.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Mike Kontos and his wife plan to start a medical supply company in Waterloo. Landing a state contract would be a great jump-start for their new business, he said.

Kontos was among about 70 participants at a half-day “How to do business with the state of Iowa” seminar held in November in Des Moines. Hosted by the Iowa Department of Economic Development, the event was part of a renewed effort to have more minority- and women-owned businesses sell their goods and services to state agencies through the Targeted Small Business Program.

“(The seminars) are very informative,” said Kontos, who currently manages a medical office for his wife, Annie, a family medicine physician. “I’m surprised there aren’t more people here (than 70), because they really tell you how to make bids. I think for any business in the state of Iowa, this would be a prime opportunity to get your foot in the door.”

Created by the Legislature in 1992, the TSB program is also designed to provide minority-owned small businesses with low-interest loans and loan guarantees to help them expand. The program had limped along for the past several years after the state stopped funding it in fiscal 2004. In May, however, legislators revived the program with $1.35 million in administrative funding and $2.5 million for a financial assistance program.

Part of that funding has been used to hire a marketing specialist to publicize the program, as well as technical assistance providers who will work with qualified small business owners for up to one year, said Donna Lowery, the TSB program manager. “So we’re able to network more and get more people interested in the program,” she said.

The first financial assistance workshop for targeted small businesses under the renewed program will be held Dec. 11 at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City. The loan program made just 16 loans last fiscal year, using recaptured funds from projects that didn’t move forward as well as money transferred from other programs.

On the procurement side, the legislation doubled, from $5,000 to $10,000 per contract, the amount of goods or services that state agencies can purchase directly from targeted small businesses without going through a competitive bidding process. It also expanded the size of minority-owned businesses that can participate to those with revenues of up to $4 million, an increase from the previous limit of $3 million.

Further, the act eliminated a statewide goal to purchase 10 percent of goods or services from certified minority- or women-owned businesses. Instead, each state agency must establish annual goals based on dollar amounts of purchases, which must exceed the previous year’s purchases. In fiscal 2006, the state’s agencies bought $31.7 million in goods and services, or 2.6 percent of the state’s total purchases, from targeted small businesses.

Most of the participants at last month’s seminar were already among the 579 businesses currently registered as targeted small businesses, though such registration is not required to attend one of the workshops.

“A lot of them have done business with the state already and are coming to get new information,” Lowery said.

That was the case for Kathleen Darrach, co-owner of Monroe Mirror Inc. in Monroe, who came to the seminar “basically to make other contacts and to know how to find the right people,” she said.

Her printing company, which she operates with her husband, Allen, has provided products such as forms, brochures and stationery to several state agencies, among them the departments of agriculture, revenue and natural resources.

“The more I can keep up on (agencies’) needs, the more I can help them,” she said.

For Kontos, who attended his first procurement workshop a year ago, the ability to get information directly from state procurement agents is invaluable, he said. He and his wife registered her medical practice as a targeted small business in 2000, and found out about the workshops through an e-newsletter they receive from the program.

“We need to make sure we do the bid process properly, that we bid to the right people,” he said. “Our concern is that as a small business, the wrong bid could put us out of business.”

For more information about becoming certified through the Targeted Small Business Program, visit http://dia.iowa.gov/page4.html, or contact the program administrator at 281-5796.