LANSING – The Small Business Association of Michigan is conducting a 12-month pilot project that delivers complex and sophisticated market research to small entrepreneurs in Tuscola, Houghton and Keweenaw counties who want to accelerate the growth of their businesses. If successful, SBAM plans to expand the project across Michigan.
The SBAM Economic Gardening Pilot Project is funded by $130,000 in grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Rural Business Enterprise Grant program. Under this project, a team of business development experts over the next year will work with small business entrepreneurs in the three counties to assess their growth potential and market research needs, secure market research on a deeply discounted basis by partnering with libraries, and then finally help the local entrepreneurs effectively utilize the research results to substantially grow their small businesses.
SBAM hopes to dramatically expand this effort after the year-long pilot phase and extend it to communities all across the state, according to project director Mark Clevey, vice president for entrepreneurial development at SBAM.
�??Small business entrepreneurship is Michigan�??s hope for a better future,�?� he says. �??Michigan simply must become a world class expert in the creation and expansion of growth-oriented small businesses in high economic multiplier industry sectors. A business-as-usual approach to small business development is no longer viable. Michigan needs economic development that both fosters the start-up of growth-oriented entrepreneurs and accelerates the expansion and growth of existing firms.�?�
The Keweenaw Economic Development Association and Tuscola County Economic Development Corp. were selected as local partners because of their previous experience and strong desire to grow their local economies through the robust creation, retention and expansion of growth-oriented small business entrepreneurs, Clevey says.
In addition to the local partners and their community library systems, SBAM is being assisted by Michigan State University Extension, Growing Local Economics, Inc.; Shepherd Advisors, Inc., Michigan Library Association, Michigan Library Consortium, and the State of Michigan – Library of Michigan. In addition, Clevey says the Michigan Municipal League and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority �??seeded the foundation for this effort and are important advisors on the project.�?�
According to Clevey, most economic gardening programs (designed to grow local small businesses as opposed to attracting new businesses) specialize in market research and operate under the guise of local economic development programs.
A key component of this effort will be to use the aggregated purchasing power of SBAM�??s membership to secure substantial discounts on expensive and high-end marketing research for growth-oriented small business entrepreneurs in the target communities.
For more information, click on SBAM.Org
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