Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds Visits Local Businesses Looking To Make Entrepreneurship Easier In Iowa

Iowa Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds (center) meets with staff members from Mahaska.

Iowa Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds (center) meets with staff members from Mahaska.

Rules and regulations can impact business growth and industry.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – There’s some excitement growing in Oskaloosa, as Mahaska, known by many as Mahaska Bottling, is in the works of developing its own line of craft beer. Mahaska is also developing a tasting room experience for the community to enjoy.

This past week, Iowa’s Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds stopped by Oskaloosa, and visited two local business. These stops often help bring to light issues that business owners are having with government and the rules and regulations implemented by the state.

In Oskaloosa, the upcoming brewery to be located at the Mahaska facility, continues to be developed, and products are fine-tuned to facilitate their upcoming grand opening.

The current plan is to have six regular beers available, with unique flavors offered in the tap room, versus the normal distribution channels.

Tours of the brewery and meeting rooms, along with the tap room, will be some of the amenities available to patrons.

Another forward thinking plan for the brewery is a mobile canning operation. This will enable the new brewery to help out other craft breweries by enabling the canning operation to come to their location.

Along A Avenue East in Oskaloosa, is the newest coffee shop, the Simba Shop. It’s a small coffee shop that has developed a niche in the local market, and utilizes the fair trade coffee market to supply its beans.

“Fair Trade is coffee that is certified as having been produced to fair trade standards. Fair trade organizations create trading partnerships that are based on dialogue, transparency, and respect beans. Fair trade that seeks greater equity in international trade.”

Reynolds spent some time talking with the owners of the Simba Shop, discovering how they have developed their business and the niche of the market they now enjoy. Reynolds also enquired about the rules and regulations a small business such as theirs has encountered, and how they may be impacting on how they operate.

Reynolds, who is an avid coffee drinker, picked up some of the latest blends and some advice on dark roast coffee before departing Oskaloosa.

Oskaloosa News spoke with Reynolds at the end of her visit about whether the government would be of assistance to both the businesses she had visited during her time in Oskaloosa.

Reynolds said that she and Iowa Governor, Terry Branstad, are exploring ways to help streamline the processes businesses face in dealing with government. “Is there a way to make it simpler and avoid some of the duplication? We got a couple of good ideas at the brewery, and a couple of good ideas here, [Simba Shop]”.

Reynolds said that both businesses will be sending further information about problems they have encountered, and she hopes to “streamline the process”.

For small businesses like the Simba Shop, Reynolds said that simplicity and flexibility for new entrepreneurs is important because they lack the staff and resources that medium and larger businesses have.

Posted by on Jun 26 2016. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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