Items for the September 10 call

I. Here's something I've been meaning to forward- FIU put a lot of money behind entrepreneurship & one piece of this are a series of webinars. There are several outfits who've already developed killer webinars on various aspects of starting/growing a venture -- with only a little effort, we can access these for cheap (some are free). I've been collecting a list of what's already out there. There is a TON of good stuff out there to add to our readily-available "assets"!

II. Did you see this model training program in eastern Idaho? Might be a nice model to build on [local industry, state govt, INL & EITC]:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/business/story/497123.html

III. Another new vehicle for meeting online... www.oovoo.com (I promise to NOT use my webcam... LOL)

IV. I have two formal proposals to the group:

a) That the Committee sign on as a "Friend of" Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). This is headed toward being a really big deal nationally & globally. It costs nothng & commits the committee to nothing, but will look good.

b) The Invention 2 Venture" boot camp from NCIIA (& NSF & Kauffman & ...) is still interested in Idaho doing one of these during GEW; I'm pushing ahead on this, but wouldn't this be cool to do in southern Idaho... it's intended to serve a broad audience, but especially students. This cannot wait until the asset mapping, so I hope you won't mind it if I pitch this tomorrow! [Again, this commits the committee to zero financial exposure.]

Promised intel...

oops - I promised this to post this - then never checked to see if the post 'took' on the WIRED blog. Ugh. My bad. Also, it's not clear I will be able to call in next Wednesday, but I will try!

Powerpoint Sharing:

The 2 services I was thinking of are no longer good options - one is kaput and the other is
charging a lot... a lot.

More sophisticated approach (but free) is Vyew (www.vyew.com) that has lots of options
(including some paid, but cheap). This one has the potential for one person to control the
slide flow, etc. Longer-term, we should be looking closely at Vyew. However...

Easy as pie (and free) is Slideshare (www.slideshare.net). Just post the PPTs online -
protect with a password, if you like, with clear slide numbers shown. Then, during the
conference call, we can all log in and whoever is leading the discussion can simply say "now
go to slide 47". This way, we can view the slideshow without downloading slides. You can
protect the slides by either changing the password or don't use a password & simply delete
after we use them.


Youth (High School) Entrepreneurship Course:

The Idaho Rural Partnership's Entrepreneurship Task Force commissioned the Idaho Digital
Learning Academy (www.IdahoDigitalLearning.org) to create a new version of the required
'Economics' course that has a major, major entrepreneurship spin to it. It must meet the
state's standards which aren't too high, but do push students toward financial literacy (which we've talked about before). They develop and deliver true distance-delivery courses in an amazing array of subjects.

IDLA's deal is that schools do not have to pay extra for students to take their courses.
Obviously, the home-schooled, et al. are a key market, but it's open to any Idaho HS student. And i really pays off for rural students.

They are REALLY good at distance-delivery and are very cost-effective. Only $10K to develop
and TechConnect has put up the $10K, so kudos to Rick & all.

Content is obviously following the Econ standards PLUS cutting edge entrepreneurship material
provided to us by the entrepreneurship training group of the International Labour
Organisation. ILO has done entrepreneurship training in developing countries since the late
1970s! They have the "Know About Business" first course & IDLA is adapting much of their
material. They will also have a series of genuine experiential exercises provided by yours
truly that will make this unique. All this will be followed by at least one more course that
will be a 'pure' entrepreneurship elective.

* Nobody has a true distance-delivery Hs entrepreneurship course of this type
* Nobody else has access to the ILO's battle-tested content material
* Nobody else has the bleeding-edge experiential approach... but that is changing.

Two or three national conferences want this presented - a real coup for Idaho.

Note: This is particularly good for the WIRED effort. There are ways to take some leadership
in helping this. Obviously, the first semester is a beta test - but the course developer & I have built in ways for the community to get involved and for the students to engage the
entrepreneurial (and economic development) communities!

Again, sorry for the tardiness...

Gas prices: Killing rural towns or inspiring entrepreneurs?

Provocative article in today's (Sunday) Statesman, originally from the KC Star.

This is powerful 'ammo' for our committee... to act boldly and to act quickly!

Read more at http://entrepreneurshipidaho.blogspot.com ...

Dept of Commerce $ for "Job Creation"

Another goodie from the new Sage Idaho newsletter - do we have a Dept of Commerce contact engaged with WIRED? It's only for towns under 10,000 people.

GRANT FUNDS FOR JOB CREATION (again, courtesy of Sage Idaho)
The Idaho Department of Commerce has a grant program specifically funded to help small rural communities of 10,000 or less attract living wage jobs and thus sustain the viability of their community. This money comes through Idaho’s Rural Community Block Grant program to build public infrastructure that supports economic expansion and job creation. Even if your community is not incorporated, your home county could apply on your behalf. Contact the Idaho Department of Commerce for more information.

