Entrepreneurship can be lonely. Your network may not encompass people who understand the sacrifice and drive it takes to branch out on your own to build a business.
Joining a community like efactory surrounds you with like-minded individuals. In addition to the sharing of ideas, you get access to resource partners who can help put you on the right path. Many of them are housed right inside our building.
We make it easy for you to focus on your business: You pay for your space, and we take care of the details. Your overhead is low, and we provide you with:
- Reservable conference & phone rooms.
- Gigabit internet.
- Bottomless coffee.
- Printing & copying.
- Mail & package delivery.
- Free entry to efactory programs and member-only events.
That’s not to mention consolidating tons of other bills—like custodial, electrical, water, etc.—you would have to pay for if you rented an office in a strip mall.
It’s all waiting for you in a revitalized and thriving downtown epicenter: IDEA Commons.
Virtual Early-Stage Business Boot Camp
If starting a business is on your 2025 to-do (or you recently started the process of launching), our Early-Stage Business Boot Camp is a fantastic option for you. Registration for the next virtual cohort, scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 – 6 p.m., Jan. 14 – Feb. 6, 2025, is open now.
This course, available at no cost to you thanks to grant funding from U.S. Bank Foundation, teaches the foundations every entrepreneur needs to know. Each session will be led by an entrepreneur with special guest speakers who can provide deep expertise in specialty areas, like banking, HR, law and more.
Visit efactory.missouristate.edu/bootcamp to register.
What does success look like?
Once you set up a business officially and begin operations, marketing is a key part of alerting your target market that you exist to fill their needs. For some, this crucial step gets put on the back burner because they’re hyper-focused on the needs of running the business day-to-day. This is one of the many important hats you must wear as a business owner, though.
To create a strong marketing plan (or develop any other strategy or plan for that matter), you can meet with business consultants at efactory. The consultants can offer advice and access to resources. These business support services are once again at no cost to you.
Lance Coffman, business consultant, reminds clients to keep their target audience in mind when forming a marketing message. What interests them? What problems do they face and how does your product/service fulfill their needs?
“Social media allows us to micro-target people, and you need to make sure that the message is very clear to the person that you’re trying to reach.”
Coffman advises against casting too wide a net and focusing on what truly resonates with your audience.
Prioritize finding common ground; your content should strike a balance between consumer preferences and your expertise. This way, you have much better chances at adding value that attracts new and existing customers.
“I often get the question of ‘how do I go viral?’ And no, I can’t tell you that. Nobody can tell you that.” Coffman says.
But when you’re intentional with your marketing, you’re much closer to living out that dream.
By efactory staff, contributing writer
