Specialties
An Entrepreneurial Service Organization, GROW provides "entrepreneurial coaching" and market access opportunities to its members. Entrepreneurial coaching includes initial consultations, counseling, product evaluation and market access assistance. GROW Nebraska's goal is to connect entrepreneurs and small businesses to the world marketplace.
GROW Nebraska helps Nebraska entrepreneurs become sustainable businesses. Through training and technical assistance, GROW increases the survival rate of start-up businesses. GROW facilitates marketing and networking opportunities that help small businesses in Nebraska increase their triple bottom line, and they actively work with members to create brand awareness. Triple bottom line is a business and development philosophy incorporating the three E's: equity, environment, economics. GROW provides these services to members at an affordable cost so that all Nebraska businesses have the opportunity to GROW.
History
Established in 1998.
The GROW Nebraska® Foundation helps entrepreneurs get the resources they need to live in Anywhere, NE and make a sustainable living. Since the inception of GROW Nebraska® in 1998 our vision and mission has never wavered: to create viable economic development through business training, technical assistance, promotion, and access to markets. We create impactful opportunities for small business owners and entrepreneurs to live in "Anywhere", Nebraska and make a sustainable living.
Meet the Business Owner: Janell A.
On a plane home from vacation, Janell Anderson Ehrke read an in-flight magazine article about the Watermark Association of Artisans in North Carolina. Organized in 1978 by 35 women, Watermark is a member-owned crafters cooperative selling products throughout the U.S. and in several other countries. After successfully emerging from a large debt in the early years, the organization now provides a living to hundreds of people in one of North Carolina's poorest counties. That story sparked an idea in Anderson, and she turned the idea into a non-profit organization serving budding small business leaders in the state of Nebraska.
Anderson's endless energy, along with Nebraska's pool of talented artists and crafters, has fed the fast growth of GROW Nebraska. The organization now claims 175 members in 88 of Nebraska's 93 counties, accounting for 249 full-time jobs in the state. Annual sales from these businesses are $8 million.
