The Gayle and Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship and Indiana University Kelley School of Business are partnering to support the long-term economic recovery of Hoosier small businesses and entrepreneurs.  Companies may apply for no-cost assistance to help establish or increase their online presence through website development, e-commerce support and other digital tools and services. Work performed by the students is typically completed within 2 weeks and includes services such as website development, website optimization, establishing an e-commerce and digital storefront, migration to cloud-based service, enabling remote operations, digital marketing, and/or improving online security. Clients will receive a fully-resolved solution and the students will provide training/ education to the clients so they are fully sustainable moving forward.

To date, nearly 500 companies have already participated or are currently participating in the program.  Those companies surveyed at the conclusion of work have voiced overwhelming satisfaction with the work performed by the students – 98% were satisfied with the work performed.  The following sentiments from a couple participants illustrate the effectiveness of this program:

They made sure to ask my opinion and even volunteered to update many other items in order to make sure everything flowed well. This team of students exceeded expectations. They went above and beyond to ensure my team and I understood everything by showing the implementation and providing training. All the while, cleaning up our website making it more appealing. This team was amazing and so productive! People can now register for events such as our annual Diabetic walk through our website. This saves time and money in addition to more efficiency.  We are very appreciative of all the excellent work they provided. Thank you so much for taking the time to assist us with our website and integrating donations via Donorbox/Paypal.

As a micro-business in a tourist town, having the ability to sell on-line is a huge addition. Many of our customers only visit once or twice each year and now they can find their favorite artists and products available at any time with the click of a button.

Indiana small businesses are encouraged to submit applications here:   https://iu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3DG1kgSDiA5Exca. 

You may contact Troy Phelps, Assistant Director for Ivy Tech Bloomington’s Gayle & Bill Cook Center For Entrepreneurship at tphelps13@ivytech.edu with any questions.