Fort Hays' SBDC willing to help out

Entrepreneurship, starting and growing businesses in Kansas, has taken front stage with politicians and state leaders over the past year.

It's due time that the process of turning a vision into reality and building a successful business take a prominent place in the hearts and minds of all Kansans. After all, small business drives our economy.

When small businesses are starting, growing and flourishing, the state's bottom line is improved and life for all of us who live in Kansas gets better.

Specifically, the legislature started the whole emphasis on entrepreneurship by holding regional “Prosperity Summits” around the state to hear concerns from the grass roots.

From these summits came seven regional plans to provide for the health, wealth and future of the region. All seven regions identified entrepreneurship as a key strategy in moving forward and keeping Kansas communities vital, particularly those in rural areas.

The Kansas Economic Growth Act was created by the legislature last year and signed into law by Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

Among other things, this act made available the sale of tax credits to form a fund for supporting entrepreneurial activities in each region. This means more money is available to start new ventures.

The Act also established the concept of a Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship, which is now taking shape. The new center will develop a seamless resource center clearinghouse and referral source.

Entrepreneurs will have one place to go for information, rather than being passed from office to office for various pieces of entrepreneurial assistance.

The Kansas Small Business Development Center (KSBDC) was selected to lead the organization of the new Center for Entrepreneurship, hiring and supervising its staff. The KSBDC, a network of small business counseling, training and referral centers, is the only economic development organization in the state that provides assistance in all phases of business development.

Fort Hays State University is intimately involved in the process. Every state Small Business Development Center network must report to an institution of higher education. In Kansas, that institution is FHSU. Staff of the new Center for Entrepreneurship will be employed by FHSU and supervised by the KSBDC state director.

A 12-person board of directors of the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship includes northwest Kansas representative Charles Comeau, Plainville, president of Dessin Fournir Companies.

What assistance entrepreneurs can expect from The Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship is far reaching:

nÀA call center with an 800 number where entrepreneurs can obtain consulting services and referral information

nÀA Web site that provides resources to help entrepreneurs

nÀAn educational outreach program

nÀA Kansas Community Entrepreneurship Fund which will allow individuals and corporations to receive tax credit for their contributions and which will provide seed capital for business development

The overall goal for The Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship is to minimize start-up and operating costs and time to become operational by collaborating with existing resources that have developed training, programs and tools that benefit entrepreneurs both in the start-up mode as well as existing business entrepreneurs.

This collaboration has been a long time coming. Many organizations exist to help with this process. Many are already collaborating and cross-referring. One example is the ”Economic Development Roundtable” in northwest Kansas, where federal and state representatives from assistance organizations meet bi-monthly to exchange information on new programs and to discuss solutions to specific business challenges.

Some of the agencies represented include Kansas Dept. of Commerce, Small Business Development Center, Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Corp., SER Corporation, Kansas Department of Laobr, Kansas Department of Human Resources, Pioneer Country Development/Northwest Kansas Planning and Development Commission, FHSU Docking Institute, Economic Development representatives from Nex-Tech, Midwest Energy, and other utilities. This kind of partnering will only increase with the new initiatives by Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship.

What will happen to the current assistance programs available? They will continue to do their work as the center evolves. As entrepreneurs start to utilize the center, referrals for assistance will be more appropriate, and work will be more productive. Entrepreneurs will get the help they need in a more timely and efficient manner by reaching the proper resource at the proper time. Assistance programs can be more responsive because of fewer contacts that are appropriate for other programs.

For more information about The Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship or free and confidential business management consulting services available through the FHSU Small Business Development Center, contact Susan Nickerson, director, at sbdc@fhsu.edu.

The FHSU SBDC is a service arm of The College of Business and Leadership.

Susan (Bittel) Nickerson is the APR director of the Fort Hays State University Small Business

Development Center.