REACT – RECOVERY – RESILIENCE
SBDC IOWA CLIENTS SHARE THEIR COVID-19 JOURNEY
SPLASH MULTISPORT
Eric Follmuth, Owner

How did you come up with the idea for your business?
When we started in 2005, I was a swim coach. I noticed there weren’t enough vendors to set up stores at every meet for people to buy gear. There was an opportunity to add another store in Iowa, and my coaching connections helped us get into that market. A percentage of our sales would go back to the host club as a fundraiser for them.

How has the SBDC helped you with your business?
The NIACC Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center has been a HUGE help with their classes and micro business loan that we were able to take advantage of. Brook and Tim at NIACC have gone above and beyond to reach out to their clients to make sure we are taking advantage of all of the resources available to us. We were awarded the Iowa Disaster Grant last week, which came at the perfect time just as we were getting to the bare bones.

How has COVID-19 impacted your business? Have you pivoted your operations? How are you helping others through this time?
Luckily for us, we started to get into custom apparel in 2010. All of our swim teams wanted embroidery on their backpacks, team shirts, etc. That’s become a big part of our business with team sports, leading us into non-profits, and college. With everything shut down, our business came to a halt. All the events we would make items for are not happening.

With the custom printing, we got into vinyl graphics, stickers, signs, and banners. We have shifted to helping the Mason City Main Street with their climb and crawl structure in the mall, yard signs for 2020 seniors, and banners for schools and teachers. We also help with instruction posters for business and social distancing, special hours, and others due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Find Splash Multisport at https://splashmulti.com