Lonnie James, Wy'East Resource Conservation & Development spoke about the Central Oregon MicroEnterprise Facilitation project at the PacRim RC&D annual meeting in Portland Oregon October 19 through 23. The PacRim members come together from Oregon to American Samoa to share their success.
Central Oregon MicroEnterprise Facilitation – Our Story
Wy’East RC&D Council wants to help entrepreneurs manage and grow successful small business micro-enterprises. Micro-enterprise development deals with individual, family and community needs. Micro-enterprises generate income, build assets and create jobs locally. A micro-enterprise is generally defined a business with fewer than five employees and startup investment less than $35,000. Often the owner is the sole employee of the business.
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.
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 from within. Enterprise Facilitation offers a community development approach that mobilizes already existing community talent, skills and assets to cultivate entrepreneurship. Well …. It sounded interesting. Nevertheless, 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 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 the Baker 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 do 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. Funding has come from local, state and private foundations. Funds came from USDA Rural Development, Oregon Community and Economic Development, the City of Maupin, Meyer Memorial Trust and generous donations from people just like you. You can make a donation now.
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.
We are the first Enterprise Facilitation project to receive training via long distance learning teleconference. The initial teleconference had members at two separate locations. 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; see the map.
Community Mentoring Network – Champions for Entrepreneurs
The community resource board we call Community Mentoring Network (COMnet) made up of community volunteer members who want to see entrepreneurs succeed.
Rob Miles, who owns the Imperial River Company leads the COMnet. Rob exemplifies the passion and commitment that community members bring to the COMnet. View Rob’s video
The COMnet role is to introduce people they know to the Enterprise Facilitator. They support the Enterprise Facilitator to find resources and networks entrepreneurs need to be successful. Nobody starts a business alone.
These introduction 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.
If the entrepreneur needs help to move forward and the Enterprise Facilitator does not know; then the Enterprise Facilitator asks the COMnet for their input. No single individual can do it all.
Given the sensitive nature of discussing an entrepreneurs business CONFIDENTIALY is paramount. When a community volunteer is accepted to the COMnet they sign a confidentially agreement. At the beginning of each monthly meeting maintain strict confidentially is confirmed again.
Currently the COMnet has over 40 members. At each meeting about 15 to 20 Volunteers attend. The monthly meeting move around to a different community each month.
Each volunteer is asked to view training videos from the Sirolli Institute. The provides a basic understanding of Enterprise Facilitation.
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 COMnet began introducing Greg to members of their community. The focus has been on introductions to community members. As a result, we currently have over 16 entrepreneurs receiving assistance.
The volunteers that serve on the Wy’East Council and community volunteers that serve on the COMnet will make a difference. Together we will help entrepreneurs start micro-enterprises build sustainable communities in Central Oregon.