Iowa City Today

What inspires someone to start a business in Coralville? That's one of the questions staff members at ASTIG Planning wanted to know the answer to when putting together the Inclusive Economic Development Plan. 

CEO V Fixmer-Oraiz and their colleague Asmita Poudel, an environmental planner, presented findings of the plan to Coralville City Council during a December 13 meeting.

"People had a lot of positive things to say, that they wanted to have an impact in the community, they wanted to diversify the food scene, and they wanted to increase representation of their cultural group. Some people also wanted to have a generational wealth for their kids," Poudel told council members.  "However, when we ask them, you know, they require financial resources to start those businesses and act upon those inspirations, people said that they found banks where they could access financial resources to be very intimidating and they would rather sell their assets."

To develop the plan, ASTIG staffers did a lot of outreach starting in November 2021 to get responses from residents, business owners, and city council members about the inclusivity and diversity in the city and its businesses. 

Fixmer-Oraiz explained that while there is a lot of nonprofit funding and support in Johnson County, there are still multiple barriers in the way of new small business owners. One of the biggest challenges is communicating in the native, and sometimes main, language. Besides Spanish, Mandarin and French are hugely spoken in the county. The nonprofits also give numerous grants, however, they are typically in very small amounts that don’t make much of a dent in opening a new business. 

The two made some suggestions that would help make a change in the community, including mentoring new entrepreneurs so they can get business advice from experts, better community grants, and low-interest loans with no payback in the first year of business.