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SmartStart

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Your community's front door
to small business support

An online platform to help guide and educate your local small businesses

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Your community's
front door to small
business support

An online platform to help guide and educate your local small businesses

Built for Local Small Business Development

A SmartStart admin dashboard showing number of service requests sent, a chart of which business topics get the most requests, and a list of all users with each person’s progress, recent activity, and assigned mentor.

Community Economic Development Benefits

With the Navigator, you will:

A SmartStart admin dashboard showing number of service requests sent, a chart of which business topics get the most requests, and a list of all users with each person’s progress, recent activity, and assigned mentor.

A Central Resource

Create a front door for your local small business owners to find the right help at the right time.

A SmartStart dashboard screen where a business owner browses local business mentors, examples include SCORE Peoria, the Small Business Development Center, and the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, each with a button to send a help request.

Customize Your
Local Providers

One place for your local providers and experts so local business owners can connect and get help.

A SmartStart dashboard table tracking business owners’ progress, showing their assigned mentors, completed sections like Customer Development and Financials, approval status, and the date each received a grant.

Grow Your Small Business Community

Identify, engage, and prepare a small business pipeline to grow from home to main street.

A SmartStart dashboard screen showing a business owner halfway through the Nuts and Bolts section, with a checklist of steps plus a button to find help.

Understand Your Data

Monitor the progress and celebrate the successes as your local small business owners grow and thrive.

Business Owner Benefits

Navigator in Your Community

Individual
Accounts

Personalized support and business idea protection for business owners in your community.

24/7
Access

Resources are available whenever business owners need them, regardless of time or day!

Guided
Steps

Checklists and guided journeys based on their own unique goals and business plans.

Education &
Experts

Connections with local experts and educational resources for new & existing businesses.

SmartStart in Action

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A Simple Path,
Real Results

SmartStart creates a simple front door for your local small business owners to find the help they need to get started and thrive.

Our online platform guides them through the startup process, connects them to local partners when they need help, and gives communities visibility into their small business pipeline.

Community Workflow

“I owe all my business connections and growth to the knowledge and contacts I have made through SmartStart. All of the vendors in my shop have come from SmartStart! I don’t know why a small business owner would not get plugged in to the community that can help them grow.”

Tommy Chadwick

Owner of Ichabod's Apothecary

"I was able to discover an entirely new market for my business that I wasn't aware of because of the connections I made through SmartStart.”

Jennifer Manske

Owner of Lavender and Honey Creek Farms

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