Q: What Will it Take to Get the Economy Back on Track?

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on October 21, 2008

A: More entrepreneurs!

Let’s talk about micro, small and medium entrepreneurs: the ones who don’t beg for bail outs, the ones who make responsible decisions because their own checkbooks will end up paying the consequences of poor decisions and failures. They are some of the bright spots in our economy, the ones who deserve tax cuts, who provide the most return on any investment of taxpayer money, and the ones who contribute to the most job creation at the lowest cost to the nation’s taxpayers.

Last Saturday, October 18th, a group of new entrepreneurs graduated from the Rural Enterprise Center’s first business planning and management series here in Northfield, Minnesota. Though the group is small, and the challenges they face are huge, they represent energy and the hope that our rural communities will thrive despite many challenges.

According to the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund, who produced the CORE FOUR^® curriculum guide used for the training, “The success of the customers of the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund is measured by an 80% business startup survival rate – compared to a national 80% business startup failure rate.”

Knowing what works and the doing what works is our priority here at the Rural Enterprise Center. Although we constantly experiment and work to find new, more effective and efficient ways of getting entrepreneurs off the ground, making sure that we start on the right foot is of the highest priority as we grow our program.

Hard work is ahead, but completion of the four-week training course means that these new business owners are better prepared in terms of speed, professionalism and level of understanding of the planning and management process. The training will allow them to independently make better decisions, and when they feel they lack something, they now have the tools and knowledge to find solutions.

As for the Rural Enterprise Center, we will continue to build the support systems and infrastructure so that these new entrepreneurs can have the best tools and resources available to minimize their risks, maximize their potential for success, and contribute to our local economies.

In these times of economic uncertainty and discouragement, I invite you to think about some of the people who represent hope for better times – individuals whose hard work will help revitalize the economies of rural communities. Small and medium-sized enterprises represent the backbone of this country’s economic system. They deserve our support.

Here is a slideshow of the training course and the graduation ceremony where we were honored with the presence of Tim Penny, president of our sponsor, the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation. Local sponsors include Northfield Community Action Center, First National Bank and Community Resource Bank.

In case you’re wondering what the two men and the little boy are doing in one of the photos: Cristofer, the only four-year-old in the class, tried to get through an opening in the chair and ended up getting stuck. It took some planning to get him out!