Public Invited to the Alluvial Private Wealth Forge Competition

The winner holds a giant check for $2,500. — Jess Lamar Reece Holler won a $2,500 prize in the Alluvial Private Wealth Forge Competition in Oct. 2022.

(Marion) The community is invited to watch an exciting “Shark Tank”-style competition on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023 at Marion Technical College. Top local entrepreneurs will pitch their business ideas in front of a panel of local judges. The winners will be awarded thousands of dollars in prize money. The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. in Health Technologies Center with a networking social with appetizers from A Taste of Memphis. The live “Shark Tank”-style competition begins at 6 p.m.

“This is an exhilarating night. If you want to support local business owners, come and join us,” said Mike Augenstein, director of Workforce Solutions at Marion Tech. “At the end of the night, the top winner will walk away with $2,500 in prize money. Don’t miss it!”

How the Competitors Enter

The MarionMade! competitors are chosen from participants in this year’s round of Forge Business Classes sponsored by Alluvial Private Wealth and Showplace Rentals. They must attend all of the free classes and submit a business plan in advance of the competition.

Jill, a white woman with short hair, looks intensely while taking notes. She is seated in an auditorium with other students. — Jill Chitwood found the Forge Business Classes valuable in growing her travel agency.

How the Winners Are Chosen

Each competitor will present their vision to the audience and answer questions from the panel of local judges. Each business owner will be score on innovation, value creation, feasibility, community impact and quality of the presentation. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top winner and several runners up.

Participants of The Forge classes — Participants of a past session of the Forge classes, which are offered free by Marion Technical College.

How Entrepreneurs Enter

The free Forge business classes are open to anyone with a small business in Marion or those planning to open one. They are hosted and taught at Marion Technical College and sponsored by Alluvial Private Wealth.

Past Competitors Spark or Grow Dozens of Businesses

Since 2017, participants have sparked or grown a number of MarionMade! businesses and nonprofits including:

Ability Vending
Attaboys
A Taste of Memphis
Busy B Cleaning
The Explore-It-Torium Children’s Museum
Harding Harbor Seafood
Jordan Energy Alternative
Leading Ladies (now the Legacy Mentoring Group)
Painless Fleet Maintenance
Presidential Cleaning Services
Sights Unseen Travel
Spruce and Sparrow
The Sweada Mae Art Café.

These businesses have created dozens of new jobs.

How the Forge Started

The 2017 Leadership Marion class of the Marion Area Chamber of Commerce founded the Forge after a study that showed Marion needed more small businesses, which are key to building wealth in a community.

For more information

Find additional details, including a list of past winners, at https://bit.ly/TheForge2023.

A recap of the 2022 competition is here.

Equipco Logistics
Equipco Logistics, LLC, formerly Equipco Freight, started in business in 1988, operating out of a small office in Marion. Equipco Freight was owned by Marquita and Ken Welshhans and was purchased by Marsha Persinger and Tyler Mills in 2007. Since then, the company has built a solid reputation throughout the world as a modern and […]Read More »
Fuzzy’s Flowers
MITCHELL HUTCHMAN: A LOVE FOR COMMUNITY AND BUSINESS AT AN EARLY AGE When Mitchell Hutchman was just four years old he put together his own Christmas tree with lights and decorations. His parents joke that he had less trouble than they did putting up the tree. At eight years old, he put together a Christmas […]Read More »
Kimmel Corp: More than 90 Years of Serving the Community
In 1929, Dale and Helen Kimmel bought Whetstone Cleaners in Marion. In 1931, the business relocated to a new location in Upper Sandusky under a new name: Kimmel Cleaners. Dale built a new building in 1944 laying all the bricks with his own hands. More than 90 years later, Kimmel Corporation is going strong with […]Read More »
Marion Offers Opportunities to Generations of the Cramer and Bosh Families
Ron Cramer’s roots in Marion County run deep. His maternal grandfather, Don F. Bosh, worked at the Marion Power Shovel as a master machinist while living on a family farm in Iberia. Cramer remembers, as a 12-year-old, pushing a reel mower for six hours to cut his great-grandfather’s grass at the family home in Marion […]Read More »