Daily World: Landrieu extends helping hand
Zane Hill
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu said she wants the Small Business Accelerator/Incubator Summit she hosted Thursday to turn into a regular way to help new businesses in smaller communities in the state.
"This is the first of what I hope will be at least a semi-annual gathering that will bring together universities and mayors together as economic developers and incubators in our state to help coordinate better strategies for better businesses and growth," she said.
A plethora of university representatives and local politicians joined both Louisiana and out-of-state business incubators and investors in the Opelousas Civic Center Thursday morning to discuss ways of attracting non-profit and private investors to help kick-start new businesses during the continuing economic recession.
"We're in the process of recreating our economy from an industrial base to an entrepreneurial base," Landrieu said. "We need to start creating wealth and opportunity where there is none today."
Business incubators function as support programs available to entrepreneurs. They act as a network for initial and future investments as well as business planning. The Louisiana Business Incubation Association holds 26 member organizations.
The panel discussions focused on how to help people who want to start smaller businesses in communities like Opelousas or Thibodaux, which don't garner as much attention as Baton Rouge or New Orleans but are still vital to rebuilding the economy.
"If we're really going to recreate the economy we dream about, we really have to understand the strengths and weaknesses of our communities," said Landrieu, who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Tim Rowe, who represented the Cambridge Innovation Center in Massachusetts, said existing businesses (those that have existed for more than six years) have lost around one million jobs annually for the past 30 years and venture capital firms like his own help offset those losses.
"A place that doesn't know how to have start-up businesses will fail," he said.
Rowe pointed out one weakness for Louisiana: its limited access to capital. While Massachusetts capital firms have around $400 per capita available, Louisiana's have closer to just $3. Fortunately, he said, Landrieu had a helping hand in legislation that allows individuals to donate money for initial investments.
Steve Berger, who works for the non-profit JumpStart Inc. based in Cleveland, said politicians, investors and potential business owners need to come together to form an "entrepreneurial ecosystem" to help growth.
"If you go back to 1977, all net new jobs have been start-up companies," Berger said.
Opelousas Mayor Don Cravins said he was encouraged by the new opportunities he learned about to help his city, which saw a 20-percent dip in sales tax revenue and has no shortage of vacant buildings downtown.
"This brings together the experts to give us ideas as to what we can do as a small community to kick-start our economy and survive," he said. "Now we have a few more cards to play with."
Landrieu prepared a free guide to business planning resources and government financing programs. Though she noted federal government-funded research is key to innovation, one cannot reliably count on federal funds for small business growth.
"The money that's going to drive this is going to come from the private sector," she said. "We don't have the wealth that Massachusetts might have, but we still have wealth. We just need to channel it in the right direction"
