Every community-led effort begins with an individual or individuals with the motivation to make something happen. Before these visionaries can get local support from the community, they must engage the community in the planning process. This planning process should be led by a diverse group of stakeholders from the community to ensure that a wide range of community interests are represented.
However, engaging the right combination of stakeholders to serve on the leadership team for community entrepreneurship can be challenging. Not only must this team be representative of the community, it must also engage people who are committed to entrepreneurship as a community economic development strategy and are willing to work hard to make it happen. In addition to representing diverse community and business interests, the leadership team should consist of individuals with a diversity of organizational strengths. It might include community members who are champions for entrepreneurship, mediators, strategists, politicians, catalysts, analysts, and effective spokespersons.
When organizing this community entrepreneurship leadership team, those who are promoting entrepreneurship as a community development process need to first identify organizations or constituents who have a stake in community economic development. That list of stakeholders should include both formal and informal community and business leaders. From that initial list, the promoters of the community entrepreneurship effort will want to invite to the table those individuals who will most likely represent the diverse interests of the community, bring unique assets to the process, and are committed to developing and implementing an action plan for entrepreneurship as a community economic development strategy.
