Page 212 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

Understanding and Growing a Community’s Microbusiness Segment 201

THE COMMUNITY ROLE
IN ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT

Local businesses and entrepreneurs do not operate apart from the rest of the
environment. If they are fortunate, they operate in communities that strive
to offer a nurturing environment for potential and existing entrepreneurs
(see Hustedde, chapter 3). Such communities act entrepreneurially both in
their efforts to help and support business owners and in their efforts to see
the macrocommunity from an entrepreneurial perspective. Communities
have unique resources and assets that can be categorized into specific areas,
including natural, institutional, financial, and human (Woods and Sanders
1989). Successful communities, like successful entrepreneurs or businesses,
combine these resources to achieve profitable and positive goals.
One of the first tasks for a community is to identify what each support
entity can add to the economic development plan. Many support organiza-
tions tend to operate with a “silo” philosophy and basically offer a specific
set of resources on a continual basis. There may be little, or no, recognition
often by the agency of alternative resources, approaches or delivery meth-
ods. In fact, there is often no interest in coordination, cooperation, or com-
munication and even an unawareness of other resources.
Second, there typically is no follow-up to determine if the person seeking
help went to the recommended agency or whether any assistance provided
was of any help (see Lyons, chapter 6). Another operational mode found
among support agencies is a one-size-fits-all approach. With this method,
the agency offers somewhat broader support than that offered by a “silo”
but the services the business owner receives are the same whether they are
a product or service business, already in business or thinking about starting,
big or small, or other criteria.
A third approach to providing business support is the group education
model. Here a series of courses are given to groups. Individualized support
is minimal, that which occurs may be during the coffee break. Each of these
approaches do not usually meet the needs of microbusinesses.
The best community strategy is to remove barriers, whether a sole set of
resources, a one-size-fits-all approach, or a group education process. The
community can either work with the support groups to expand their offer-
ings or tailor a program to best support specific business owners. Most
likely, the final result will be a blend of all of these methods and will prob-
ably include all of the support agencies. What differs is how each agency is
brought into the mix. Often a community can find the agencies, determine
what each offers, build a database of available support, and then track busi-
ness owners to make sure they receive what they need and that it has an-
swered their question(s).