Cities and states have long used economic development incentives to lure in manufacturers and retailers, but more recently, cities have started using different tools — incubation and collaboration efforts — to nature home-grown small businesses.
Consider, for example, Blue Ridge Heating and Air, owned by Chris Davidson and Ben Lagrange, with offices in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brevard, North Carolina. The owners, both engineers who have worked for several large manufacturing companies including General Electric, attended an IGNITE Greer event, a networking function where they and many others listened to presentations from two different companies looking for help with a problem.
“They might overview things they've done to try to address that problem and what the results were,” Lagrange said. “But then there would be this 10-minute time period where the people in the audience could make suggestions or ask questions, basically give them feedback.”
The two were intrigued and wanted to learn more about the Platform at Greer, an entrepreneurship initiative which had created the IGNITE Greer program and others to help entrepreneurs and innovators grow their businesses.
“I felt like that was a really good forum that the Platform had put together that really didn't cost much of anything, so I started going to those whenever I could,” Lagrange said. “And that got me more involved in the Greer community in general.”
This is one of the key goals of the Platform at Greer, says Reno Denton, assistant city manager for community and economic development for the City of Greer, which runs the program.
“The mission basically is twofold — one, to be authentically helpful to entrepreneurs and innovators; and then two, to really help those entrepreneurs, innovators build community,” Denton said. “We went through a long process of prototyping our program, and one of the comments that came through again and again is sort of how lonely entrepreneurs, innovators felt in their journey.”
The Platform at Greer also offers an evening gathering called the Huddle, and a two-day Bootcamp helping businesses determine whether there is a market for their product.
“What we found is that there were lots of resources on the front end for folks who wanted to start a small business — groups that would teach them how to organize and who to talk to, how to think about going from a hobby to a business,” Denton said. “We also found there were lots of resources on the back end for those successful entrepreneurs who are ready to scale, and perhaps looking for support and funding … What was missing was that critical middle piece of product-market fit, whether or not folks would actually pay for the product or service that the entrepreneur or the innovator was creating. So the Bootcamp became our niche play.”
Davidson and Lagrange used the Bootcamp to test a mold sensor they created.
“We came out of that saying, yes, there's definitely a market,” Lagrange said.
They received coaching on product development and marketing, patented their sensor and began selling it to heating and air customers. They also tapped into resources from the Platform for attorneys, marketing and website development.
Nearly 100 entrepreneurs have now participated in the Platform’s Bootcamp and more than 1,000 companies participate annually in all its programming.
The City of Columbia has offered similar programming through its Office of Business Opportunities for more than 20 years. Its support includes workshops, webinars and an entrepreneur training program helping about 50 businesses a year learn about financing, branding and other topics at a reduced fee.
“It's important for businesses and individuals to have some buy-in to the process, to commit themselves to attend the class every week for 10 weeks,” said Ayesha Driggers, director of the Office of Business Opportunities. “So we do charge that nominal fee.”
The Fast Trac Growth Venture program helps businesses that have been operating five or more years grow with classes on budgeting, sales strategies, management and business planning.
NxLevel For Micro Entrepreneurs is for startups or businesses less than two years old with fewer than five employees. The 10-week course takes owners and would-be owners from choosing an idea and developing a business plan to analyzing their market and risk management. The city celebrates each class with a graduation.
“It speaks to the spirit of our office,” Driggers said. “We really are here to encourage our small businesses, to help them navigate the process along the way.”
Many graduates later attend the Small Business Week Conference, which the city has hosted for 12 years. It brings business owners together with other resource organizations, including local chambers of commerce and the Small Business Development Center. Other businesses, such as financial and professional services firms, attend to network and meet potential clients.
The city’s initiatives also include reducing business regulations, and using grants to help small businesses fill a community need, such as getting produce from local farms and vendors to residential areas that may lack easy access to fresh food.
Columbia plans to expand funding for its successful building facade program to help businesses beautify their buildings, and offers low-interest business loans for small businesses.
“We recognize that we can't do everything for everybody, but we feel like we're a good starting point to kind of alleviate some frustration,” Driggers said of her office.
Being that first stop is the goal of the Don Ryan Center for Innovation in Bluffton, which began in 2012 in partnership with Clemson University's technology incubator program. The center initially offered meetings and one-on-one mentoring with retired professionals to early stage and startup businesses.
“At the time, Bluffton was really dominated by tourism, hospitality, construction and retail,” said David Nelems, the center’s CEO. “They really wanted to widen the tax base, especially after 2008. They wanted to do different things and they wanted to be progressive in the best sense of the word.”
The center has grown and evolved ever since, and now helps local businesses in all stages. The startup programs are geared to early-stage businesses. The growth track helps those that have a positive cash flow but want to expand or innovate. The center helps businesses in the thriving stage who may still need occasional support. The center also targets military veterans and first responders with its Heroes program and helps skilled tradespeople, such as electricians and plumbers, start businesses.
In 13 years, Don Ryan Center for Innovation has helped over 300 companies and formally “incubated” 95 of those. The five-year survival rate for small businesses it has worked with is 73%, compared to 50% nationwide.
Some of the center’s key success stories include a data analytics company, which provided auto information to lenders and insurance companies, that recently sold for $60 million, and a microgreens grower in Hardeeville that went from “Is this a business?” to an award-winning success with revenues in the millions.
The center operates with a staff of three, who all have entrepreneurial backgrounds. It is funded by the Town of Bluffton but does charge fees — below market rates — for its services.
“We learned a long time ago that you have to charge for it,” Nelems said. “There are other organizations that do this for free — free business plan, free budget. And we learned that when you give it away for free, nobody really respects it. They miss meetings. They're not really engaged.”
The Don Ryan Center for Innovation is also planning a new facility called the Hive — a landing pad for businesses looking to relocate or expand to Bluffton.
“Our goal is just to expand the tax base of Bluffton and the region and broaden the types of industries that we have,” Nelems said.