I  want to tell you how  Wy’East Resource Conservation & Development Area Council

 started the Central Oregon MicroEnterprise Facilitation as a service to address the need to capture the passion and ideas of self-motivated entrepreneurs to start manage and grow successful small business microenterprises.

Wy'East is dedicated to help rural communities enhance their natural, social and economic resources.  As a private non-profit 501(c)(3) operating with federal assistance, Wy'East is a unique combination of local action and government support.  Healthy natural resources cannot be maintained without strong communities, and neither is attainable without strong local economies.  We believe local citizens in leadership are best able to develop and carry out action-oriented plans in the Columbia River Gorge and Central Oregon.

 Wy’East initiated the as a service to address the need to capture the passion and ideas of self-motivated entrepreneurs to start, manage and grow successful small business microenterprises.

Let us look at two projects in Oregon. The Baker City, Baker Enterprise Growth Initiative (BEGIN)

 provides an example of a successful entrepreneurial rural development strategy. Since starting in 1999, BEGIN has accomplished 76 new businesses; nine businesses expanded or retained and 43 new jobs created.  

Enterprise Facilitation does not conflict with traditional economic development: 

•  It does not replace existing developmental or technical assistance programs. Enterprise Facilitation increases the need for these programs and enhances the existing ones.
•  It does not initiate new businesses nor seek to motivate individual entrepreneurs. Enterprise Facilitation relies on the entrepreneur's motivation to take the next step.
•  It does not recruit businesses to relocate to your community. Enterprise Facilitation encourages local people to start, manage and grow small business microenterprises.
•  It offers no incentives or loans to clients. Enterprise Facilitation increases the need for alternative capital resources including micro-loans.  We direct clients to available financial resources.

Collaboration With Other Business Development Organizations

We acknowledge the perception that Enterprise Facilitation duplicates Small Business Development Center programs.  However, in the words of Roy Miller, State Director of the New Mexico Small Business Development Center, "It's not a pie, it's a casserole.  Moreover, we are all in their together.  The market is too big for one entity.  There are not enough hours and there is too much demand.  Therefore, anything, we can do to leverage our resources is good.  We all have the same goal, to put people in business, so they last."

Traditional economic development targets industrial recruitment.  This method emphasizes financial incentives for the relocation or expansion of existing businesses.  This approach simply does not work in small or isolated Central Oregon communities. Most of these communities lack the infastructure and resources to recruit business to relocate to their communities.  So let's look of other options.

Consider this…  When you look around your community, the greatest resources are its people, institutions and existing infrastructure.  You are our most valued community assets.  Let’s build an economic strategy based on community assets -- resources already available in the community.  For example, let’s capture the dreams and passion of self-motivated entrepreneurs to realize their hopes and dreams of starting their own business.

Determined, Wy’East could make a difference to change troubled communities, we looked for opportunities for change. Several Wy’East Council members attended a workshop introducing us to Enterprise Facilitation by Ernesto Sirolli in February 2005.  Ernesto Sirolli is the founder of the Sirolli Institute

.  The Sirolli Institute is a global nonprofit organization introducing Enterprise Facilitation to communities seeking to grow their economies using already existing community assets.  Enterprise Facilitation® offers a community development approach that mobilizes already existing community talent, skills and assets to cultivate entrepreneurship. Well …. It sounded interesting --we wanted to learn more.

To learn more about Enterprise Facilitation®, we went to Wallowa County Business Facilitation

  project located in Joseph Oregon. We talked to the resource board, enterprise facilitator and visited several businesses that started because of Enterprise Facilitation.  The businesses started and retained were impressive.  The fact is …. If it could work out this well in Wallowa County, it could work in Central Oregon.  The more we learned about Enterprise Facilitation® the more passionate we became about initiating our own project.

During the summer of 2005, four of us attended a Sirolli Institute Observatory hosted by theBaker Enterprise Growth Initiative (BEGIN) in Baker City Oregon.  We learned about the philosophy, values and approaches needed to start an Enterprise Facilitation project in Central Oregon.

There was no stopping us now – we were committed to doing whatever necessary to make Enterprise Facilitation work in Central Oregon.  We organized a project management team to start the process to obtain funding.  A member of that team was Rob Miles.  See Rob Miles video about how the Sirolli Institute Observatory transformed his business.

Wy’East Council made the commitment to pursue funding.  We applied for grant funding to start the project.    Funds came from USDA Rural Development, Oregon Community and Economic Development, the

Wy’East entered into an agreement with the Sirolli Institute’s 30-month community apprenticeship.  The apprenticeship establishes a sustainable community based Enterprise Facilitation program.  The Sirolli Institute provides us training through teleconferences and consultations.  When we have questions about how to implement Enterprise Facilitation, we contact the Sirollie Institute.  They have always been ready and willing to assist us when asked.

We are the first Enterprise Facilitation project to receive training via long distance learning teleconference.  The initial teleconference had members in Central Oregon and the Sirolli Institute providing live training from Sacramento California.  In addition, instruction videos’ and reading materials are available through this web site.  The project serves a large geographic area with a population of about 50,000.  We turned to teleconferencing in order to cut driving long distances to meetings.

The first role of the resource board is to introduce people, they know to Greg Hohensee,  the Enterprise Facilitator

.  They support the Enterprise Facilitator to find resources from their personal network of people to answering questions that helps the entrepreneur.  If the entrepreneur needs help to move forward and the Enterprise Facilitator does not know; then the Enterprise Facilitator asks the board for their input.  No single individual can do it all.

Another important reason for introductions is the focus of marketing Enterprise Facilitation®.  Once the buzz starts around the community, the Enterprise Facilitator has a continuous supply of entrepreneurs to assist.

Enterprise Facilitator has a continuous supply of entrepreneurs to assist.e nature of discussing an entrepreneurs' business, CONFIDENTIALITY is paramount.  When a community volunteer joins the resource board, they sign a confidentially agreement.  At the beginning of each monthly meeting, maintain strict confidentially is confirmed again.

Currently, the Community Resource Board  has over 40 members.  At each meeting, about 15 volunteers attend.  The monthly meeting move around to a different community.

Each volunteer is asked to view training videos from the Sirolli Institute. This provides a basic understanding of Enterprise Facilitation.  Initially, we held several long-distance learning seminars put on by the Sirolli Institute.  

We set into motion the hiring of the Enterprise Facilitator in November of 2007.  We advertised the position extensively for over a month throughout the Pacific Northwest. The results were phenomenal.  Fifty-eight applicants applied.  After proceeding through the normal interview process, we selected Greg Hohensee as our Enterprise Facilitator.

In April 2008, the resource board began introducing Greg to members of their community. Take a look at the number of entrepreneurs assisted and small business microenterprises started

. The volunteers that serve on the Wy’East Council and community volunteers that serve on the resource board will cause a change.   Together we will help entrepreneurs start microenterprises build sustainable communities in Central Oregon.

Merlin Berg, Wy'East Coordinator
You can contact me by calling 541-296-2391 x117

merlin.berg@or.usda.gov