Wichita State receives $1 million to assist small businesses

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - The City of Wichita has announced the award of $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to support Wichita State University’s Office of Innovation and New Ventures formation of the Small Business Digital Transformation (SBDT) Program, which will address technology gaps in the local business ecosystem.

The program will focus on pandemic-related issues, adoption of digital transformation in customer-centric business and the establishment of a support system to overcome educational and cultural barriers to adopt digital business tools.

Over the past two years, analysis done by the Office of Innovation and New Ventures identified access to technology as a core need of many small businesses.In response to this need, the Small Business Digital Transformation Program created a four-week training program for business owners designed to streamline workflow with a focus on issues that emerged from the pandemic such as conversion to online sales and tracking digital sales and growth.

The Small Business Digital Transformation Program will also contribute to building a talent development pipeline for tech trained employees by connecting students from Wichita State University in applied learning experiences within the companies.