, including the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce, Spark, Black Entrepreneurs of the Flint Hills, K-State Innovation Partners, the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation, and NetWork Kansas, have joined forces to make this initiative a reality.
To complement these new initiatives, the Manhattan region also benefits from existing NetWork Kansas E-Community and GrowKS loan programs, ensuring a comprehensive suite of resources for local businesses. Interested entrepreneurs can find detailed information and check eligibility on the Spark website at funding.sparkmhk.com, where an online Inquiry Form is available to start the process.
During #NationalVeteransMonth, we feature stories and interviews with Veteran entrepreneurs from across the Greater Manhattan and Flint Hills region. The following interview features Shawnette and Darryl Williams, Army Veterans and owners of Positively Soap and Candle Co., located in Manhattan. Customers can locate their safe, premium and ethnical products on their website, and at a number of retail locations throughout the Flint Hills. Read their Veteran entrepreneur story here.
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Flint Hills Business Launch proudly presents the Fall 2023 class of current and future entrepreneurs who have successfully completed Spark’s core business fundamental class, a 9-week program. The graduation ceremony and pitch competition, featuring 15 participating entrepreneurs and 12 businesses, took place Thursday, November 9, 2023, at the Union Pacific Depot in downtown Manhattan.
This season’s cohort was comprised of entrepreneurs from across Pottawatomie, Riley, and Geary counties in Kansas, who engaged in the twice-annual, virtual class designed for entrepreneurs who are pre-launch through the first three years of operations. The class was facilitated by serial entrepreneur, owner of MHK Caravan Co and K-State Entrepreneurship Instructor, Tara Geiber.
During #NationalVeteransMonth, we feature stories and interviews with Veteran entrepreneurs from across the Greater Manhattan and Flint Hills region. The following interview features Shawn Robison, Army Veteran and owner of Honor Screenprinting and Embroidery, located in Junction City. Shawn’s commitment to business excellence extends to investing in his community through education and mentorship, not only in Junction City but throughout the Flint Hills. As Vice Chair of the newly-formed Flint Hills Vetrepreneur Foundation, Shawn hopes to increase his impact in supporting Veteran-owned businesses through the foundation’s values: advocacy, community and training.
Want to read more stories of veteran entrepreneurs? Click here.
On May 1, 2023, a new CBD shop, Top Shelf CBD, opened its doors in the Candlewood Shopping Center in Manhattan, KS. This veteran-owned shop offers a variety of CBD products including tinctures, gummies, topicals, and pet treats. The veteran owners are passionate about the benefits of CBD, having used it themselves as a natural alternative to prescription medication for pain management. After years of research on healthy CBD treatments, the owners recognized the opportunity presented by the intersection of the growing varieties of CBD options with a more supportive political and economic environment for CBD. In this interview with Jeremy Meek, one of the three owners of Top Shelf CBD, get to know their business backstory and what inspired them to open Top Shelf now.
On Thursday, April 27th, Spark presented the Spring 2023 class of Flint Hills Business Launch. After an intense 8-week, virtual course, 14 entrepreneurs representing 11 businesses received certificates of graduation, and nine participated in a pitch competition with a $1000 award.
Joshua O’Crowley remembers the time he realized that blacksmithing was more than a craft. After returning home from his second deployment, Joshua took up knife making, an informal practice he started in his garage as a way to decompress and create. But eventually, Joshua noticed that the craft was also helping him heal from PTSD symptoms following his last tour of duty. “It took about a year or so before we realized that this was what was helping – going in the shop and creating something,” Joshua says. “And I felt better doing it.”
As he honed his craft, he began to share it with others, particularly veterans and first responders who were dealing with similar challenges. One particular encounter with a Vietnam veteran who came to make a knife with Joshua left a lasting impression. Over the course of a month, the two shared stories and built a bond that had a profound impact on both of them. The experience inspired Joshua and Robyn to pay it forward and create a space where others could find the same sense of healing and connection.
Flint Hills Business Launch, an 8-week immersive course designed for entrepreneurs in their first three years of operations, kicked off this March with 15 participating businesses from Pottawatomie, Riley and Geary counties in Kansas. The course curriculum is built on the nationally-recognized, Kauffman FastTrac, with additional support for participating business owners in the form of small group discussions, expert Q&A, mentor matching and additional visibility and preparation for capital for their business during and after the course.
In this series, get to know the participating entrepreneurs committing to start and grow their businesses on strong foundations in the Spring 2023 Flint Hills Business Launch course.
To meet the critical need for business education and enhance the long-term success of emerging businesses in the Greater Manhattan region, Spark, a Manhattan, Kansas-based entrepreneur support organization, will host its fifth entrepreneur education cohort starting March 2023. The course, titled Flint Hills Business Launch, is an 8-week, immersive experience designed to provide foundational business education to entrepreneurs who are pre-launch through the first three years of operations.
The online course is hosted for two hours, one week night a week for eight weeks, and includes Q&A with regional service providers, small group breakout discussion and teaching on business fundamentals, as well as in person events, mentorship and peer support. Class size is kept small to optimize engagement and facilitator to student ratios.
