Page 150 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

Building Communities through Entrepreneurship Development 139

FINDING CAPITAL TO BUILD THE SYSTEM

Meeting the capital needs of entrepreneurs in rural communities is an im-
portant component of any entrepreneurship development strategy; how-
ever, entrepreneurship development is a long-term process. To move an en-
trepreneur from developing a marketable idea to starting a viable business
to growing a sustainable venture requires a support system that is long lived
and sustainable over time. If one goal of an entrepreneurship development
system is to create a more entrepreneurial culture in a rural community, ef-
forts to change the culture will require an investment in youth entrepre-
neurship, leadership development, and other activities that take time and
resources.
For an entrepreneurial support system to be transformative, it must first
be sustainable. This section discusses the challenges of garnering public
support for entrepreneurship development at the community level and
then describes two potential sources of long-term support for entrepre-
neurship: (1) foundations and (2) community philanthropy.

The Challenge of Local Support for Entrepreneurship Development

While rural entrepreneurs often serve regional, national, and even inter-
national markets, they are rooted in communities. Their ability to succeed
has a direct impact on their communities, through job generation, sales and
property taxes, and an indirect impact in terms of the quality of life and the
environment of entrepreneurship that may be created by their presence. It
makes sense, then, to consider how communities and local governments
can support the creation of entrepreneurship development systems.
The reality in most communities, however, is one of limited resources
and increasing demands placed on local units of government through de-
volution and policies enacted at the state and federal levels. The ability of
local units of government to identify new sources of funds to support en-
trepreneurship development is limited. The question then becomes how to
encourage a reallocation of economic development resources from more
traditional activities (e.g., marketing, recruitment) to entrepreneurship de-
velopment.
The success in reallocating local resources depends in large part on the
ability to make a case for entrepreneurship development at the local level.
Making the case requires two things: (1) sharing evaluation research de-
scribing the outcomes of investments in entrepreneurship development in
other rural regions and (2) documenting the outcomes of investments al-
ready occurring in the local community. Both of these activities will help
to build a case for local leaders to consider; however, to build long-term