Page 230 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

Energizing Entrepreneurs: Lessons from the Field 219

These strategies addressed entrepreneurial needs at the start-up and early
stage business end of the continuum. This focus and accomplishment in the
microlending and training arena reflect Maine’s tradition of self-employ-
ment.
CEI has moved beyond microlending to address the capital, human, and
technical needs of existing and expanding entrepreneurial businesses. Their
employment of state and federal capital programs link investment and tech-
nical resources to these ventures. With the exception of the far north, the
Western Mountains of Maine are economically distressed and very rural.
There is a sense of being disconnected from the state and the growth cen-
ters of the Bangor/Portland Corridor and the Downeast Coastal communi-
ties. CEI, partnering with existing western Maine development organiza-
tions, created a field presence in western Maine to extend credit and
expertise to entrepreneurs in this rural landscape.
CEI, like Michigan’s Northern Initiatives, also pioneered sectoral or
industry-specific development strategies. Maine, as is true with many rural
states, has deep roots in natural resource industries such as fishing and
farming. CEI worked with area commercial fishing interests to establish a
fish market in Portland when the closest market was in Boston. Its other
work with timber and agricultural interests has fostered important progress
from raw commodities to emerging value-added industries.
CEI, unlike many traditional development organizations, was not ob-
sessed with job creation as its primary outcome metric. It understood Maine,
the residents, and the communities, and the need to help self-employed and
small businesses find greater economic security and higher incomes as im-
portant. Greater job creation could only come if existing enterprises were
doing better and had greater sustainability.
There are many chapters in the CEI story. An important new development
in CEI’s history is its geographic reach moving beyond its home county in
Downeast Maine to western Maine and other parts of New England. CEI un-
derstands that if it is to have systemic impact, organizational scale is very
important. Today, it is extending its reach to the entire New England region
(Rowley 2003).

Northern Initiatives of Michigan

Northern Michigan, especially the fifteen counties north of the Mackinac
Bridge, is a very rural region rooted in mining, fishing, forestry, manufac-
turing, and tourism. All of these industries are undergoing profound
changes that challenge the very future of this area. Northern Initiatives (NI),
which is affiliated with Shore Bank of Chicago and the University of North-
ern Michigan, is a highly networked organization that partners widely to
achieve its mission.