Episode 12

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Published on:

29th Jun 2023

Creating Impactful Businesses: Insights From South Bend Entrepreneurs Ramal Taylor & Joel Neidig

For the first live episode of the Rooted and Reaching Podcast hosts Nick Kuhn and Bethany Hartley talk with Ramal Taylor, CEO of Millennia Strategies, and Joel Neidig, the Director of Research and Development at ITAMCO. Joel and Ramal share the beginnings of their entrepreneurial journeys and how they found success in business through their family and community support. 

South Bend business owners and entrepreneurs, if you have been in business for five years or less reach out to us to be featured on the Rooted and Reaching Podcast!

QUOTES

  • “I took inventory of what was going on and made sure I kept good books and I kept the data that I needed to make decisions. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, they may not do that very well, is keeping the data and making decisions based off of the data“ -Ramal Taylor [14:15]


  • “Any agency that spends over a billion dollars has to be part of a percentage of their spend, has to go to small business. There's a roadshow that comes to every state. You can go meet all the people that are buying, that are saying, hey, I need this item. Can you develop it or does your product offer that? And that's great but to Nick's point, you have to go out and research where all these things are happening.” -Joel Neidig [37:45]



TIMESTAMPS


02:25 Ramal Taylor on Her Upbringing and Impactful Family Lineage

06:00 Business Growth and Leveraging

10:47 Partnerships to Develop Innovative Technologies in Manufacturing and Childcare

25:48 Entrepreneurship and Balancing Work and Family Life

32:29 Grant Writing, Bank Funding, and CDFI Model for Entrepreneurship

37:21 Exploring the World of Small Business Incubation






RESOURCES

ITAMCO: https://itamco.com/ 

Millenia Strategies: https://www.facebook.com/CFORamal/ 



CONTACT

Nick Kuhn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kuhnnick/ 

Bethany Hartley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethanyhartley/ 

Ramal Taylor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brightbeginningschildcare/ 

Joel Neidig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelneidig/

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About the Podcast

Rooted and Reaching
Stories about local Startups and Founders in South Bend and Elkhart
There’s a job to do, and in the South Bend - Elkhart region, a midwestern work ethic is changing the narrative from rusty to ready. Our cities are opening up and working together as a region—universities are engaging beyond their campuses, sharing their brainpower and realizing that they’re bigger and better with the community behind them. Organizations are reaching out to newcomers and helping them build local networks, leveling the playing field. Infrastructure is being creatively adapted to be gathering places where new deals are made, new collisions happen, and new entrepreneurs take root. Join the Rooted & Reaching podcast, where we discuss the startup life with entrepreneurs with connections to the South Bend - Elkhart region.

In doing this, we will inform the general public and ourselves about what resources are available and the major pain points of entrepreneurs in our region. This podcast is also intended to tell the amazing stories of our local entrepreneurs in the hope that it will inspire another person in the region considering an entrepreneurial pursuit to take that leap of faith and see the supportive atmosphere in the area.