Contents |
Finding Entrepreneurs from Within
A common challenge facing many communities, particularly those located smaller, more remote counties of the U.S., is to find ways to create local jobs that pay reasonably good salaries and wages. With the economic churning present in many rural areas today, especially those with a traditional dependence on agriculture or manufacturing, the pressure is on to attract firms to these localities. The reason is simple; declines experienced in these two sectors of the local economy have often translated to big job losses for these rural communities. As such, local leaders are being urged to find ways to replace the valuable jobs that have disappeared as a product of the technical advances in agriculture or the movement of many manufacturing jobs to other countries.
While business attraction remains the dominant economic development strategy in many communities, increasing attention is being dedicated to local job creation strategies. Certainly one of the “creation” strategies being given serious attention today is entrepreneurship. Finding people with key traits to become entrepreneurs is important. These include persons who are innovative, creative, flexible, energetic, and risk-takers. At the same time, it includes individuals whose valuable skills, talents, and interests that can be marshaled into business-related ventures. The challenge is to find the “assets” that individuals possess that can be nurtured into viable home, micro, or small-based enterprises.
Unfortunately, few rural leaders or local economic development organizations are proactively engaged in uncovering the variety of talents existing within their own communities. More often than not, they wait for people to self-identify themselves as entrepreneurs. The problem with this process is that more often than not, the skills that local people possess go unrecognized or unappreciated. But, it is these very talents that can (with proper nurturing and guidance) be the foundation of new entrepreneurial activities in rural areas.
This Information Brief provides a straightforward approach that local individuals and organizations can use to discover the individual entrepreneurial resources that exists in their communities. It builds upon the important work of Kretzmann and McKnight in their 1993 publication titled, Building Communities from the Inside Out.
Uncovering the Business-Related Skills of Individuals
Efforts to uncover the assets of local people must be guided by one important premise; every community — no matter how small, how poor, how racially/ethnically diverse, how limited or diverse the age make-up of its population, or whatever — has a valuable pool of “people assets” upon which business opportunities can be built. The question is “what process can we use to find these talents and skills?” We offer the following two steps for your consideration:
Step 1: Identify the Talents/Skills of Individuals
It’s important to take the time to find out the skills of people who live in your community. Certainly, the process of assessing the possible entrepreneurial skills of individuals seems much more feasible in small-sized communities. The task is more complicated in larger communities because of the sheer number who live in large places. In such cases, we encourage you to start by focusing on a smaller geographic area of the community, such as neighborhoods or housing developments. Or, you may want to begin by targeting youth, parents, teachers, and staff who are part of the local public high school system. What’s critical is that you start somewhere and commit yourself to finding the talents and skills of people wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself.
We offer you an example of a tool that can be used to uncover the assets of individuals. It is a variation of the “Capacity Inventory of Individuals” instrument developed by Kretzmann and McKnight in the early 1990s. “Part I” offers individuals the opportunity to note the many skills that they possess, such as carpentry, painting, creative arts, computer repairs, and cooking. While these may appear to be basic skills of individuals, the reality is every one of these talents can be converted into a business activity. The more people completing the Part I inventory, the more the community is on its way in determining the rich pool of skills that local people have that might fill important business needs in the community. The PART 1: Capacity Inventory of Individuals questionnaire can be found at the following site:
Capacity Inventory of Inviduals
We urge communities to use this instrument as a starting point. However, persons/groups using this document should feel free to add new skills/assets that they see as important to their community, while removing items that just don’t seem to apply to their local area.
Step 2: Find People Who Want to Start a Business or Improve Their Current Business Activities
A second strategy if one that focuses specifically on the subset of local residents who already have shown an interest in starting their own business. The PART II worksheet (presented below) is utilized to identify individuals with interests, or current involvement, in home, micro, or small businesses. For current owners, the tool is used to determine the types of assistance that they might need to further strengthen their business enterprises. For potential entrepreneurs, the worksheet seeks to uncover the set of factors that may be preventing them from starting their own businesses. The information collected through this mapping process helps inform communities about the specific educational programs and/or technical assistance that should be in place if local communities are to stimulate the development, growth and expansion of local businesses.
For individuals who want to take the step of starting their own business, two additional tools are offered for their consideration: (1) a self-assessment of their entrepreneurial capacities; and, (2) a worksheet that helps them take stock of the economic/market feasibility of the products/services they propose to offer as part of their business enterprises. Taken together, these two tools provide additional insights on whether these potential entrepreneurs should act on their proposed business enterprises and if so, what elements they need to consider in their quest to get these enterprises off the ground.
PART II: Enterprising Interests and Assessment Worksheet
Final Thoughts
The process of finding entrepreneurs from within your community is a challenging activity. At the same time, it is a refreshing approach that reminds us all that we don’t have to rely exclusively on importing talent into our communities to build thriving economies. Entrepreneurial possibilities exist in every community. But, time must be set aside to systematically uncover the rich and diverse pool of potential entrepreneurs already living within the boundaries of our neighborhoods and communities. Is the effort worth it our time? Given that research offers convincing evidence that the presence and growth of local entrepreneurial businesses contributes to the civic health of a community (see the article by Tolbert and associates), discovering and nurturing the entrepreneurial talents of local people is more than a matter of economics. It is a vital part of getting more citizens involved in tackling the variety of challenges that communities face today.
References
Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. By John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight. Chicago, IL: ACTA Publications (1993).
Civic Community in Small-Town America: How Civic Welfare is Influenced by Local Capitalism and Civic Engagement. By Charles M. Tolbert, Michael D. Irwin, Thomas A. Lyson, and Alfred R. Nucci. Rural Sociology, Volume 67 – Number 1. March 2002.
Prepared by Bo Beaulieu, Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi State University
