Interest in entrepreneurship―both that practiced by a set of entrepreneurial-minded community leaders as well as those devoted to building an economy of entrepreneurs―is growing.

Let's take the latter first. Economic development interests at the national, state, regional, and local level are recognizing how important entrepreneurship is to growing and sustaining the economy. The vast majority of new businesses and increased employment comes from fairly small, localized entrepreneurial business activity rather than large industrial recruitment and development. So from governors and state development agencies to local chambers of commerce and city and town elected and appointed officials, there is a significant upsurge in attention being paid to entrepreneurship as a means of growing the economy.

Importantly, entrepreneurship is not limited to the private sector. Many not-for-profit organizations and an increasing number of communities themselves are deriving dividends from doing "business" differently. An entrepreneurial approach to addressing a community's future is leading to creative ideas and new energy. Communities are finding that embracing an entrepreneurial approach has resulted in a more robust business climate, greater success among the civic and religious sectors, and more effective government.

If your community is interested in supporting entrepreneurship, it should first do some homework to determine if it can provide an entrepreneur-friendly environment or if it first needs to build capacity to successfully support and generate entrepreneurship. The following questions can help you decide where to get started:

1) Do we believe in our local businesses, and are we willing to help them become successful? How well have we supported our local businesses in the past?

2) Do we have people in the community who will champion these efforts and function as an entrepreneurship support team?

3) Are we willing and capable to foster new and diverse leadership to support these efforts?

4) Are we committed to change and innovation?

5) Are we willing to spend as much time and effort in supporting our local entrepreneurs as we are other economic development strategies (such as recruiting industries)?

6) Can we provide educational programs and technical assistance for our local entrepreneurs? Is the community willing and capable to invest actual dollars in these efforts?

7) Are we willing and capable to grow new entrepreneurial talent to sustain these efforts?

8) Do we have the human resources and physical infrastructure to provide these services in our community?

9) Do we have the financial resources to provide financial assistance and access to capital for new entrepreneurs?

10) Are we willing to partner with other communities to identify and provide the resources we need to be entrepreneurial?

If your community can honestly answer yes to at least seven of these 10 questions, it is probably ready to adopt an entrepreneurship-based economic development strategy. If it cannot (and most rural communities will not be able to answer yes to these questions initially), the community needs to build capacity before it moves forward with entrepreneurship. There are a number of local resources, including the Cooperative Extension Service in your state, that can help your community build capacity and become an entrepreneurial community.

To read more about making the case to those interested in entrepreneurship in your community, see:

Energizing Entrepreneurs.