Clicking with Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Communities and Place Based Economic Development

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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

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Overview

• Importance of Place in Community Development
• Entrepreneurship as a Core CD Strategy
• Making the Case
• Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Defined
• Communities that Click Lessons from the Field
• Next Steps for Communities

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Why Place Matters

• Rural Communities ARE different from their urban
  and suburban counterparts.
• 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 community-based
  approaches most effective.

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What is Place Based Economic Development?

• 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

• Making the case for entrepreneurship as a place
  based economic development strategy
• Role of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial
  activity in a national and global context.
• Role of entrepreneurs in small communities.
• Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship defined
• Exercises
• Elements of successful entrepreneurship practice

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Role of Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship

• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Project
  comparative international study concludes
• 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
• 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

• Economy in most small communities is essentially
  composed of small enterprises
• 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
• 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

• Traditional economic development strategies,
  i.e., recruitment, arent 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Look at the Targeting Pros and Cons Checklist ?
  Identifies the benefits and challenges of
  targeting different types of E talent.
• Think about your communitys 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

• 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

• HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC)
• Kellogg EDS recipient
• Four pillars
• 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

• Georgias Entrepreneur Friendly Communities
  Program
• Facilitated by state regional marketing managers
  but driven by communities.
• Steps
• 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

• Building a System in Northeast MN
• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
• www.energizingentrepreneurs.org
• Deb Markley, Managing Director and Director of
  Research
• deb_at_e2mail.org
• Karen Dabson, Director of Program Development
• karen_at_e2mail.org
• Thank You!