SitemapA collaboration of organizations ranging
from some of the Mahoning Valley’s major players in economic development to
agencies not normally associated with economic development is coordinating on
creating a resource pipeline for entrepreneurs.
The newly formed organization,
Mahoning Valley is for Entrepreneurs, steers entrepreneurs to resources they
may need depending on the stage of their companies, said Sara Wenger, economic
development program manager at Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. A
guide that the initiative assembled defines the support participating entities
can provide entrepreneurs at the idea, startup, emerging or mature stages of
their ventures, including capital, financial analysis, growth and business
planning and research and development. The organization will host a business
startup workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Raymond John Wean Foundation
in Warren. Mahoning Valley businesses accounted for $35.8 billion in sales in
2015, according to the organization’s charter. However, the need to encourage
more startups and help early-stage companies is highlighted by statistics that
reflect the decline over 10 years in the number of businesses operating in the
Valley. In 2015, the number of businesses in Mahoning and Trumbull counties was
9,532, down from 10,067 in 2010. The need for such an initiative, an outgrowth
of Eastgate’s most recent comprehensive economic development strategy, became
apparent about 18 months ago, Wenger said. Staff at Youngstown Neighborhood
Development Corp., which had offered its first round of business classes,
noticed that students in the courses – many of whom had plans in the idea stage
or not much further along — were having difficulty finding where to go next. The
Mahoning Valley has “a great entrepreneurship ecosystem” but its resources
aren’t always as well connected as they should be, said Liberty Avila, YNDC
land reuse director. Entrepreneurs in the very early stages often were “bounced
around” to various organizations and didn’t know what each did, Avila said.
Most are geared toward existing businesses or entrepreneurs with plans closer
to the startup stage. “Some organizations are not set up to help with business
plans at all,” she said. The problem extended beyond clients not knowing the
resources available or the role of each agency, said Crystal Volinchak,
administrative assistant at the Ohio Small Business Development Center at
Youngstown State University. In some cases, the agencies themselves were
unaware of what the others did or what their specialties are. Read the full story from the Business Journal here.