For the first live episode of the Rooted and Reaching Podcast hosts Nick Kuhn and Bethany Hartley talk with Ramal Taylor, CEO of Millennia Strategies, and Joel Neidig, the Director of Research and Development at ITAMCO. Joel and Ramal share the beginnings of their entrepreneurial journeys and how they found success in business through their family and community support.

South Bend business owners and entrepreneurs, if you have been in business for five years or less reach out to us to be featured on the Rooted and Reaching Podcast!

QUOTES

• “I took inventory of what was going on and made sure I kept good books and I kept the data that I needed to make decisions. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, they may not do that very well, is keeping the data and making decisions based off of the data“ -Ramal Taylor [14:15]

• “Any agency that spends over a billion dollars has to be part of a percentage of their spend, has to go to small business. There's a roadshow that comes to every state. You can go meet all the people that are buying, that are saying, hey, I need this item. Can you develop it or does your product offer that? And that's great but to Nick's point, you have to go out and research where all these things are happening.” -Joel Neidig [37:45]

02:25 Ramal Taylor on Her Upbringing and Impactful Family Lineage

06:00 Business Growth and Leveraging

10:47 Partnerships to Develop Innovative Technologies in Manufacturing and Childcare

25:48 Entrepreneurship and Balancing Work and Family Life

32:29 Grant Writing, Bank Funding, and CDFI Model for Entrepreneurship

37:21 Exploring the World of Small Business Incubation

RESOURCES

ITAMCO: https://itamco.com/

Millenia Strategies: https://www.facebook.com/CFORamal/

CONTACT

Nick Kuhn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kuhnnick/

Bethany Hartley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethanyhartley/

Ramal Taylor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brightbeginningschildcare/

Joel Neidig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelneidig/