Experienced business navigators wanted in Reno County

Sometimes running a small business means waking up before dawn on a bitterly cold January morning, preparing for a snowstorm.

Just ask Shane Iwashige. Last winter, the resident of Hutchinson in south-central Kansas knew the properties his company manages in and around the city would need to be cleared before the snow got too deep.

“I left my house around 2:45 a.m. and didn’t get home until around 9 p.m. one day,” Iwashige says. “It was an 18-hour day of plowing parking lots.”

A native of Partridge, a small community in Reno County near Hutchinson, Iwashige (pronounced Ee-WASH-ee-gay) is an entrepreneur and an owner of The Rock Group, an umbrella organization that encompasses a property management firm, general construction business, janitorial services and a real estate wing.

Iwashige sells real estate, provides leadership coaching programs and during winter months he clears snow from the properties managed by his company. Some of the properties, such as banks and apartment complexes, are relatively small, while others are large commercial manufacturing facilities. Scraping parking lots in the predawn hours during a blizzard reminds him of wheat harvests from his youth.

“I kind of like that adrenaline rush,” he says.

A long day spent alone pushing snow into piles doesn’t faze Iwashige; it’s just another aspect of being an entrepreneur and business owner. But there’s a difference between toiling in solitude and the isolation that can accompany entrepreneurism.

“I really underestimated how alone a business owner can be at many times, even if they’re very intentional with their time,” he says.

Iwashige’s brother, Joel, also knows the feeling of aloneness that’s part of the entrepreneurial experience. A software developer by trade, Joel Iwashige is trying to explore how he can help the Reno County business community through a consulting firm he’s attempting to establish while still working full-time.

“My day job is with a small company, but with other employees located largely outside of Reno County,” Joel Iwashige says. “Then, I’m a nascent entrepreneur on the other hand.”

In his attempt to build a business while working daily, Joel Iwashige feels as though he’s balancing with one leg extended over a ravine, representing the leap into entrepreneurship and away from a more stable 9-to-5 job. Joel says it’s quite common for budding entrepreneurs to maintain their day jobs for support, and not just in Reno County.

“There are a lot of entrepreneurs who dip their toes into the water before deciding how fully to commit,” he says.

Efforts currently underway in Reno County aim to make the daunting aspects of starting a business easier for entrepreneurs like the Iwashiges. In a county struggling to grow, the climate for innovation is held back by a lack of consistent, accessible information about how to start a business. And residents of the county’s 16 other towns can see economic development efforts as being too centered on Hutchinson, the largest city.

But those are not the only barriers. Mindset matters too. Some residents see new business ideas and how they operate as a threat to what they value most about the community, its culture and traditions. Or as larks destined to fail, as so many quests have before.

There’s even a sense of being stuck with the old: old buildings that require extensive repairs to renovate and old houses past their useful life spans but still lived in because there aren’t affordable alternatives.

The Iwashige brothers can see the resources for first-time business owners and more seasoned entrepreneurs that exist in the community. But they also see a gap that more connection and education could help fill.

“It’s important … to let people see that you don’t actually have it all together, without scaring off potential collaborators,” Joel Iwashige says. “But also, a space for authentic connection is a major need.”

Demands for information

An effort to help the county bridge the gap between where it is and where it wants to be has been underway in recent months. A pilot program called Heartland Together is designed to better connect Reno County entrepreneurs with local support organizations and to shore up the connections needed to promote an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

That description, evoking an image of flora and fauna, has been used in recent years to describe the inner workings of a community’s business landscape and its makeup. According to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri, entrepreneurial ecosystems include on-ramps for accessing talent and resources within a community, as well as intersections for people to share ideas and knowledge, plus a community culture built on collaboration and trust.

Heartland Together, hosted by the Kansas Leadership Center, is a three-month pilot program funded with help from a $450,000 grant from the Kauffman Foundation. The program includes leadership training and also has been initiated in Liberal, Kansas , and Marshalltown, Iowa. (The Journal is published by the KLC, but this story was reported independently.)

