Mindy Curphy brings a rich, diverse background to the GO Connection. She attended the University of Iowa and the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain, and received bachelor's degrees in anthropology and Spanish. She also recently finished an Economic Development Finance Professional Certification through the National Development Council, which she said has been incredibly useful in business credit analysis.
"Anthropology as a study of humanity is really a perspective from the inside out. In other words, it's taught me to understand other's perspectives, independent from my own experience and values," Curphy said. "This is something I use every day."
Before joining the GO Connection, Curphy was the foreign academic coordinator and a teacher for a private school in Daejeon, South Korea.
"I had always wanted to travel the world, and after some research, I found an English language teaching certification program in Barcelona, Spain, and a job in South Korea, one of the countries with the best labor laws for foreigners," Curphy said.
She came home after a year and a half of international adventure.
Curphy has been with the GO Connection for more than two years. She started as the loan officer, working with small business owners in need of financing, and as the organization grew, they have adapted her role to include the changing needs of the entrepreneurial environment in the metropolitan area and beyond.
Her current position as economic development officer is a new one for the GO Connection and will evolve as the needs of the organization and its clients evolve.
"We are a small organization and don't have the resources to service everybody," she said.
GO Connection saw a need to work with local communities so they could do their own targeted loan programs. GO Connection does the back-end servicing, and the communities do the front-end marketing for the program.
"They receive application packets and approve and disapprove loans based on our parameters," Curphy said. "If we work with more targeted local programs that have contact with small businesses, then we can be more effective."
She said working with local communities is more effective because they can provide an additional service to loan clients. They can help people get financing to start businesses instead of simply providing education and referrals. Curphy's role is to identify and collaborate with communities to implement strategies, using GO Connection's available resources to help emerging entrepreneurs get the training and access to financing they need.
The organization's motto is "Capital plus Education," Curphy said. Staff members provide entrepreneurs-new and growing-with training through the Missouri Women's Business Center, along with financing through the microloan program. GO Connection can provide services for a small business owner looking for education, mentoring or financing.
"For such a small organization, I'm always surprised by the impact we have on the city," Curphy said. "It's not something I see just from our internal reports, but externally. When people mention a great new restaurant or new service and I know exactly what they are talking about because we have helped that particular business, it's a great feeling."
Curphy said the organization has almost doubled in size since July. They have hired two employees, one for the Microloan Program and another for the Missouri Women's Business Center. They also have two new people in Volunteers In Service To America, an AmeriCorps program. She said the expansion of their team will help with their outreach and capacity-building initiatives.
"We are very excited to be adding two or three new community programs by the end of the year, as well as a new source of funding," Curphy said.
Ellen Jensen is the managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly magazine.
