Germinating Business - Incubating the Seeds
You’d think that a guy who owes his political career largely to being named Young Entrepreneur of the Year would understand that small business and start-ups are real engines of economic growth and diversification. I guess it’s more fun to hang with the Luftansa’s and Penske’s.
This morning on CBC Radio I heard Alfie Morgan, once again, telling us that the City needs to step up for small business. He wants City Hall to create an administrative position that would be responsive to the needs of local businesses with respect to permitting, business taxes, zoning and the like.
With Greedlink dead and the "Victory in hand" it would seem a good time to take the money that was likely budgeted to continue the fight to save the children from asthma and pollution induced diarrhea or whatever the "experts" were worrying us about with all their blather and actually spend it here, on people that want to invest in Windsor.
Let me point to Youngstown, Ohio one more time. The Youngstown Business Incubator supported by the city and state governments, the regional chamber of commerce, universities (plural) as well as corporate sponsors. Youngstown, Ohio was recently named among the top 10 U.S. cities in which to start a business.
Why won’t this city make small business a priority?
Why does poor Alfie Morgan have to keep telling everybody that small business is instrumental in local economic development?
Imagine a place where someone with an idea could go and get help fleshing out their plan. A place where co-operative effort and resource sharing were encouraged and successes are celebrated. Crazy, huh! We know they exist elsewhere and they are successful.
I would rather see tax dollars go toward this kind of investment in our future than Air (Truck) Cargo Hubs or architectural water features. The return on investment in new ideas, young people and diversity in our local economy would be fantastic.
Maybe it’s time to git ourselves one of them fancy bidnez incubaders here in our fair city?
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Chris Edwards has a federal grant submitted for just such an incubator.
I presented in front of the small business task force and other than a very cool Mr. Regan, I found that there were few if any local independents on it. I found it conflicting to argue with a realtor who in my opinion, was in a conflict due to his livelihood being tied to developers of greenfield big box sites.
They were concerned with Red Tape, which is important but shouldn’t be the only issue.
I think part of the problem is that people confuse the definition of the term “small business”. When the development commission uses that term, they’re talking about tool and die shops that do up to 20 million in sales.
Remember, many primely located big box developments won’t rent to local independents. I know economic times have changed things a lot but When I owned Bedroom Depot, Bayer’s lake Development in Halifax told us they would not accept a tenant with less than 3 existing locations and less than 3 years in business requiring us to submit 3 years of statements. Since we were one location short, we ended up going in a plaza across the street (equivalent to the roundhouse center to the mall)
James, I would agree that a focus on small business incubation and acceleration is a wise investment.
A good model to look at is the Softech Alliance Network.
http://www.softechalliance.ca/
They’re a regional BIDNEZ XLR8OR in the technology area. They do really great work and easily exceed some of the goals you listed above. I
f something similar could be reproduced with more of a focus on small main street type bisinesses, that could do a lot to help the region get moving again.
One question I would ask is how would such an incubation project differ from or overlap the work that the BIAs, the chamber, the small biz task force, the small biz development centres, etc. already do?
I think promoting a culture of entrepreneurism is desperately needed in the region but to do so by adding more layers complexity and bureaucracy would likely be ineffective.
My understanding of the Youngstown model is that it is a one-stop-shop with a full-time staff and all the resources required to develop and market software and I.T. innovations.
Their purpose is to strip away the layers of complexity and bureaucracy to allow the inventor to concentrate on developing her/his product, while the staff on-site, market the new product and handle the legal end.