Grant brings Women's Business Center to western Missouri

Lisa Zimmerman: New Growth WBC plans to expand into southwest Missouri.

In a nationwide launch of 20 U.S. Small Business Administration Women’s Business Centers, a new office is opening this month to serve 13 Missouri counties, including two in the Springfield area.

The New Growth Women’s Business Center will be operated by El Dorado Springs-based West Central Missouri Community Action Agency and its affiliate community development corporation New Growth.

Lisa Zimmerman, chief economic inclusion director for West Central, said the agency applied as a host through the SBA and was awarded the grant and designation on Jan. 4. The first-year grant is $112,500 and it covers January through September, when the fiscal year ends, Zimmerman said.

New Growth is required to fully match the grant, which will increase to $150,000 annually next fiscal year.

The center will serve Polk and Dallas counties within the Springfield metropolitan statistical area, as well as Bates, Benton, Barton, Camden, Cedar, Dade, Hickory, Henry, St. Clair, Morgan and Vernon counties in Missouri. The office also reaches into Crawford and Bourbon counties in Kansas.

Zimmerman said officials hope to expand further into southwest Missouri as the center grows.

“Our five-year plan is to cover the entire southwest corner,” she said. “There’s a focus on rural, so that’s where we started with these 15 counties, but we would add in 12 more counties that would take us down to Stone and Taney – all of that corner including Springfield.”

However, Zimmerman said the staff can serve clients outside of the 15-county area.

According to an SBA news release, the expansion of WBCs will allow the organization to serve rural and underserved markets and widen its partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities.

New Growth WBC joins three WBCs in the state: Missouri Women’s Business Center in Columbia, Kansas Women’s Business Center in Kansas City and Grace Hill Women’s Business Center in St. Louis. It will be the first to serve southern Missouri within the 136 WBCs nationwide.

WBCs provide a variety of business resources for women including training, workshops, networking, technical assistance and mentoring. Zimmerman said while larger cities like Springfield have resources available, making them accessible to rural clients is New Growth’s priority.

“When we lose a business in Springfield, it’s a terrible thing – it is,” Zimmerman said. “But when we lose a business in Ava, that may mean people there have to drive an extra 30 minutes to get a tank of gas or buy groceries. We can’t afford to lose any more businesses in our rural market.”

New Growth WBC has hired Debbie Nasalroad as director and will be hiring a business coach and program administrator. The center operates out of New Growth’s El Dorado Springs office.

Although the centers are typically focused on businesswomen, Zimmerman said because the center is in an economically disadvantaged area, the services also are available to men.

New Growth WBC will host open house events March 8-12 in five counties, starting in El Dorado Springs. Zimmerman said the center will begin accepting clients the following week.