The 3 Keys To Helping Entrepreneurs Stay Here And Start Businesses
Schiebe
I'm constantly meeting entrepreneurs, would-be-entrepreneurs, educators, students and government officials and am amazed at how many of them talk about innovation and startups in the Greater Worcester area. Their level of interest is quite high. The economy might have something to do with it, but I think most of them are just interested in discussing their ideas with others, supporting them with resources, starting their businesses here and sharing their experiences with other like-minded individuals. They don't want to travel to Cambridge or Boston to do this; they would rather stay and start something right here. What's holding them back? We don't have the Cambridge Innovation Center or MassChallenge here and they typically draw our young entrepreneurs. With a little more aggressive action by organizations in Greater Worcester, we can change this.
Let's get specific. How can we accelerate innovation and startups in the Worcester area? How can we provide more opportunities for success?
Places. What's needed are more places to encourage and develop entrepreneurs. Innovation and entrepreneurial development takes place when there is a physical space or place for young start-ups to get started, get resources, and find mentors: places to share ideas, brainstorm, leverage talent and provide moral support. We often refer to these as incubators or business accelerators. We see this growing with organizations like TechSandBox in Hopkinton, as well as Running Start and Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, both in Worcester, but we need much more. These are a great start, but where's the support from area colleges and universities?
With so many successful alumni entrepreneurs from these schools there must be some opportunities for funding. There is still a lot of underutilized office space that could be put to good use, and the city needs to step up. At the recent Venture Forum (formerly the WPI Venture Forum) kickoff event at Clark University, keynote speaker Tim Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said his organization's key goals for 2014 are to recruit, retain and innovate. They coincide nicely with the requirement of more “places” for entrepreneurs to stay in the area and launch their startups.
Promotion. Entrepreneurial activity in the area must be better promoted. Innovation thrives on the exchange of ideas, opportunities for entrepreneurs to meet, and places to network. There are a lot of cool things happening but there is no central place to find out about what's happening in Greater Worcester. There are countless activities, events and happenings every week, but many are sparsely attended. Just making the entrepreneurial community aware of them would increase attendance and participation. Wider use of social media could be one way to help.
Practice. The third area to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship has to do with providing young entrepreneurs — specifically college students — with opportunities to practice. That's key to engaging students and exposing them to local business. It also gets local businesses involved, chiefly by providing more paid internships, creating action projects and providing mentor resources to student -run ventures.
A second benefit of providing student entrepreneurs opportunities to practice is helping them get out into the real world and try their skills and ideas. This exposes them to risk and potential failure, but in a controlled way, which minimizes the risk. One key aspect of entrepreneurship is understanding risk, learning to cope with it and developing ways to minimize it.
Starting a business and taking an idea to the market can be risky, so offering places for entrepreneurs to work with each other is very beneficial. Promoting the area's activities, events, meetings and organizations helps them better share their experiences, learn from others and discover new resources. This can be invaluable to a start-up company and can assist the entrepreneur when the going gets tough and the support of others is crucial. Promotion also creates the buzz necessary to develop momentum. Finally, providing practical experience with real-world application allows our younger budding entrepreneurs to experience the start-up world, test their ideas and practice their skills.
If we can accelerate the development of places to facilitate the creation and growth of startups, the promotion of the area's increasing entrepreneurial activity, and the development of more areas for our young entrepreneurs to practice startup skills, then we'll create a more robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. The challenge is for the companies, colleges and organizations in Worcester to step up and commit resources. How about a campaign called Stay & Start?
The Entrepreneur's Corner runs occasionally in the Worcester Business Journal. Jeff Schiebe is entrepreneur-in-residence and adjunct professor in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program at Clark University in Worcester. Contact him at jeffschiebe@verizon.net.
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