Building Your Business Pitch
If you’ve been around KEC for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard about our annual pitch competition: What’s the Big Idea? WTBI 2024 is quickly approaching, with applications open until early February. We encourage folks with big, new ideas for businesses to apply! If accepted as a finalist, they’ll stand before judges to pitch […]
KEC’s 2023 Year in Review
2023 has been a BIG year for KEC We kicked off the year with a new team member, Kelsi Walker, who is our new Communications and Marketing Coordinator. We had another great What’s The Big Idea Pitch Competition with six highly engaged and dedicated teams. We celebrated 10 Years of KEC in April with a […]
Made for Knoxville: Tanika Harper
Maker and Change Maker: Meet Tanika Harper, Founder of Harper’s Naturals Tanika created an entire skin care line by hand just to keep her own skin healthy, and in the process realized that she could help others who wanted pure, chemical free, handcrafted products. But helping others didn’t stop with skin care. Tanika is a […]
Made for Knoxville: Samantha Lane
Balance-seeker and Guide: Meet Samantha Lane, Founder of Origami Day Life is short, and Samantha Lane is determined to make the most of it – but not in the typical “always on” 24/7 culture that people like Steve Jobs made famous. After a life-changing surgery, Samantha Lane made the difficult decision to leave the corporate […]
Made for Knoxville: Marcus Hall
Style Icon and Craftsman: Meet Marcus Hall, Founder of Marc Nelson Denim. KEC is excited to celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth by sharing stories of innovation and inspiration from Black founders in our community, beginning with Marcus Hall. The love of making is woven through Marcus’ history. His family worked at the Levi’s factory on Cherry Street, only […]
Made for Knoxville: Tommy Nguyen
Problem Solver & Shepherd. Meet Tommy Nguyen – Co-founder of StoragePug. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Tommy to chat about his experience as an entrepreneur in Knoxville, and you can watch the full video below. Tommy started StoragePug to give small business owners a fighting chance, and ended up building a community […]
A Guide to Tennessee Business Licenses
If you’re in the market to start a new business, you’re probably thinking of a million things – logos, products, names, and more. Unfortunately, there are less “fun” things to think about when starting a new small business. For example, business licenses. In the midst of all the legal jargon, business licenses can seem confusing […]
3 Things a Knoxville Entrepreneur Needs to Know about Order Fulfillment
This is a guest post written by Knoxville-based Red Stag Fulfillment. Entrepreneurs and Fulfillment How many steps does it take from someone clicking a “buy” button on your website to them getting the product in their hands? For the customer, it’s about three: purchase, ship, get. For you, it’s plenty more: record order; process payment; […]
