Blog

12.30.24

Top 4 in 2024

The New Year is a time to look ahead and also an appropriate time to reflect on the year gone by. At the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center — the NIIC — we’re celebrating “Four for 2024,” a quartet of notable achievements from the past 12 months.

The Fort Wayne-based NIIC serves a 16-county area of northeast Indiana. It is a resource for small businesses through every stage of their operation, preparing small business owners and emerging entrepreneurs alike.. Let’s start there as we look back at 2024.

1. NIIC team members served on committees aimed at educating, encouraging, and assisting student entrepreneurs. They also facilitated and presented workshops on business topics, judged student project “pitch” competitions, and provided individual coaching. Approximately 1,000 students — from elementary through college — benefitted from NIIC contacts in 2024. They took part in business-related activities that included enterprise classes, “pitch” events modeled on the popular “Shark Tank” television show, one-on-one and group student coaching opportunities, and job fairs. NIIC representatives had coaching or organizing roles in activities and events coordinated by the Fort Wayne Amp Lab; high schools in Wabash, Steuben, and Kosciusko counties; and at Trine University in Angola.
2. NIIC heavily supports the local Hispanic business scene. In 2024 the NIIC Women’s Business Center (WBC) hosted and offered assistance through partnerships with organizations like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Amani Family Services, Brightpoint, City Wide Solutions, and Mujer Poder Latino. Programs touched on business planning, promotion, and access to capital. Among the key successes were Escobar Cleaning Services, a commercial cleaning business that achieved significant growth, and the Sabor y Sazon Colombian Food Truck operation, which has reported steady growth since its launch. NIIC’s WBC coached several students at Amp Lab, took part in the Latinos Count event, and coach Rosalina Perez participated in the PFW Innovation and Design Course, winning first prize in the pitch competition.
3. Small businesses can tackle large concerns, and community health certainly qualifies in that regard. Care United Home Care Agency has been a NIIC resident client for more than two years. It provides medical and non-medical care to individuals in their homes, allowing them to recover or manage chronic conditions in a comfortable, familiar environment. Services include skilled nursing and home health aide services and assistance with daily activities such as light housekeeping, transportation, laundry, bathing, dressing, and meal preparation. The skilled nursing staff do medication set-up, wound care, and diabetes education. It serves patients 18 years of age or older, including those recovering from surgery or illness, as well as individuals with disabilities, ensuring personalized care while promoting independence and improving quality of life.
4. And 2024 saw its share of growth stories at the NIIC, not the least of which was expanding its efforts in northeast Indiana’s rural communities. Angie Harrison joined NIIC in late 2023 as an entrepreneurship coach. Her primary assignment was to forge strong relationships with economic development partner organizations in Wabash, Kosciusko, and Steuben counties and collaborate on programs and services for small businesses in those counties. Her success in that role, has led her to expand the efforts in 2024 to Adams, Noble, and Lagrange counties. Her work is not confined to just those counties, though. She is active across all of NIIC’s service area. ”We’re here to provide the best support we can, working anywhere we’re needed,” Angie says. “Whether it’s coaching or workshops, we’re available to strengthen partnerships and relationships with local businesses. I thoroughly enjoy the events and networking that gets this done.”