Miss Iowa: Entrepreneur

Fortune Small Business:

We first met Diana Reed when she was a senior at the University of Iowa, double-majoring in business and dance, starring at football games as one of the Big Ten’s top baton twirlers, and running her own for-profit twirling studio on the side.

Back in January, the rest of the world got a look at Reed’s talents, as the reigning Miss Iowa twirled her way down the red carpet at the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas.

While the 23-year-old Reed missed out on the Miss America crown, she made a mark in the competition. Reed won the pageant’s preliminary talent award for her twirling routine and made it to the show’s top 10.

Reed’s spirit seemed undimmed by missing out on the big title.

“Next week I’m going to really start building classes back up and planning for the future,” she said in an interview after the pageant’s end.

Reed’s recent past has been a busy one. Last year, she won first place in a statewide business plan competition and was awarded $5,000 to put toward her studio, Diana’s Golden Twirlers.

In May, Reed graduated from the University of Iowa as the valedictorian of her undergraduate business program. Three weeks later, she brought home another title: Miss Iowa. After three years of competing in pageants, Reed found herself preparing to compete for the national Miss America title.

When on the road, Reed kept her Samsung SCH-u740 phone and Toshiba laptop with her at all times so that she was only an e-mail away from her studio and students. In 2007, her school trained 40 students and brought in about $8,000.

Photo by Miss Iowa.

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