Incorporating Entrepreneurship into North Carolina’s Economic Development Infrastructure (cont.)

North Carolina now requires a complementary system focused on the education, technical assistance, financing, networking and policy culture for entrepreneurs to create “homegrown jobs.”

The Kellogg Foundation and the national think tank CFED describe five pillars of a comprehensive system for developing successful entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurship education for all ages; technical assistance for business owners at all stages; access to capital; entrepreneur networks; and supportive culture and policy. These are the same five areas that rural business owners identified as needing improvement when they were convened in focus groups in 22 distressed and minority communities throughout North Carolina in 2003.

The Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship and partners developed a baseline assessment of those five EDS pillars in rural North Carolina, which revealed:

• Much of the rural adult workforce has low literacy, so traditional education formats don’t reach them. Entrepreneurship education must also be more widespread for K-12 schoolchildren, the next generation of business owners.
  
  
• The current system of technical assistance is better developed for existing small businesses than for aspiring or survival entrepreneurs, who require more handholding and are less likely to travel to a stranger to seek help.
  
  
• Loan capital providers have ample funds but many aspiring rural entrepreneurs need improved business literacy to become qualified candidates, and growth entrepreneurs need more angel investors and venture capital.
  
  
• Local networks of rural entrepreneurs are rare and the flow of new ideas to the state’s distressed places is slow.
  
  
• Limited understanding of entrepreneurship prevails among rural elected boards – and the local workers – who long reaped the benefits of the industrial branch plant or farm economy and are now unequipped for the innovation economy.

Based on this assessment and direction from the Kellogg Foundation, the EDS team developed the following work plan for addressing the five elements:

1. Demystify, publicize and improve education offerings for rural entrepreneurs at various stages of business development. Educate rural children to understand and practice entrepreneurial thinking their whole lives. Pilot a program to graduate urban-educated technology entrepreneurs back to rural areas.

2. Create a seamless collaborative system of high-quality technical assistance. Design creative approaches to reach all of North Carolina’s rural entrepreneurs near where they live with affordable business problem-solving assistance – through trained community brokers, regional events,Webbased tools, and distance learning. Develop confidentiality agreements for service providers to cross-refer clients, as well as a common set of performance metrics to measure joint economic development impact.

3. Increase individual understanding and uptake of available financial capital. Develop interactive materials, workshops and Web tools for rural entrepreneurs and their business counselors about available entrepreneurship capital sources and their requirements. Identify capital gaps and work jointly to fill them.

4. Use people and information networks to connect rural entrepreneurs with new ideas. Draw upon proven experts such as the Council for Entrepreneurial Development to develop materials and workshops for communities and entrepreneurs on establishing local entrepreneurs’ clubs, mentor/apprentice arrangements, and topic-centered forums. Ensure rural entrepreneurs have access to high-speed Internet at nearby technology centers, if not at home.

5. Develop cultural change agents and policy to support them. Develop the capacity of rural leaders to support entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy. Inform local, tribal, state and federal leaders about simple steps they can take to strengthen their entrepreneurial culture and outcomes. Track the aggregated results of the collaborative, including in influencing policy and public opinion.

Creating a seamless system for developing entrepreneurs is ambitious but critical for rural prosperity.With continued innovation and adaptation of its economic development infrastructure, North Carolina aspires to be known as a top place for both corporate relocation and the startup and growth of new firms, including in the most rural areas.

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