More than 20 people from across Reno County met in September and again in November to discuss their ecosystem, point out what’s working and what isn’t, and formulate action steps. Participants ranged from entrepreneurs like the Iwashige brothers to nonprofit leaders, banking executives and civic employees.

One of the biggest needs identified by the group was more accessible, consistent information on how to start a business in Reno County. Candace Davidson, health education supervisor for the Reno County Health Department, wanted people to have more chances to learn about entrepreneurialism and what support agencies were present in the area. Her Heartland Together group focused on creating a new channel for information.

“We’re trying to figure out how to best get the resources we have available into the hands of people who don’t normally know about them or don’t know where to look for them,” she says.

Options such as a printed booklet were floated, but Davidson thought a digital option would be better. Her group ultimately landed on designing a QR code, a graphic that resembles a Tetris version of a barcode. When scanned by a cell phone or tablet, the QR code leads to the website for StartUp Hutch , an entrepreneurial support organization.

“We hope to really see an increase of entrepreneurs within our ecosystem,” Davidson says. “That’s hopefully the end result, driving more clicks and more insight to StartUp Hutch.”

Johannah Moore likes the QR code. She is the branch president of Peoples Bank and Trust in Hutchinson, and she’s part of Davidson’s group. She also sits on the board for StartUp Hutch, the main entrepreneurial support organization in the county. She doesn’t come across many residents who dislike the idea of economic growth in Reno County.

“I feel like Reno County is shifting in a sense that people just seem more willing to try to collaborate,” Moore says.

‘That’s the way it’s always been’

Moore and Davidson agree that one of the main challenges Reno County entrepreneurs and support organizations face is the state of discouragement regarding new business efforts. It’s present among Reno County’s smaller communities as well as in Hutchinson, a city that has remained stuck at a population mark of 40,000 for three decades.

Such trends have helped fuel a sense of pessimism. Moore regularly encounters negative talk about Reno County’s economic status and business opportunities in her office and on the street. Usually that talk includes some variation of the phrase, “That’s the way it’s always been.”

“I do think there’s a group of people who, you’re not going to change their opinion,” Moore says. “So you have to focus on those who you can talk to. I’d say overall there’s an upward trend of positivity.”

Jackson Swearer, the director of StartUp Hutch, is an area native, and has always thought of Reno County as a good place to grow up and grow a business.

“When we talk about negative mindsets, my mind goes to the question of, ‘Is it really harder here?’” he says. “I’d say it’s actually easier here in Reno County with the resources we have available.”

Swearer says the misperception stems in part from concerns about local code enforcement, especially when it comes to renovating older buildings. The cost of starting a business can skyrocket if an entrepreneur wants to renovate an existing building to bring it to current code standards – even higher if they wish to construct new.

It’s a dynamic that’s true for housing too. Reno County lacks livable homes for sale or rent in the lower-to-middle-income market segment. Many neighborhoods, especially Hutchinson’s, are filled with homes built between the 1920s and the 1950s. Some of these structures are becoming blighted, but they remain occupied. A large number of renters living below the poverty line can’t afford to buy better houses.

“One of our challenges in Reno County is we do have a high poverty rate,” Swearer says. “We have a higher rate of kids on free and reduced lunch. It’s above the state average.”

Improving economic conditions and growing the community will require investments in housing, particularly if the community wants to attract more industry, Swearer says. Reno County has been home to heavy agricultural and manufacturing operations for decades. However, the loss of large corporate partners such as Target and the decline of the Uptown Hutch Mall over the past dozen years have led to a constant stream of Reno Countians headed south on Kansas Highway 96 to Wichita for shopping.

More industry would bring more jobs and the means to support new and existing small businesses. Swearer says those are among the big-picture items he and other community leaders will be tackling in coming years.

“I do think investing in small-business growth and development is not only the thing we need to do, but it’s one thing we must do,” he says.

Swearer frequently hears a range of concerns people have about starting businesses in Reno County. He’s hoping to change some of the sourer attitudes by promoting a philosophy of active leadership.

