Three local businesses are proving that one state grant program is working as intended: that is. promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.

The trio of Southern Illinois businesses - The Pillow Shop, Cannon Distributing and So iLL - recently received Innovative Challenge grants of $5,000 each through the Southern Illinois Entrepreneurship Center, part of the state's Illinois Entrepreneurship Network.

The grants are awarded to accelerate the growth of small businesses and help those businesses achieve critical milestones, said Jon Greenstreet, SIEC assistant director. All three businesses have taken advantage of services offered through SIEC which provides a comprehensive network of resources designed to strengthen the state's ability to help small businesses market and grow their success.

The businesses receiving the grants "all have high growth potential and they are showing that growth through employment and revenue," he said.

For instance, The Pillow Shop, located in Carterville, was founded April 1, 2004, by Vivien Ansinelli after she purchased feather pillow cleaning equipment from a retiring businesswoman.

"At first, I was only going to clean pillows. Now, I have three employees. We clean and restore feather and down pillows and make customized feather pillows," she said. And with the help of SIEC and the grant, Ansinelli developed her own pillow line and a marketing strategy.

"They helped me tremendously. They offer a great support of people who know what they are talking about and they helped open a lot of doors for me," she said. "We are definitely growing, almost by leaps and bounds. It's been a lot of hard work but the payoff has been incredible."

Greenstreet points to the payoff for both the state and the region when it comes to the investment made in small business through the grant program and SIEC services.

"Small businesses support the local economy in a large way. They impact the state and region enormously. These programs are a concentrated effort by the governor to grow jobs and revenue in our communities through local businesses."

Cannon Distributing, based in Herrin, utilized the grant money to help develop software that allows the company to more closely interact with its customers, especially school districts participating in the Southern Illinois Public Cooperative, through a Web-based portal. The portal offers customers interactive purchasing, customized reporting and purchase analysis tools.

The state's investment in Cannon was resulted in tens of thousands of dollars of savings to the school districts that participate in the co-op, said Jim Sheffer, co-owner of Cannon Distributing, the supplier of many cleaning supplies and paper products to the school districts.

Illinois State Board of Education Superintendent Randy J. Dunn recently praised the efforts of the co-op, as well as those of Cannon Distributing.

"Not only have direct savings been recognized by participating school districts; indirect savings have also been recognized through the use of ISMART, an information management tool supplied to all SIPC member schools," Dunn said. "This has resulted in schools being able to stave off cuts to important areas, including teacher layoffs and program eliminations."

Sheffer said the help he has received from SIEC has been invaluable.

"They have been absolutely outstanding," said Sheffer, whose company now employs 12 people. "Jon and Emily (Carter, SIEC director) have done a phenomenal job and they have helped many businesses. We look at this as a collective win. The governor's goal was achieved and we helped many school districts in the process. That investment (from the state) has come back to the state one hundred fold in savings," he said.

So iLL Inc., based in De Soto, is a small manufacturing company that produces a line of rock climbing grips. The company increased their Web presence with the grant, Greenstreet said.

According to Daniel Chancellor, cofounder and owner of the company, "With the help and interaction of the IEN programs, So iLL Inc. sales have increased dramatically. From mentoring to visibility, the IEN has helped So iLL achieve business professionalism and greater profitability."

For more information on the grants or the entrepreneurship center, call SIEC at (618) 453-3805.

beckym@onecliq.net

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