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    Why I built it

    HUB 712: a small business center that can fund itself

    Client
    HUB 712, West Central Iowa's small business center in Carroll, an initiative of the Carroll County Growth Partnership
    Live
    November 5, 2026
    Built
    a new public site, a giving and partner program, a client portal, and a back office the Hub's staff run themselves

    The problem

    HUB 712 helps people across West Central Iowa start and grow businesses: coworking, meeting rooms, coaching and connections to the right help. The work was good. The website couldn't do much with it. It could describe the Hub, but it couldn't take a gift, a room request, a partner, or a new client. Every one of those started with a phone call or an email and lived in somebody's inbox.

    And the Hub needed a way to stand on its own: a steady way for people and businesses who believe in it to back it, and a clear record of what that support adds up to.

    What I built

    • A new site, built to be found. Pages for coworking, meeting space, resources and events, plus a page for each of the 13 communities the Hub serves, so an owner in Manning or Denison finds help that names their town. A questions page written so search engines and AI assistants answer questions about the Hub accurately.
    HUB 712 homepage on desktop, with the headline Workspace and small business help in Carroll
    HUB 712 homepage on a phone, showing the same headline and workspace buttons
    HUB 712 community page for Manning on desktop, inviting owners to start with a conversation
    HUB 712 community page for Manning on a phone
    HUB 712 questions and answers page on desktop, written for search engines and AI assistants
    HUB 712 questions and answers page on a phone
    • Give and Partner. Gifts go to the Carroll County Growth Partnership Foundation. Businesses can partner at three levels, including a category partnership that puts them alongside the answers owners are looking for. Each gift carries the community the donor chooses, so every town gets credit for what it gives.
    HUB 712 Give page on desktop, with the headline Keep the door open for the next idea
    HUB 712 Give page on a phone, showing gift options
    • A portal for the Hub's clients. An owner signs up with their email, answers four quick questions, and the right person at the Hub picks it up. Room requests work the same way: pick a time, send a request, see the answer.
    • A back office the staff run themselves. New sign-ups, room requests and the calendar, partners and renewals, a news inbox that turns a forwarded email into a draft post, approvals for every post, and a running tally of what the giving pages have raised.
    • A voice that stays warm. Three posts a week on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, in the Hub's colors, since October.

    Why I built it this way

    • Nothing goes up that nobody can stand behind. Every number on the site is either confirmed in writing or left off. Every post is approved before it publishes.
    • Old links keep working. Every address from the old site lands on its matching new page, so search results and bookmarks didn't break on launch day.
    • Launch with somewhere to send people. The giving pages went live together with the posts and outreach pointing at them, not a month before.
    • The Hub owns it. Their domain, their accounts, their data. The back office is theirs to run.

    Where it stands

    Live now at hub712.com.

    Want this for your business?

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