Page 273 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

262 Scott Loveridge

4. Is there an ombudsman or mentor who can help guide microbusinesses
through all the early steps of business formation and growth (Muske and Woods
2004)? Often, a local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) offers
these kinds of services, but localities and states vary in the level of match-
ing dollars for this federally supported system. If the area does not have a
local SBDC office, sometimes an arrangement can be made for regular vis-
its by area SBDC staff. Other organizations that might offer ombudsman
services are the local Extension office, the Chamber of Commerce, financial
institutions, or the local economic development authority (LEDA). It is rel-
atively straightforward to determine whether these services exist locally. It is
critically important to have access to these services within the area.
5. Is there a mechanism for learning about and acting upon emerging needs of
the community’s entrepreneurs (Muske and Woods 2004; Warner and Daugh-
erty 2004)? Frequently, the LEDA conducts regular business retention and
expansion visits with larger employers in their territory. A shortcoming to
this approach is that most LEDAs take a “Lone Ranger” approach to prob-
lem solving, attempting to address a specific firm’s issues on the spot. While
that is fine as far as it goes, missing elements are consistent tracking of the
small problems faced by many firms and broader community action to ad-
dress the problems. Some local economic developers establish a database to
identify themes across businesses; more practitioners should adopt this
strategy.
A second weakness of the “Lone Ranger” approach is that a focus on
larger employers can mean that issues faced by start-up and second stage
firms can go unnoticed. Community-based business retention and expan-
sion programs (e.g., Loveridge and Morse 1997) address this shortcoming
by leveraging the resources of the local LEDA with a broader cross-section
of community opinion leaders in a comprehensive action-oriented exami-
nation of business issues. If done well, a community-based business reten-
tion and expansion program can boost the political capital of the LEDA to
accomplish results as well as help to uncover issues that may have ham-
pered overall business development.
6. Is the community welcoming to newcomers (Levitte 2004; Henderson,
Low, and Weiler, chapter 4)? Newcomers are critical to the continued health
of the local economy. They bring ideas, contacts, and experiences that may
not otherwise be present. Newcomers also provide replacements for people
who leave an area through life cycle changes such as going to college, trans-
fer, and other reasons. Moreover, one school of thought says that certain
creative types are highly mobile and seek a tolerant and welcoming atmo-
sphere (Florida 2002). Thus, it is an important question, but not one of the
easier ones on this list to answer.
Some insights might be obtained by asking recent arrivals questions such
as “What helped you adjust when you moved here?” but that provides only