For entrepreneurs, raising start-up funding is one of the most critical and challenging elements of launching a business. Do local officials support companies looking to raise investment capital and other start-up funding by maintaining relationships with angel investors and angel funds, venture capital firms, private equity groups, and investment banks? Does the location offer funding sources not available elsewhere and does it work with entrepreneurs to make access to capital easier to obtain? The cost of doing business is the other part of this equation. How efficiently can precious capital be utilized? Lower costs for real estate, rent, transportation and labor allow the entrepreneur to devote more precious capital to product and service development.
Huge incentives exist for entrepreneurs looking to start their business in Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia Region. Access to business capital is just one of them. In addition to ready access to capital, Appalachia Ohio also offers ability to deliver on the ideal location criteria for an entrepreneur-friendly environment: ready access to knowledge and labor, and access to supply chains and markets. To learn more about the strategic advantages of Ohio’s Appalachia Region, click here.
One example of a company that recently benefited from Enterprise Appalachia’s access to capital is Butech Bliss, a company based in Salem, Ohio that designs and manufactures processing equipment for the world's metal processors and producers. With local ties dating back some 150 years, the company's leadership team is looking to – and effectively utilizing the resources offered by – Enterprise Appalachia to secure a stable, globally competitive position in the industry.
Butech Bliss was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal in an article exploring the standards of small-business lending. Despite the economic slow down, Butech Bliss has remained profitable throughout the crisis. Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article.
For Cara Dingus Brook, achieving the State of Perfect Balance is a full-time pursuit. As president and chief executive officer of the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, Brook is dedicated to her personal and professional mission of enhancing quality of life for those living in Appalachian Ohio by creating educational opportunities through community investment.
According to Brook, Ohio’s location has been the key to her success. “In Ohio, my personal and professional goals come together in perfect balance. With the support of this community's caring spirit, we're helping students fulfill their aspirations,” said Brook. "Together, we're making a positive impact on education that will last for generations.”
The Foundation for Appalachian Ohio (FAO) was created in 1998 as a regional community foundation serving the 32 counties of Appalachian Ohio. As a 501(c)(3) public charity, the Foundation works with donors and those who care deeply about the region to support regional improvement through the power of charitable giving.
Over the past decade, enrollment at U.S. institutions of higher learning has grown by more than 25 percent, reaching 18.5 million in 2007. Much of the growth is due to a boom in adult and distance learning – a trend that Dr. Michael Mark recognized nearly two decades ago.
While serving as director of adult learning services at a major state institution, his passion for quality education inspired him to seek a better way for his distance-learning students to obtain their course materials. Finding none, he created his own.
Two companies later, Dr. Mark is credited with creating a niche industry around the fulfillment of content and course materials for distance learning, career and multi-campus colleges.
A native New Yorker, Dr. Mark went to college at Ohio University and found that Appalachia was “just too pretty a place to leave.” And, when it came time to start his companies, the serial entrepreneur found the ideal business startup location in Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia.
“I am here because of the Ohio Promise,” Dr. Mark shared in a recent interview with me. “My favorite thing about living in Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachian Region is that you can achieve professional success within the context of a fulfilling life.”
Click here to read the rest of my interview with Dr. Mark.
To reduce dependence on fossil fuels – which account for 85 percent of U.S. energy use – Americans have begun to embrace clean, renewable solar and wind power. And, Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia region is ahead of the curve in using renewable energy to power its economy.
More than a decade ago, Geoff and Michelle Greenfield built their 100 percent solar and wind-powered dream home in Athens County, Ohio. After a few years of installing solar panels for interested friends and neighbors, the couple formally launched renewable energy design and installation firm Third Sun Solar & Wind Power Ltd. in 2000.
I recently spoke with Geoff about starting and growing his business in Appalachian Ohio. “Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia offers a highly educated, dedicated and motivated workforce both for our office level and line level jobs,” he said. “There are a lot of talented, hard-working people here, and we get the best pick of them.”
Click here to read more about my interview with Geoff.
According to the National Business Incubation Association, business incubators generate up to 20 times more jobs than any other federally funded community infrastructure project – at a fraction of the cost per job.
Nearly 30 years ago, this insight inspired the creation of Ohio University’s Innovation Center. Since then, the first university-based incubator in the state of Ohio and only the 12th in the U.S. has nurtured more than 80 companies and created more than 1,000 jobs in Ohio’s Appalachian Region.
Focused on information technology, biosciences and alternative and sustainable energy, the Center offers a home – complete with offices, conference rooms, shared office equipment and advanced laboratory equipment that includes the only commercial wet labs in Southeast Ohio – where startup businesses in these industries can grow.
I recently spoke with Jennifer Simon, director of the Innovation Center. She pointed out that the entrepreneurs in Athens and the surrounding region want to stay. The business-friendly environment, growth opportunities and talented workforce fuel the growth of these small businesses, but the welcoming community and balanced lifestyle make them want to remain in the area.
Click here to read the full Ohio University Innovation Center story.
Huge incentives exist for entrepreneurs looking to start their business in Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia Region. Access to business capital is just one of them. In addition to ready access to capital, Appalachia Ohio also offers ability to deliver on the ideal location criteria for an entrepreneur-friendly environment: ready access to knowledge and labor, and access to supply chains and markets. To learn more about the strategic advantages of Ohio’s Appalachia Region, click here.
According to the National Business Incubation Association, business incubators generate up to 20 times more jobs than any other federally funded community infrastructure project – at a fraction of the cost per job.