Transcript Toward a Rural Renewal: Entrepreneurship

Clicking with
Entrepreneurship:
Entrepreneurial Communities
and Place Based Economic
Development
Deborah M. Markley
Managing Director
and
Karen A. Dabson
Director of Program
Development
2006 CDS Annual International
Conference
St. Louis, MO
June 28, 2006
Overview
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Importance of Place in Community
Development
Entrepreneurship as a Core CD Strategy
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Making the Case
Entrepreneurs & Entrepreneurship Defined
Communities that Click – Lessons from the
Field
Next Steps for Communities
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Why Place Matters
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Rural Communities ARE different from their
urban and suburban counterparts.
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Culture of dependency
Limited access to resources
Isolation, lack of connectedness
No two RURAL communities are alike.
Different characteristics, needs, capacities 
no “one size fits all” solutions; communitybased approaches most effective.
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What is Place Based Economic
Development?
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Begin with understanding and appreciation of
local assets and context  what are the
unique sources of competitive advantage?
Build on those local assets  place based is
asset based.
Move away from “waiting to die” or “waiting to
be saved” mentality  “building your own.”
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Entrepreneurship as a Core
Community Development Strategy
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Making the case for entrepreneurship as a
place based economic development strategy
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Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship defined
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Role of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activity
in a national and global context.
Role of entrepreneurs in small communities.
Exercises
Elements of successful entrepreneurship
practice
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Role of Entrepreneurs and
Entrepreneurship
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Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Project –
comparative international study concludes:
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Positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurial
activity and economic growth
No countries with high levels of entrepreneurial activity have
low levels of economic growth
National Commission on Entrepreneurship report:
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Small entrepreneurs responsible for 67% of inventions and
95% of radical innovations since WWII
Small group of high growth entrepreneurs (5-15% of all firms)
created 2/3 of net new jobs in late 1990s
Not all high tech (Jiffy Lube)
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Role of Entrepreneurs in Small
Communities
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Economy in most small communities is essentially
composed of small enterprises …
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Main Street businesses
Self-employed
Small manufacturers and other businesses
Microentrepreneurs
Some of these are truly entrepreneurial in their
ventures.
National Commission on Entrepreneurship report:
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Fewer than 5% of companies achieve high growth
But, high growth companies exist in all regions, in places like
Dickinson, ND and Twin Falls, Idaho
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Arguments for Entrepreneurship
as a Core CED Strategy
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Traditional economic development strategies, i.e.,
recruitment, aren’t working in most rural places
Scale of economic activity more suited to smaller, rural
communities
Greater ability to match assets, limited resources with
market opportunities
Bottom Line: Creating an entrepreneur-friendly
community/region makes it easier to attract and
retain industry and other business.
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Entrepreneurs and
Entrepreneurship Defined
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Entrepreneurs  people who create and
grow businesses
Entrepreneurship  the process through
which entrepreneurs create and grow
businesses
Entrepreneurship Development  the
infrastructure of public and private policies
and practices that foster and support
entrepreneurship
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Understanding Entrepreneurial
Talent
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Potential
 Aspiring – Desire to own a business (includes youth)
 Start ups – Have taken the first steps to actually start a
business
Business Owners
 Survival – Create enterprises to supplement family income
when options are few
 Lifestyle – Pursue a certain lifestyle or personal goal through
choosing self-employment
Entrepreneurs
 Growth – Proactively expand businesses that result in the
creation of jobs and wealth
 Serial – “Repeat entrepreneurs” – create several growth
businesses throughout their lifetime
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Exercise #1 – Identifying E Talent
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Take a few minutes and use the checklist to
identify entrepreneurs in your community.
Place them on the E Talent Mapping
Worksheet.
Share a really interesting or unique
entrepreneur you have identified with the
group.
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Targeting Entrepreneurial Talent
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Entrepreneurship Development involves
creating an infrastructure to support
entrepreneurs.
But, with limited resources, most communities
must make strategic decisions about what
types of talent to target.
Choice based on your “sweet spot”  where
development goals, capacity and E talent
intersect
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The “Sweet Spot”
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Exercise #2 – Targeting E Talent
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Look at the Targeting Pros and Cons Checklist 
Identifies the benefits and challenges of targeting
different types of E talent.
Think about your community’s goals, capacities,
and the E talent you identified earlier
 Where is your “sweet spot”?
Take a few minutes to fill in the Targeting
Worksheet
 What type of E talent is most strategic for your
community to target?
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Elements of Successful Practice
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Successful entrepreneurship initiatives …
 Focus on entrepreneurs
 Build on assets
 Encourage collaboration and take a systems
approach
 Strategically target entrepreneurs
 Are rooted in communities but branch out into
regions
 Engage youth as a means of changing the culture
 Celebrate community and entrepreneurial success
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Communities that Click – Lessons
from the Field
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HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC)
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Kellogg EDS recipient
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Four pillars
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Leadership
 Youth engagement
 Retaining wealth transfer (charitable
assets)
 Entrepreneurship
Story of Valley County NE (pop. = 4,647)
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Communities that Click – Lessons
from the Field
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Georgia’s Entrepreneur Friendly
Communities Program
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Facilitated by state regional marketing managers but driven
by communities.
Steps:
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Build a leadership team
Educate community about benefits of entrepreneurship
Enhance links to regional and state resources
Map assets, including identifying and visiting entrepreneurs
Visit from Georgia Tech review team to help develop strategy
14 communities designated to date
Story of Coffee County (pop. 37, 413)
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Communities that Click – Lessons
from the Field
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Building a System in Northeast MN
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Historical commitment to regional
collaboration in economic development
Focus on entrepreneurship, particularly micro,
through Northeast Entrepreneur Fund
Commitment to taking a “systems approach”
to entrepreneurship development
Story of the Arrowhead Entrepreneurial
Development System
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General Themes
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Entrepreneur driven
Many and unique partnerships
Utilizing strengths, assets from within
Taking a regional approach
Engaging people not usually invited to
the table (youth, minorities, aging)
Sharing and celebrating together
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Next Steps for Communities
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Start really listening to entrepreneurs  give
them a chance to be heard by economic
development leaders.
Start visiting community businesses  Who are
they? What are their plans?
Actively engage youth  expose them to
entrepreneurship through business mentors.
Map the assets you have to encourage and
support entrepreneurs (include partnerships) 
Get a copy of Energizing Entrepreneurs to
help you chart a course.
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Exercise #3 – 5 Things You Will Do
When You Get Home
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On an index card, write down 5 things you
will do when you get back to your community
because of the information shared in this
workshop.
Share one of your “to do” items with the
group.
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Contact Information
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RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
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Deb Markley, Managing Director and
Director of Research
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www.energizingentrepreneurs.org
[email protected]
Karen Dabson, Director of Program
Development
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[email protected]
Thank You!
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