BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
OMAHA, Neb (KMTV) — City and business leaders gathered in Midtown Omaha to show support for neighbors running their own businesses, as Mayor Ewing reaffirmed the city's commitment to helping entrepreneurs grow.
Gwladys Nare started a childcare business after making a life transition.
"I was just getting out of the Army, and I was new to Omaha," Nare said.
Nare found additional layers of complexity in the childcare industry beyond the typical challenges of entrepreneurship.
"That's the biggest challenge...to advertise and to have parents believe in you and trust you and come to you," Nare said.
Jessica Queen, a former nurse practitioner, created a medical device to help staff monitor patient vitals.
"What this does is it's applied to the chest...and it starts non invasively monitoring vitals...heart rate...respiration...temperature...what's cool is that you can even see what the last ten minutes have been doing on each patient," Queen said.
Queen wants her company to be focused on defense, and she says she would love more opportunity in Omaha to learn how to do business with the government and the military.
"And so I think resources to help small businesses like me who want to be defense focused...to really have a hub that allows us to you know...a front door to the Department of Defense if you will," Queen said.
Mayor Ewing said after the event that the city already awards contracts under $50,000 to small businesses as long as 3 of them bid on it.
"And so I want the large companies in this city to recognize that some of them like Mutual of Omaha and Kiewit started small...and grew into large Fortune 500 companies. We want to give people in Omaha those opportunities," Ewing said.
The long-term goal for the city is to make life easier for entrepreneurs like Nare and Queen, as well as attract more businesses and jobs to Omaha.
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