Eligible Applicants - Cities under 10,000 in population are eligible. Cities contiguous to large cities are not eligible to apply. Counties may apply for countywide projects or on behalf of unincorporated communities. Counties cannot apply for projects that benefit cities over 10,000 in population. Special purpose districts are not eligible, although they may be involved in the execution of a project by mutual agreement. An Indian tribe may be considered as an applicant or may be a partner in a project by mutual agreement.

Eligible Activities - Activities considered eligible include: extension of streets, water and sewer lines, and/or utilities to a site for a new business or industrial park; acquisition or construction of buildings for lease or purchase by a company; and provision of telecommunications, power, gas, and rail upgrades necessary for business expansions. These funds may also be used as match for other federal programs such as the Idaho Community Development Block Grant Program as well as grants or loans from the Economic Development Administration and USDA-Rural Development. City halls and schools are not eligible.

Grant Size - Grant limits are $50,000 to $500,000. A total of $2.2 million is available annually for this grant program.

Local Match - Local match is required, but there is no set amount.

Evaluation Criteria - Applications will be evaluated on the impact to distressed areas. Other evaluation factors include the number and quality of jobs created by the project, long-term economic impact, community support, and project financing and readiness. Distress factors include high unemployment, low per capita income and sudden distress such as a mill closure.

IDAs and IHFA

Courtesy of Sage Idaho (Region III's version of RIVDA) - note the Twin Falls number at bottom. Another ally for us??

Note also that participants need at least 10 hours of training.

Individual Development Account (IDA) Program Launched

Idaho Housing and Finance Association (IHFA) recently teamed up with United Way of Treasure Valley to help Idaho families and individuals become financially independent through the Individual Development Account (IDA) program. The IDA is a matched savings account for individuals and families to help build assets and enter the financial mainstream.

The program matches an individual’s savings up to a maximum of $2,000 at a rate of two to one. The individual’s savings plus the match, up to a total of $6,000, can be used to start or enhance a small business, pursue education, or purchase a home.

Program participants are involved in case management and a minimum of ten hours of financial training specific to the investment they are purchasing.

For applicant eligibility and requirements, please contact IHFA’s branch office nearest you:
Coeur d’Alene Branch Office: 866-621-2994
Lewiston Branch Office: 866-566-1727
Idaho Falls Branch Office: 866-684-3756
Twin Falls Branch Office: 866-234-3435

Wells Fargo and CRA Requirements

Thanks Norris for the info. There really is a large number of studies and case models on entrepreneurship and youth entrepreneurship that are almost turn key in their application. Here is a link to a program called "Hands on Banking", put together by Wells Fargo as part of their CRA requirements. The bi-lingual course and materials include components on: Starting and managing a small business; investing and financial planning; Budgeting; Credit and Credit Repair; higher education; buying a home; etc.


The link is www.handsonbanking.org

Have a good day

More on Youth and Entrepreneurship!

Thanks, Brandon!

Just got back from the Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference
( http://tinyurl.com/4hnvyw ) & lots of talk about these issues.
The article is a bit dated (and like everyone else, they kinda miss the real point of the "Heffalump" metaphor - doesn't anyone read Winnie the Pooh any more? LOL) but that's no big deal.

Paul Reynolds (in the article) is amazing - he's now semi-retired but without him, neither GEM nor PSED would have worked. Anyway, Shane, this has some relevance to your question about metrics.

We do know more about entrepreneurship than most people (and most policy makers) realize. In fact, there's tons of data now - hard to use & sometime hard to access, but there's progress. (Where there's data, policy wonks will follow... LOL) The graph I attached to the email is a powerful one for me. [or: http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75/articles/160 ]

You want to answer "Why entrepreneurship?"... that's it. Zoltan Acs did some serious data-crunching to show that pattern is robust across time & industry sectors.

There is some research underway to look at barriers to entrepreneurship that I can tell you more about, if you like. (And if not... I'll shut up. Even though it's interesting! LOL)

Cheap plug for Pronetos here!! - I had stashed a number of documents on youth entrepreneurship and on other rural/local entrepreneurship ideas. You can go to http://pronetos.com & look for "Rural/Local Entrepreneurship" or http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75

The items specifically covering youth entrepreneurship include:
http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75/articles/164
http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75/articles/139 (others include articles 103, 104, 105, 106, 133 & 137 , but...

If you click one link, click on www.unleashingideas.org ....

In November, the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week debuts - it's a youth-oriented extravaganza (www.unleashingideas.org) that could be pretty special. I have an "in" with the State Director for Global Entrep Week, so we could have some fun!

We *already* have a VERY interesting offer for an eventwith national implications during that week... more, if you're interested.

[Also, this overlaps with National Farm-City Week, which is reportedly getting resurrected in Idaho -- an opportunity for urban & rural folks to celebrate their interdependencies. Entrepreneurship is clearly a great commonality for rural & urban alike, eh?]

Cheers!
Norris
p.s. and did I mention www.unleashingideas.org ??