Entrepreneurial business, job support ideas offered

Interest continues among cities and states to recruit or provide a fiscal and physical environment for new business ideas and the entrepreneurs who turn such ideas into jobs, commerce and success.

The Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and the city of Fort Smith partnered in 2007 to create the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center for the purpose of supporting entrepreneurial startups and job growth in the area. However, the IEC has been without a director since November 2008 when Michelle Stockman was hired by Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to help foster entrepreneurial programs statewide.

UAFS Chancellor Paul Beran is leading the effort to hire a new director, and even has plans to locate the IEC offices at Chaffee Crossing. Changes in leadership at the city of Fort Smith and the chamber have played a part in delaying the hiring of a new IEC director.

The City Wire recently posted a story about RFIDeas, an entrepreneurial startup company that includes Michael Pyle of Fort Smith. The company uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to solve the problem of efficient use and management of thousands of critical pieces of hospital equipment. The small tags are placed on the equipment and a network of RFID “readers” placed around the hospital feed information — location, availability status, etc. — about each tagged item to computers used by hospital staff. However, the company is struggling to raise capital to fund its business idea.

Following that story, The City Wire sent a request for information to Beran; Stockman; Tracy Winchell, with the city of Fort Smith, and Cheryl Garner, vice president of economic development for the Fort Smith chamber. The request asked what business and civic leaders in the Fort Smith region must do to create a positive atmosphere for companies/entrepreneurial ideas like that mentioned in the story. “It’s possible that the Fort Smith region is already doing the necessary things, and if so, please elaborate on what the region must to do continue the appropriate support,” The City Wire noted in the request.

Following are the responses.
• The complete response from University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Chancellor Paul Beran:
By July 1 the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center will be up and running and will be able to serve as a clearing house for direction for new businesses. The university and Winrock International’s Innovate Arkansas have already begun discussion about how to partner so that locally the IEC could make contact for possible high tech startups like this so that unlike RFIDeas LLC aspiring entrepreneurs would have someone to help them with the connections to programs like Innovate Arkansas or Arkansas Capitol Corp.
 
So the mechanisms that exist, like the IEC, need to be made fully and completely functional so local entrepreneurs have a place to start. In addition to a close relationship with the city and the chamber, the IEC needs to have a close affiliation with the UA Fort Smith College of Business, the Center for Professional Development in the College of Applied Science and Technology, as well as the other colleges in the university, any of which could be helpful from a discipline specific perspective. Of course, the IEC will need to seek opportunities for these kinds of startups, but also know when a connection with a group like Innovate Arkansas will serve the startup more completely than the local IEC. The IEC will also need to build relationships with local area lending institutions, as well as develop relationships with venture capitalists and angel investors.
 
Another issue for this area is developing a business incubation site where these kinds of fledgling organizations can be housed cheaply (for them) and have professional direction immediately available. Ideally, the university and Chaffee Crossing could partner in the near future to develop something like this at Chaffee Crossing.  Of course it goes without saying—everything takes money and resources.
 
• A portion of the response from Michelle Stockman, first director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center-Fort Smith, and now working for Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote entrepreneurship programs statewide:
Business and civic leaders in FSM must create a positive atmosphere for all businesses (entrepreneurs and all) by:
1. The leadership needs to whole heartedly (both in the pocket book and with their time) support the organizations that support entrepreneurs in Fort Smith. The IEC director replacement should have been as much a priority to business leaders as the Chamber president replacement.

2. The entire community needs to support the IEC as it was supposed to be the culture change agent to support entrepreneurs, encourage new individuals to start their businesses and help the community to aspire to bigger dreams like RFIDea.

3. The community really needs to encourage education. We must get our youth into college so they will have the opportunity to experiment and learn skills that will bring them to getting and starting knowledge-based jobs. In this economic downturn, we must encourage those laid off to get back into school and get new job skills. If you haven’t taken a class or learned a new skill in the past (at most) 5 years – your skills are becoming outdated. The world is passing you by.

4. In recruiting efforts, Fort Smith must go beyond the usual suspects, too. Doing what we always do in recruiting is good, but business leaders must encourage more than that. Fort Smith must work toward recruiting knowledge-based companies here too. We need to look at our assets in different ways and sell those to companies who can bring better jobs, who will push the university to train students for those jobs.

5. The university needs to support and encourage more students to get involved with the (Donald W. Reynold’s ) Governor’s Cup competition (managed by the Arkansas Capital Corp.). Student teams (from UAFS) have gone before, but the school has not sent a team in two years. The Dean of the College of Business needs to be the catalyst in getting students excited to enter.

6. The community needs to support the entrepreneurship course that is offered in both high schools then start supporting programs that will reach younger students. This is an absolute critical component to building a long term strong business and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

7. The leadership in Fort Smith needs to tie into state programs to build the capacity of services offered to businesses and entrepreneurs like Innovate Arkansas, the SBTDC and Arkansas Capital Corporation. Trying to do all of this alone will not work. The entire state needs to work together to support our businesses. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a state to support and raise a business. Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas have many resources to tap into.

8. The leadership would be wise to stay in touch with students leaving the area to go to college, so when they have an RFIDea, the leaders will be aware of the opportunity to move those students back. I would suggest that Fort Smith leaders work together to create an equity capital fund to lure those students back or to lure the Duralor’s of the world to start their businesses in Fort Smith. If administered correctly, Fort Smith would see some really cool things happen.

• Portions of the response from Tracy Winchell, economic development department, city of Fort Smith
We must listen to experts like Michelle (Stockman) who understand that ideas like this need mentors and champions who’ve been there, who understand, and can coach – as well as provide access to resources.
 
We need venture capital – beyond what traditional lending institutions offer in our region. And we need to build on the classroom experiences the IEC has provided under Michelle’s leadership. We can’t possibly expect bright ideas to get even this far unless we make entrepreneurial thinking a part of a student’s curriculum – very early on.
 
Frankly, I’m not enough of an expert to say with 100% certainty but I BELIEVE the problem, perhaps, isn’t so much about policy or incentives or such. I believe it is a mindset and an insistence that we have the right PEOPLE in place to foster this kind of entrepreneurial enterprise.