Posted by Devin Miles on April 17, 2013 · Leave a Comment
Heritage Ohio staff and about 40 Ohioans, including Main Street Managers, and downtown revitalization advocates attended the conference, hosted this year in New Orleans. Having just completed 5 days of inspirational and educational sessions, I thought I would share my top ten things learned, in no particular order:
1. The JOBS Act of 2012 allows for locavesting and crowd funding, providing more options for financing businesses to create jobs. There are many more platforms than I realized, and they are all slightly different, so finding the right match is important.
2. The Entrepreneur – the term is thrown around so much we’ve begun to lose sight of who we mean. It can be anyone: a car mechanic, a gardener, a knitter, a computer geek. Think small, not so big. Make your downtown welcoming to anyone with a business idea; create an environment of support where business can thrive.
3. Sponsorship – believe in the value of your program and its activities. Develop relationships with your sponsors with as much thought to the follow-up as to the ask.
4. Streetscape projects can be challenging for downtown businesses. Effective communication, frequent progress meetings and a creative attitude will get the community through the process.
5. Business Enhancement Committees can create a Recruitment Manual to give them structure month after month to make the best use of your market analysis data and help you find the new businesses that belong in your community. Court your new business candidates.
6. Fundraising isn’t so hard when everyone is able to share the story of your downtown. Use your revitalization statistics. Tailor your story to the listener’s style.
7. What is trending in 2013? Diversity, young talent, young women, deliberate spending, shortened commutes, health and wellness, main stream technology.
8. Transportation – Reduce our car-centric decisions. Walkable communities are the future. Healthy and hip, they attract the young people, your town’s future.
9. Millennials (under 30 yrs.) – get them on your board and committees, or you may go the way of the dinosaurs.
10. New Orleans is a party city.
Thousands of communities across the country are doing creative work in revitalizing their downtowns and neighborhood commercial centers. You too can be part of this amazing process, it’s all about the can-do attitude.
Filed under News · Tagged with 2013, diversity, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, fundraising, JOBS Act, list, main street, managers, millennials, national main street conference, new orleans, preservation, revitalization, sponsorship, top 10, transportation, trending, trends, walkable, walkable cities
Posted by Frank Quinn on April 13, 2012 · 2 Comments
Part of Main Street’s Four-Point approach to revitalization comprises the businesses located downtown, the entrepreneurs who operate them, and the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Where does Heritage Ohio come into the picture? We work to connect the downtown stakeholders to the resources that will make them successful.
Our Revitalization Committee has been active in collecting resources on entrepreneurship, so we thought we’d share some of the best online resources that could help today’s (or tomorrow’s) entrepreneurs.
Braintree Business Development Center (www.braintreepartners.org) is based in Mansfield and has been active since its founding in 1986. Among its offerings: regular events (you can learn about co-op enterprises in an upcoming workshop), basic resources for entrepreneurs on their website, and its Appleseed Micro-Loan Program.
The National Business Incubation Association (www.nbia.org) based in Athens, has a handy incubator search feature on its website and features a free webinar on April 25.
The Ohio Employee Ownership Center (www.oeockent.org) a nonprofit outreach center located at Kent State University offers resources for business succession planning, for transitioning to an employee-owned business, or to assist current employee-owned businesses. They also offer an annual employee-owned business conference, coming up this year April 20 in Akron.
The Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet, www.acenetworks.org) is another Athens-based resource offering business incubation and business loan services. It’s well worth your time to contact ACEnet directly to set up a tour of their innovative kitchen incubator.
If you have an idea for a successful business, Ohio University’s SBDC (sbdc.voinovichschool.ohio.edu/boss/boss.aspx) offers its BOSS Program (Basis of a Successful Start), an online training tool to help you evaluate your plan’s potential while learning about moving from a business idea to business execution.
Finally, Lake Erie College (lec.edu/entrepreneurship/business_plan_clinic) offers its Business Plan Clinic, an online resource that covers the basics of creating a successful business plan.
Do you know of other Ohio-based entrepreneurial resources we should be aware of? Tell us about other great resources for Ohio-based entrepreneurs in the comments section below.
