Principal Financial Group is inviting finance professionals, software developers, business owners and entrepreneurs to join its Principal Innovation Challenge Hackathon. The goal of the hackathon is to create virtual communities where small to medium-sized businesses can connect with each other as well as Principal to discuss their challenges and find…
Waukee-based payment processor VizyPay’s Cash Discount Program won Best Small Business Payments Solution at the 2022 FinTech Breakthrough Awards, the company announced. CDP is a month-to-month subscription service that allows small businesses to build the cost of processing transactions into their pricing. With the technology, businesses can eliminate all processing fees and maintain…
On March 13, 2020, Dima Ghawi received a flood of phone calls canceling her scheduled speaking engagements due to the onset of the pandemic. That day when everything changed was one of the most important days in her life and the life of her business, she said. “That is the…
The most recent Principal Financial Wellbeing Index found that more than 1 in 4 businesses surveyed experienced a cybersecurity attack in 2021 and among those attacks, more than half were successful. In about one-third of the attacks, ransomware was involved and hackers were able to access confidential data. The businesses’…
The U.S. Small Business Administration is launching the Cybersecurity for Small Business Pilot Program and allocating $3 million in new funding to help emerging small business owners develop their cybersecurity infrastructure, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman announced Friday. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses have adopted technology at high rates…
The Identity Theft Resource Center released Wednesday a report showing the difficulties small businesses and entrepreneurs face after experiencing a cyber incident. The results of a survey of 417 business leaders and IT professionals in companies of 500 people or fewer revealed that about 60% of the small businesses surveyed have experienced…
America’s SBDC Iowa announced that Michael Wampler, regional director of the Northwest Iowa SBDC Spencer, is certified in the Certified Exit Planning Advisor program. The CEPA program is an executive MBA-style program that trains and certifies qualified professional advisers in the field of exit planning. The program focuses on enterprise…
The U.S. Small Business Administration will hold a live webinar today, Jan. 7, at noon to announce details about Ascent, a new online learning platform for women-owned small businesses. The new learning platform, which was first announced by the SBA in May 2019, was built to provide a modern e-learning…
One month after releasing its findings on the digital safety net for small businesses, the Connected Commerce Council (3C) hosted Iowa businesses, community supporters and State Auditor Rob Sand in a webinar exploring how small businesses and individuals used technology tools to stay operating during the initial COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. …
A program to help small businesses keep their utilities on is being expanded to help more businesses avoid having their gas or electric service disconnected. The Iowa Economic Development Authority announced Friday that eligibility requirements for the Iowa Small Business Utility Disruption Prevention Program has been expanded to include utility…