The community must begin this process by engaging community and business leaders and local residents in a strategic planning process to create an action plan that will support entrepreneurship as a community development strategy. The action plan will define the community’s goals, objectives, and strategies for supporting entrepreneurship at the community level.
The plan is typically created through a community-wide strategic planning process. Community participants must determine which goals and objectives they want to pursue first. Once they have identified their priority goals and objectives, they need to determine the specific action steps that will make each goal and objective happen. These action steps should include gathering information on economic and demographic conditions within the community and strategies other communities have used to become entrepreneurial.
The action plan should establish a time frame for achieving each of the action steps, as well as identify resources that may be needed to implement the action. An action-planner worksheet can be a helpful tool for guiding communities through this process. To see an example of an action-planner worksheet, go to: A Livable Walkable Communities Action Planner
The implementation of the community entrepreneurship action plan is ultimately up to the community. Successful implementation depends on the quality of leadership and the vision of local champions for entrepreneurship, how realistic and do-able the action plan’s goals and objectives are, how willing the stakeholders and other community members are to implement the steps, and acquisition of the needed resources and/or support to see the plan through.
