Meet Jim Reiff, Executive Director @ Nebraska Enterprise Fund

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur or support other entrepreneurs?

Coming out of college, I went into the Peace Corps and worked internationally. I did community development work, a lot in the health field. I was a health volunteer in Nicaragua. And it was really just realizing that if we can help support and grow and develop businesses, we’re going to be able to help support our economies — wherever that is. 

For a while, I was working internationally, working in multiple countries. But now I’m back in the U.S. My grandma always asked, “Why don’t you do the same thing in the U.S.?” Unfortunately, she passed before I got back, but that’s really how I got in the space. 

Now it’s working with businesses that are either on the cusp of becoming bankable or not quite and getting closer. 

I grew up in rural Minnesota. When I went and started working overseas, my parents moved down this way. Family is where home is, especially when you don’t have anywhere to land, and they kept giving me their address. 

I’ve been in NEF for about 11 1/2 years. 

What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time to when you were just starting out?

Same advice somebody gave to me. It was one of the consultants I worked with, and we were doing a project in Albania. She said, “Jim, you don’t need to know the answers to everything, but you need to know when you don’t know something and be able to find the help you can get.” Glynis Rankin was her name.

It’s a great way to think about small businesses. In our case, as a resource provider, we don’t know all the answers. Sometimes, there’s that expectation that we’re supposed to know everything. We’re not going to know everything.

We just believe in a strong ecosystem. We want to work together. We have direct lines to people like MOVE Venture Capital, Nebraska Startup Academy, Greater Omaha Chamber, NBDC, SourceLink — I can go on and on. We can’t solve every problem. We’re not here to solve every problem. We’re here to fill a niche, and then help support our small businesses to get connected with the other niche spots.

How do you stay motivated when things feel overwhelming — or stagnant?

When things get overwhelming, you almost have to find a way to catch your breath. It might be slipping out for a good meal or just sneaking out for an hour or two, grabbing a walk. It’s taking that breath — slowing down before speeding up.

I think we’re always used to being constantly, “Go, go, go.” Especially when there’s a deadline or something, it feels like you can’t breathe. But I think that breath, that slowdown to take a breath, is really, really important.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome and how did you overcome it?

I’ve worked in so many different cultures. So, I think there’s [something to] adapting to a new culture. Even though I’m from the U.S. and grew up here, coming back and working in the U.S. was different [from] working in India or working in Albania or working in Latin America. 

Every time you move to a different culture or move to a different place, you [have] to take the time to get integrated in. It also presents an opportunity because you’re fresh. You’re new. You can use that for the first 90 to 120 days to really learn and absorb and so forth.

How can the Nebraska community support you?

One, we run a lot of training programming, so if we’re doing something relevant, just show up. Come to training. Check us out. Give us feedback, if you see a way it could be better [or] a different topic.

Second is just letting people know we’re here. We can do loans, and we do loans that the bank maybe can’t do.

It’s really helping folks understand there’s capital available. If you have the fundamentals already, the “C’s” [of credit], we can take a look at it and we’re able to do something before the bank can in many cases. Not every case, obviously. It’s just letting people know there’s an alternative out there that can make sense.