“That’s one of the reasons why the KLC framework is really valuable,” Swearer says, “this attitude that anyone can lead, and we can self-authorize to act on the challenges we care about. I think that’s a powerful mindset for social change and progress generally, especially in entrepreneurial ecosystem work.”

Growing and developing small businesses is what Swearer specializes in. The goal of StartUp Hutch is to “help new ventures take flight.” Swearer serves as an entrepreneur navigator, listening to individuals’ needs and connecting them with tools to help them overcome challenges. Online tools on his agency’s website range from videos about securing startup funding and communicating with municipal officials, to marketing and branding a new business.

“I want to help more people reach their goals or explore whether it (small-business ownership) would be something that works for them,” Swearer says.

He knows that many people have a tough time accessing his agency’s information simply because they don’t know about StartUp Hutch, so he’s excited about the QR code implementation.

“I’m really curious to see how it works,” he says. “I think a bunch of low-risk experiments like this are exactly what we need to move the needle. I think we’ll learn something important regardless of the outcome.”

Different pieces, different times

Once the QR code is distributed, Swearer will be able to monitor new traffic to the StartUp Hutch website. Moore, the bank president, says it’s a more measurable method of effecting change.

“If it’s something that works well, and people are passing them out and utilizing them, and the website is getting more volume, then we’ll look at the cost of making sure it gets replicated and dispersed more,” Moore says.

The code will be printed on stickers and flyers and placed at various well-traveled spots around Reno County, such as village eateries and city bus stops. Davidson hopes people with business websites will incorporate the QR code onto their web pages.

One hurdle that Davidson sees is getting people to understand the code isn’t spam and it won’t infect any digital device.

The QR code isn’t the only experiment being tried by Heartland Together participants. The Iwashige brothers are developing a “mastermind group” made up of Reno County entrepreneurs and business experts. The goal is for novice entrepreneurs such as Joel Iwashige to connect with more experienced business owners, and learn from them.

While most of the discussion regarding entrepreneurial progress focuses on Hutch, the county seat, Reno County’s smaller communities also have important places in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Candace Davidson lives in Buhler, a community of about 1,400 people just north and east of Hutchinson, and she serves on the City Council. She says there are a lot of budding entrepreneurs in towns like hers who have good ideas worth investing in.

“It’s super important that we reach them,” she says, “and hopefully this (QR code) will be a catalyst for them to really jump on whatever their dream is, or at least show them what’s possible.”

Joel Iwashige knows what’s possible when community members come together for the betterment of their hometown. His parents volunteered time with the Partridge Community Association , a group of people who “simply wanted to invest in the community.”

“I’ve seen both the pressures that work against rural spaces, but I’ve also seen people stepping up in really cool ways and making a difference in various places,” he says.

Shane Iwashige hopes the mastermind groups will push back on the sense of isolation that entrepreneurs can experience.

“All connection is better than none, but a deep sense of connection, where vulnerability is welcomed and held, is still significantly lacking in entrepreneurial spaces,” Shane says. “Frankly, I think we might do a little better job in Reno County than in other places, and yet there’s so much more to be done.”

“More to be done” includes more experiments to try to benefit the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Shane Iwashige thinks Reno County entrepreneurs and their support organizations should attempt every experiment available to them “and probably 25 more” to help raise the collective bar for Reno County.

“All I have to offer is my interpretation of where the bar is, and it’s higher than where it used to be,” he says. “I think one of the seductions of navigating adaptive challenges like an ecosystem is: We try to boil it down to one thing that’ll fix everything. When in truth, different pieces need to move at different times.

“That’s why I love the experimental model coming from Heartland Together. We’re trying to put together different things to help different people at different times in different places.”

A version of this article appears in the Spring 2024 issue of The Journal , a publication of the Kansas Leadership Center. To learn more about KLC, visit http://kansasleadershipcenter.org . Order your copy of the magazine at the KLC Store or subscribe to the print edition.

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