Finding and Keeping Talent

Entrepreneurs thrive in entrepreneur-friendly communities. What makes a community entrepreneur friendly? Community leaders, elected officials, and others who see entrepreneurship as an essential tool to strengthen rural America. The following information was compiled from the last installment of the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative Webinar series in December 2014.

Entrepreneurial Talent
Does your community have a wide and diverse number of businesses and social and civic enterprises? Do local people have an interest and desire in starting new businesses and nonprofit ventures?

Entrepreneurial Infrastructure
Is it easy to do business in your town? How much work is involved in getting a business license, paying taxes, and obtaining other services? Can local businesses count on top-class roads, broadband access and other needed  infrastructure?

A business or social venture is only as good as the entrepreneurs who run them. Effective entrepreneurs never stop learning and work to access the latest thinking and ideas about their companies, their communities, and the world. Does your region provide a wide array of local education, enrichment and training opportunities?


Youth Engagement
Young people are creative, entrepreneurial, open to new ideas and more willing and able to take risks. They are not always encouraged to think this way. Young adults are sometimes pushed to move away for economic opportunity, make it difficult for youth to engage in public activities or fail to provide them with entrepreneurial opportunities.  Does your community promote youth entrepreneurship?

Groups That Can Help
Several think tanks and researchers have produced guides for building entrepreneur-friendly communities.

• The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s E2 University on-line platform has great ideas and tips for building a business, or for building a more entrepreneur-friendly community.
   
• The Center’s Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities is also an excellent hands-on guide for community leaders with many examples from rural regions across the US.
   
• The Aspen Institute’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Diagnostic Toolkit helps community leaders better understand their local entrepreneur networks, and to design more effective strategies and tools to support them.
   
• Start up Communities, offers real world tips for community leaders, especially in regions focused on technology-based businesses.   

 

Understanding Demand and Finding Money to Grow

“Finding the Money to Grow Your Business” was presented on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014. The third in series of presentations for the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative program. This segment focused on how to define your business and revenue model and how to raise capital.

Featured presenters included Jeff Reid, founding director, Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative; Deb Markley, co-founder and managing director, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship; Susan Corbett, CEO of Axiom Technologies; Todd Gentry, founder and CEO, InnoLabs; and Dave McCann, business lender, Natural Capital Investment Fund.

“For many fledgling start-ups, rapid-growth companies and more established organizations alike, outside funds are needed to fuel growth,” said Dr. Lisa Benson, AFBF’s director of rural development. “This webinar will address some of the unique challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs as they source money to grow their businesses.”

To be successful in a business start up you need to understand supply sources of capital in the ecosystem.

Potential sources of capital are listed below:

• Microleaders
• Crowdfunding (locally and nationally)
• Credit cards 
• Family and friends.
• Personal loans
• Guarantee programs

Need to have a range of talent matching to the right kind of capital. Steering to the right kind of capital can have matchmaking challenges.

Capital readiness on the part of the entrepreneur

• It is not about the money, you need skills. 
• When it really is about money, it is hard to navigate and understand the capital ecosystem. 

Capital gaps in the ecosystem

• Missing parts of ecosystem; particularly in rural places, missing some of the less traditional, non-bank sources of capital such as start up capital.

Creative Financing - How to navigate through the financial world and survive

• Create a business plan with feasibility studies
• Keep lists up to date
• Budget
• Proforma
• Profit & loss statement
• Balance sheet
• Three years tax returns (business, personal)
• Who is our competition
• Outstanding loans (payment balances)
• Personal financial statement
• Inventory (assets)
• Life Insurance Policies
• Articles of Organization
• Operating Agreement

Relationships

• Who is out there? Get to know is is who in economic development organizations, state, regional and local funding resources.
• Who are non traditional lending organizations?
• Volunteer for boards/committees in other industry sectors. 

Tell your story Again, Again, Again and Again! Show your enthusiasm and to help bring Capital to your new and growing business!