by Bill Fontana
If you have been paying attention (and we hope you have) to what both PDC and the National Main Street Center espouse, you should be well aware that one of the fundamental missions of your organization, and one of your primary responsibilities as a manager, is to improve and/or enhance the environment for reinvestment in your community. This mission/responsibility extends to creating a better environment for entrepreneurship in your town. In short, you should be fostering a more dynamic “entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
A WHAT? Yeah, I said it – a more dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem. So what does an entrepreneurial ecosystem look like? If you simply Google the term, you will find a wealth of information. Recently, I attended an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) funding workshop, where there was a great deal of discussion about the importance of fostering and supporting these entrepreneurial ecosystems. The graphic here, from the ARC website, helps to more clearly define the structure of an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
There is a lot to digest here and an “economic vitality” committee that takes on this task should realize that there is a great deal of work to be done. First, and probably most importantly, is to conduct an assessment of the community’s status relative to each of these “infrastructure” categories.
Without knowing where you stand, you will never know where you have to go.
Some of these infrastructure issues will be easier to address than others.
Among the more difficult segments to change will be talent and market access. Obviously. More densely populated parts of the Commonwealth will have a greater number of potential entrepreneurs and so help with generating a critical mass of individuals necessary to establish a local entrepreneurial network. It’s not that smaller town and rural areas can’t develop a local ecosystem, they just have to be more realistic about the size of the system.
The two areas where I do see the local organization being able to significantly impact the entrepreneurial ecosystem are the community culture and government/regulatory support elements. Informational sessions, educational workshops, facilitating the creation of local entrepreneurial networks and “makers guilds” are all steps that the local organization can take. There are also organizations, including the PA Department of Education, that are supporting the development of entrepreneurship programs for young people. Local revitalization organizations can and should be a partner in that effort.
In addition, a review of the local zoning ordinance to make sure that the downtown is “user friendly” for incubators, co-working spaces, commercial kitchens, micro brew-pubs and micro-distilleries, sidewalk cafes, etc., all help to facilitate the creation of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Setting up micro or small business loan funds and partnering with your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) can help with the business assistance and the capital side of the ecosystem.
Creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem is a transformative strategy that every local revitalization organization should explore, evaluate and (if appropriate) incorporate into your five year strategy.