Welcome to Brazen Careerist!

About Me

I live and breath entrepreneurship and economic development. Connect with me today to learn more about how I can help empower your business and/or economic development agency with advanced market research. My specialties include market research services, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and small business consulting. I also have interests and experience in business incubation and economic gardening.

Work History

• University of Northern Iowa Regional Business Center
• MyEntre.Net Business Concierge/UNI Business Analyst
• August 2010 to Present

• FREE, TIMELY BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE OFFERED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS TO IOWA COMPANIES

  Duties included:
  • Market research services covering market and demographic profiling, industry analysis, consumer and business mailing list development, site location assistance, and competitive intelligence information. Databases and software utilized included ESRI Business Analyst, InfoUSA, SalesGenie, Dun & Bradstreet Selectory & Hoovers, DemographicsNow, EBSCOHost, ABI/INFORM Complete, Gale Business & Company Resource Center, LexisNexis, Mergent Online, Morningstar Investment Research, NetAdvantage, and free resources like the U.S. Census, Iowa Data Center, Google Scholar, etc
  • In total, served over 150 small business clients with information, referrals or advanced business information services; also supervised part-time research assistant
  • Conducted dozens of presentations across the state of Iowa over market research and general business marketing strategies and techniques

• University of Northern Iowa Regional Business Center
• Business & Community Services Special Projects Coordinator
• January 2009 to August 2010

• ASSISTED THE MYENTRE.NET TEAM WITH AN ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

  Duties included:
  • Managing and implementing a bimonthly webinar series and finding/creating salient content for small business owners; in addition supervised part-time student interns
  • Created online visibility through the implementation of online marketing strategies of the MyEntre.Net community via Facebook, Twitter and mass e-mail (see web url below)
  • Monitored questions and served as online support staff regarding the user accounts on MyEntre.Net
  • Provided direct technical assistance to entrepreneurs within the community utilizing the discussion forums, direct online messaging, e-mail, online interactive chat and phone
  • Provided support with the on-going maintenance of the web-application itself which can be found at: http://www.myentre.net

• University of Northern Iowa Regional Business Center
• Small Business Development Center Program Assistant & Business Consultant
• May 2006 to August 2011

• PROVIDED DIRECT 1:1 CONSULTING TO PRE-STARTUP AND EXISTING ENTREPRENEURS

  Duties Included:
  • Traveled to various Iowa locations to participate with community leaders in strategic planning efforts to facilitate economic development, also trained in the use and application of the MyEntre.Net systems approach to economic development
  • Counseled over 55 small business owners and/or pre-venture clients in a variety of topics ranging from marketing and sales to educating on how to use computers and web-based resources totaling over 150 hours of direct counseling experience
  • Conducted market research for many of the aforementioned clients and other service provider partners as requested
  • Assisted Small Business Development Center staff in developing strategic marketing efforts including doing research on emerging technologies and interviewing past clients to create published articles

Education

• University of Northern Iowa
• Bachelor of Arts: Public Administration: Community & Regional Development
• 2006 - 2008

• Cumulative GPA: 3.48/4.0
  UNI GPA: 3.79/4.0
  Graduated Magna Cum Laude
  Dean's List 2006, 2007, 2008