Championing Kansas Entrepreneurs

By KIM GRONNIGER | Photos by JOHN BURNS

Taylor Overton serves as the director of the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Office at the Kansas Department of Commerce, where she leads the state’s coordinated strategy to support small businesses, reduce barriers and scale inclusive growth.

“I believe entrepreneurship is a human right,” she said. “The right to dream, build, own and create lasting legacies for future generations.”

The Entrepreneurship and Small Business Office oversees two key statewide programs. The READYKS program focuses on small business readiness in areas such as capital access, procurement preparedness and supply chain participation. The E3 program (entrepreneurship, ecosystem and engagement) also addresses capital access, along with gaps in infrastructure and workforce development by applying ecosystem-building principles and engaging partners across different sectors.

DEEP ENTREPRENEURIAL ROOTS

Born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Overton comes from deep entrepreneurial roots. A fifth-generation entrepreneur, Taylor’s family has owned and operated small businesses for decades.

Yet despite being raised in a family of entrepreneurs, Taylor initially resisted that path. As a child, she saw the demanding hours, physical labor and financial uncertainty that came with her parents’ work as small contractors.

“I didn’t recognize the value in what my parents were building as small business owners,” she said. “All I saw were the long days, the physical toll and the stress of keeping projects moving. I didn’t yet understand that what they had was ownership — and that ownership is freedom.”

Her perspective shifted in high school after enrolling in a Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas (now Empowered) course. As a neurodivergent student who hadn’t thrived in traditional classrooms, the experience helped her recognize and make the most of her strengths. She launched her first venture Fresh Globe, an eco-friendly air freshener company, from her kitchen table.

“The course gave me the space to solve problems differently,” she said. “It taught me that multiple answers can be right and that creativity is a strength in business.”

She won a state-level pitch competition at Koch Industries, choosing to invest her prize money in her college education. Taylor began her undergraduate studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore before transferring to Ottawa University in Kansas, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration

and pursued a master’s degree in human resources. While in school, she continued working for her parents’ businesses and gaining practical, hands-on experience.

Following graduation, she returned to Youth Entrepreneurs as an intern, committed to helping students see their potential.

“I wanted students to understand that even if they didn’t make straight A’s or fit the typical mold, they could still succeed in business,” she said.

Taylor’s career evolved into recruitment, first building Ottawa University’s cheer program, then hiring talent at Performance Construction Group in Lenexa.

“I loved recruiting,” she said. “It allowed me to connect people with opportunities — something I’ve always valued — and I had the unique advantage of knowing the business from the inside while still operating within a structured environment.”

In 2020, Taylor moved to San Diego to prioritize her mental health and gain new experiences. She started walking dogs through an app.

“I was an entrepreneur again with no boss and no salary and the opportunity to make my own choices,” she said. “No matter how hard I tried, I always ended up back in the space of entrepreneurship.”

That mindset carried into her role at Tesla, where she began in recruitment and later transitioned to become the global supplier diversity partner for the company’s energy division. That’s where she discovered a professional calling, she says — building opportunities for small and diverse businesses to access corporate supply chains.

During that time, she also became a mother, a shift that reinforced her desire to raise her son around entrepreneurial values. She was later recruited to serve as director of corporate and MBE development at the Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council, covering Northern California, Nevada and Hawaii. She developed supplier diversity programs, advised corporations like United Airlines, Salesforce and Adobe and helped minority-owned businesses compete at scale.

Although Taylor found her work fulfilling, one theme stayed with her.

“People in the Bay Area were proud to say they were Bay Area born and raised,” she said. “It made me wonder what if I took what I learned and brought it back to the state that built me?”

LEADING WITH PURPOSE

She returned to Kansas with a renewed focus on impact. After connecting with local leaders like Michael Odupitan of Omni Circle and Christina Long of Create Campaign Inc., she was encouraged to apply for a position that would allow her to lead systemic change in small business development.

The Department of Commerce recently created the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Office and Overton was selected to lead that office.

She stresses the importance of collaboration and credits longstanding partners such as Network Kansas and the Kansas Small Business Development Center and new partners like AltCap, a community development financial institution, with bringing much-needed flexible capital to Kansas-based small businesses.

“There are incredible people and organizations supporting small businesses in Kansas, but they often don’t work together, or even know about each other,” Taylor said. “Kansas is a big state, which can make collaboration difficult, but we have to do it. There are opportunities we can work on together that none of us can do alone.”

Kansas is home to more than 266,816 small businesses, representing 99.1% of all businesses and employing more than 583,000 Kansans, nearly half the state’s population.

“These companies are the health and economic lifeblood of our communities,” Taylor said. “We must create environments where they can succeed, where access to capital, housing, health care and basic services supports entrepreneurship and quality of life.”

She credits her momentum to mentors, collaborators and the entrepreneurs she serves.

“If our Kansas entrepreneurs are working, I am too,” she said. “Kansas is full of stories waiting to be told. We are here to make sure the people behind those businesses are seen, heard and supported.