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A Look at What’s Happening in the States
The various state capitols are a regular part of our “beat” here at NDE E-News as we regularly report on how state governments are working to foster entrepreneurship. This special issue of E-News is solely devoted to the topic. We’ll examine some outstanding examples of states that are putting together innovative and effective initiatives to help local residents to start new businesses or to accelerate growth in existing companies. In this issue, we take a look at what’s happening in Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, and South Dakota. This is not an exhaustive list, so we welcome suggestions on communities we should cover in future editions. Send your comments or suggest to
nde-states@pfidc.org.
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Georgia
Governor Sonny Perdue, who brings the perspective of a former entrepreneur to the Governor’s office, is driving much of Georgia’s entrepreneurship agenda. In early February, Perdue made a major speech to 2nd Annual Georgia Summit on Entrepreneurship. In these remarks, he outlined an aggressive plan to support Georgia’s entrepreneurs and to re-orient the state’s economic development agencies to make them more small business-friendly. Perdue has created a new Office of Small Business and Entrepreneur Support within the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism; he has also created a statewide coordinating network that will link service providers and entrepreneurs to improve the existing support services. In addition to these efforts, Georgia is seeking to expand the availability of entrepreneurship training for high school students. At present, few schools outside of Atlanta offer such courses.
To learn more, visit http://www.gov.state.ga.us/document.asp?doc=press/press364
Kentucky
Kentucky’s leaders have thought long and hard about how economic change is transforming their state. In fact, Kentucky is one of the few states with its own Office for the New Economy (http://www.one-ky.com), first created in 2000. Many of these efforts started under former Governor Paul Patton, but his successor, Ernie Fletcher, has also embraced innovation and entrepreneurship. The state’s six Innovation and Commercialization Centers (run by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation) are a key part of this effort. The Centers help incubate new businesses and help prepare existing businesses to access venture capital or other forms of equity investment. KSTC is also piloting a new program – the entreSchools Initiative – that works with high schools to help students create their own ventures as a learning experience. The state is also targeting leading industrial clusters in various parts of the state. For example, Louisville is developing firms focused on cardiovascular innovation. In Western Kentucky, firms are seeking to develop new technologies for the coal industry.
The Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation web page is available at
www.kstc.com
Governor Fletcher’s web page is available at http://governor.ky.gov/
Michigan
Michigan’s governor, Jennifer Granholm, also seems to have a growing interest in entrepreneurship and the knowledge economy. She has unveiled a major program called Destination: 21st Century Economy that seeks to transform Michigan so it can more effectively compete in the coming decades. The plan includes seven planks that cover areas such as workforce development, health care affordability, and other key issues. In terms of supporting entrepreneurs, Granholm has proposed investing up to $500 million in three funds that will support new technology businesses, growing small and medium-sized firms, and companies developed thanks to technology from Michigan’s university system. This plan also includes an interesting proposal to support “cool cities”
(http://www.michigancoolcities.com). Based on ideas from Richard Florida’s book, Rise of the Creative Class, this effort seeks to make the state’s cities more attractive to younger workers through support for high-speed Internet access, arts funding, and downtown development efforts.
To learn more, visit http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-29544_29546_29628-84911--,00.html
North Carolina
North Carolina has long been a leader in innovative economic development strategies, and it is continuing this tradition with its current programs to spur rural entrepreneurship. This effort, led the by North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center (www.ncruralcenter.org), is focused on spurring new business creation in the state’s 85 rural counties. A new Center for Rural Entrepreneurship has been created, and the state’s leading small business service providers, such as the Small Business Technology Development Centers and Small Business Centers located at community colleges, have come together in a new Business Resource Alliance. The Alliance’s purpose is to coordinate service delivery, and to improve both the quality and breadth of services available to all North Carolinians with an interest in starting a new venture. One early result from this work has been the New Opportunities for Workers program, which provides entrepreneurship training for displaced workers. In addition, the State Department of Commerce and the Rural Center are coordinating a statewide demonstration project that will provide grants to communities who are implementing innovative entrepreneurship development initiatives.
To learn more about these efforts, visit http://www.ncruralcenter.org/entrepreneurship/index.asp
South Dakota
South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds has adopted an aggressive program to diversify the state’ s economy away from a traditional reliance on agriculture and other resource-based industries. Regulatory reform tops Rounds’ agenda. Along with the state legislature, Rounds has recently signed legislation (Senate Bill 112) that requires small business input before new state regulations can be put into place. South Dakota is also creating a host of more proactive steps to nurture new businesses under the 2010 initiative, an economic stimulus plan introduced last fall. Among the recently enacted laws is a proposal to create a new $3 million fund that provides low-interest loans to start-up companies (House Bill 1145); another program (SB 202) aims to provide loans for investment groups seeking to take equity stakes in new South Dakota-based businesses.
The South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development web page can be accessed at
http://www.sdgreatprofits.com/index.htm.
To learn more about the 2010 initiative, visit http://www.2010initiative.com/.
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