Two businesses receive the opportunity to dream big

Who said one vote doesn?t matter?

One vote was worth $5,000 to Zebra Media, a Fairfield marketing and media company. That was the margin of victory for the firm in the ?Dream Big Grow Here? entrepreneurship contest regional contest, sponsored by the University of Northern Iowa.

However, there was no narrow loss in the contest. Mogo Organic, an organic farm near Mt. Pleasant, the loser by a vote in the contest turned out to be a winner, too.

?Technically, Zebra Media was the winner, yet they told us that they couldn?t in good faith, accept the first-place finish,? reported Kiley Miller of the Mt. Pleasant Area Development Commission, which hosted the contest. ?They came to us with an offer to split the winnings.?

Zebra Media and Mogo Organic were tied Thursday night (Sept. 15) with 3,500 votes each but when the voting was checked at midnight Sept. 15 (the official end of the contest), Zebra had the one-vote win.

Steve Cooperman of Zebra Media noted that they had already been thinking about what they would do to support Mogo Organic if Zebra Media had won. ?We believe in what they?re doing as well, and it?s part of our mission to support young entrepreneurs like Morgan (Hoenig, owner of Mogo Organic) as a way to help create economic self-sufficiency in Iowa communities like Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant. We?re all in this together and we believe that we can accomplish so much more collaborating than competing. We have a saying, ?More pie for everyone.??

Statewide sponsors for the event then offered to send both companies to the pitch-off (regional winners advance to a statewide pitch-off event in March 2012 with a chance to win an additional $10,000), rather than just one. The pitch-off occurs at the annual EntreFest small business conference March 8-9 in Ames.

Hoenig said she was elated with the outcome and excited for the opportunity to pitch at EnreFest. ?My farm is my life and it?s my passion,? she said. ?I see myself changing people?s diets every day and I?m happy about that.?

Maureen Collins-Williams, director of entrepreneurship outreach at UNI, said the southeast Iowa contest was very popular this year. ?The southeast contest, sponsored by the Mt. Pleasant Area Development Commission, has been one of the most popular this year. Not only did southeast Iowa attract more contestants than any other regional contest, people from all over the world turned out to vote for their favorite business there, casing nearly 15,000 votes online in just a few days.?

Dream Big Grow Here is sponsored by MyEnre.Net at the University of Northern Iowa, the Iowa Bankers Association, Renew Rural Iowa, the Iowa Area Development Group, Community Vitality Center, the Technology Association of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Economic Development.