Second Waupun-Based Business Brings Home IGNITE! Entrepreneur Grant
City’s Commitment to Local Business Success Continues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Release - Contact: Kathy Schlieve, City Administrator & Director of Economic Development at City of Waupun, 920.324.7912 or Kathy@cityofwaupun.org.
Waupun, Wis.—Feb. 12, 2018—The City of Waupun – who partnered with Fond du Lac County’s IGNITE! Business Resource Network to further extend the city’s economic development assistance to local businesses – announced the second Waupun-based business to earn the IGNITE! Entrepreneur Grant is Rock River Eyewear.
Rock River Eyewear, formerly known as Jan’s Optical, LLC, has been a source of eye exam options for decades in the Waupun Community. Located at 223 E. Main St., this downtown business is a familiar place for many locals but when the optometrist left the office to move out of state to be closer to family, the business turned to the City for advice.
“Rock River Eyewear was forced to decide if it should recruit a new optometrist to a town that already has two other very talented optometrist offices or change its business model and become an eyewear retail and repair store,” explained Kathy Schlieve, city administrator and economic development director for Waupun. “By participating in the Business Model Canvas training course that the City hosted, Rock River Eyewear gained access to the tools and resources needed to help pursue – and transition into – a new business name and business model.”
Rock River Eyewear no longer offers eye exams or contact lens refills but, instead, fills eyewear prescriptions from any optometrist office. The new business model allows Rock River Eyewear to offer a variety of frames and lenses at unique prices, accept insurance plans, provide eyewear repair services, and house equipment and inventory on site to fill single-vision eyewear prescriptions on the same day a patient drops off their prescription.
“Waupun is committed to helping businesses at all stages,” added Schlieve. “When we learned about Rock River Eyewear’s changes, we knew the business would qualify for IGNITE! training. By going the extra mile and completing the IGNITE! grant requirements, Rock River Eyewear can use its grant dollars to purchase frame boards and to expand its inventory to provide the community with a variety of options for single-vision, bifocal and trifocal lenses.”
For additional information about Rock River Eyewear and its services, please call (920) 324-8608 or visit RockRiverEyewear.com. To learn more about IGNITE! visit ignitefondulaccounty.com.
About the City of Waupun: The City of Waupun is centrally located along the US 151 corridor within a one-hour drive of Madison, Milwaukee and the Fox Cities and is positioned to support economic growth with available industrial, residential and commercial properties for development. The community’s Downtown Business District is being revitalized with an ongoing commitment to historic preservation, programming to support business improvement, and expanding resources designed to help entrepreneurs.
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