Page 131 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

120 Thomas S. Lyons, Gregg A. Lichtenstein, and Nailya Kutzhanova

organizations typically offer assistance at no or low cost. At higher levels of
entrepreneurship skill, the service providers are more likely to be private.
When thought about in this way, service provision can be organized in a
manner that ensures appropriate pricing.
Individual and group performance improvement on the part of the ser-
vice providers that make up the system is made possible by the work of a
neutral, third party facilitator. This individual builds trust among the mem-
bers of the service provision team and facilitates their learning and growth.
The ELS provides a lingua franca that makes communication and collabo-
ration possible.
While each subsystem is developed independently, they must ultimately
be brought together in a dynamic balance. The Entrepreneur Development
Sub-System continuously prepares clients to effectively use technical and fi-
nancial assistance by helping them to develop their skills. The Service Pro-
vision Sub-System provides that technical and financial assistance in a
transparent, systematic, and strategic way.

How Developing Skills in This Way Benefits an Entrepreneur
The approach to developing entrepreneurial skills described in this
chapter benefits the entrepreneurs served in several ways. First, it causes
participating entrepreneurs to focus on their businesses. Entrepreneurs
participating in the ELS process uniformly cite this as its chief benefit.
It is too easy for entrepreneurs to become distracted by things that
are tangential to growing their companies. The ELS’s coaching process
keeps them on track, employing both individual attention and peer pres-
sure.
Another benefit to entrepreneurs lies in the way in which the system pre-
pares them to fully avail themselves of technical and financial assistance,
not only helping them to build the skills they need to use these services but
structuring the delivery of the services to ensure their maximum relevance.
This approach provides an environment conducive to individual transfor-
mation.
Understanding their current skill level, creating a game plan for skill de-
velopment, working with a coach, and interacting with peers help entrepre-
neurs establish reference points from which to work. They can use these ref-
erence points as a basis for expanding the vision for their companies. For
example, an entrepreneur in an ELS project in West Virginia entered the sys-
tem operating a limousine service. Over the course of his skill development
process, he realized that he was not simply in the limousine business; he
was actually in the entertainment business. This led to the creation of
unique experiences for his customers that have allowed him to substantially
expand his enterprise.