This spring we were honored to hand out 4 awards to special people who were involved with REAP and made a tremendous difference in 2010. Awardees included: Connie Harvey, Norma Avalos, Edgar Gutierrez, and the College of Business & Technology at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

The 2011 Nebraska MarketPlace conference was once again a smashing success. “MarketPlace is tremendous. For the 5th consecutive year, more than 500 people attended Nebraska’s premier entrepreneurship event in Kearney,” said John Crabtree, with the Center for Rural Affairs.

Several years ago Shelly Burke was ready to self-publish her third book. She planned to get a small business loan through REAP, and had almost completed the online application when she learned about a special offer from the self-publishing company.

Severe winter and spring weather are a common occurrence, and by now you’ve probably learned to deal with the snow and hopefully managed to avoid any number of tornadoes. While major natural disasters pose a threat to your business, other disasters could affect your business directly and indirectly.

It’s critical for a business owner to know how much it costs to produce a product or service. How else can he or she create a profitable business? Pam Newman, an entrepreneur and columnist for Entrepreneur.com, outlines five essential steps to understand pricing and ensure profitability.

Now able to serve micro businesses with 10 or fewer employees and loan up to $50,000, policy changes and new initiatives are increasing REAP’s efficiency and effectiveness and benefiting entrepreneurs.