Galaxy Girl Coffee began as an online, micro-batch, coffee roasting service but recently expanded into a retail location at Manhattan Town Center. “I am so glad that circumstances caused me to open up my shop instead of being purely mobile,” says owner, Christine Ball. Since opening her store in Manhattan Town Center, she has been able to expand not only her business but her perspective. “Business is about relationships, and I have met some amazing people since getting to my location in Manhattan Town Center,” says Christine.
Matt Goss, owner of Syndicate Tattoo, has been a tattooist for the last 17 years of his life. But it was a career path he did not see coming. Early in his career, he served in the Army and worked as a receptionist at a tattoo shop on the weekends. After 10 years at the shop, Matt finished his second Associates degree in auto mechanics and began searching for what was next. Upon sharing his plans to leave the tattoo shop, the owners offered him an opportunity. “The shop asked me if I ever thought about tattooing, and of course I had.” Matt committed to learning the craft and worked with the shop as a tattooist for the next five years. “Eventually, I branched out, and we opened Syndicate downtown 12 years ago.”
Growing up Christine Lee was captivated by makeup and beauty, and she could often be found dressing up and adding glam to everyday life. “Even at a very young age, I would get dressed up to simply take the trash out,” says Christine. Christine recalls childhood memories of playing with make-up she found on her grandmother’s bathroom vanity. She also remembers how she kept her family waiting as she completed her transformation process. “I was in the bathroom forever, and I came out all dressed up, and my mother was so mad at me,” Christine says, laughing. Her family learned to appreciate Christine and her committed passion for beauty and makeup, eventually giving her hours advance notice when they planned to leave. Her family were probably the least surprised when Christine finally realized a dream to share this passion with others by opening Lash Camera Action Studio, a luxury lash studio, in Junction City less than a year ago.
Nearly 25 years ago, Gail Wege joined the military to see the world. Growing up on a farm in Onaga, Kansas, Gail recalls, “I wanted to get out, I wanted to explore, I wanted to see something new.” After she graduated from K-State, she was excited to see where her first duty station would be, only to discover she would not be going far. “My first duty station was in Fort Riley, Kansas.” Her 20-year military career did take her around the world, but as her military service came to a close, Gail decided to return home to Onaga. Yet she never imagined her next career steps would lead to entrepreneurship.
Navy veteran and dance instructor, Tim Gregory, first discovered dance instruction at an Arthur Murray studio in San Diego over 18 years ago. It was then that he realized his dream was to own his own dance studio. After taking a break from teaching and earning a degree in Computer Networking, he still occasionally had students while working for General Dynamics, but he always missed the full experience of dancing full-time.
While in Arizona, before he moved to Manhattan, he helped start a brand of “Ballroom Dance School” in Tucson, Arizona. When his partner, who was active Army at the time, got stationed at Fort Riley in 2016, he decided to follow her. When he did not find any existing ballroom dance studios in the area, he was compelled to start a Manhattan, Kansas, location and do it his way.
When Derek Taussig, veteran entrepreneur and owner of Taussig Landscape, was only eight years old, he noticed something a neighbor boy had that he wanted: a nice bike. “I asked my dad for it, and he said, ‘You can have it, but you have to work for it,’” says Derek. Determined to get his new bike, he started mowing his grandfather’s yard to earn enough money for the purchase. After countless yards mowed, eight-year-old Derek bought a new chrome Schwinn bicycle from Pathfinder in downtown Manhattan.
A native of Manhattan, Derek grew up with a father who was a landscape architect and K-State faculty for 40 years. It might seem natural that Derek would also have landed in a similar career. Looking back however, Derek credits his decision to build a landscaping business as less about choosing a familiar career and more of an outworking of the entrepreneurial drive and work ethic he learned from his father. “I did not inherit a landscape-world drive from my dad, but I did get the entrepreneur spirit, motivation to be your own boss and work ethic from my dad,” says Derek.
Army veteran and owner of Intelligent IT, Pete Frasco, has always enjoyed tackling technical challenges, a discovery he made early in his military career. Pete tells the story of when he was stationed in Bosnia in 1996 as a young Soldier, and he was able to rig a solution to a problem no one had yet been able solve. As Pete got started with IIT, he became increasingly aware of how he could meet a critical need for IT services in the community. As a Service Disabled Veteran and retired from his first career, Pete feels fortunate that he can run his current business driven by a passion for the work and meeting needs for others. “I don’t do this work because I have to,” Pete explains. “I do this to provide that service for others.”
Martine Chery-Hilaire, owner of Chez Matou Green Machine food truck, is no stranger to resourcefulness. Born and raised in Haiti, she moved to the United States in 2003 and began working a variety of retail jobs. She decided to join the military when her first daughter was born. As her four-year military contract ended, she was stationed on Fort Riley and decided to stay in the Junction City area. Throughout the various jobs she worked and the cities she called home, her Haitian culture was always an anchor for Martine, and it was no surprise when it eventually led to an entrepreneurial opportunity. Long before she opened a restaurant though, she always served Haitian food from her home, eventually hosting pop-ups and expanding to cook more types of food. As the demand for the unique taste of Haitian cuisine grew, Martine saw the opportunity to officially start a business.
Route Step Farm Coffee Barn provides sustainably sourced food and locally roasted coffee to the rural community of Onaga, Kansas. Open for under a year, Gail Wege’s veteran-owned and woman-owned business is creating a new hangout for her town and the surrounding area, with plans and opportunities for growth and additional product distribution.
