Cost-effective Job Creation and Retention in Southern Minnesota
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Nickel-and-Diming to Economic Development: By Lee Egerstrom Minnesota 2020 Fellow This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Helping entrepreneurs start small businesses and strengthen existing ones doesn’t have to be a costly public undertaking. The way it’s done in Blue Earth County pays dividends to taxpayers. Bryan Stading and the Riverbend Center for Entrepreneurial Facilitation at Mankato spent an average of $637.28 for each of the 93 jobs they helped create or retain last year in and around Blue Earth County. In contrast, states throughout the Midwest typically spend thousands on each job gained by luring large factories to relocate or expand in their states. The nonprofit Riverbend Center started 10 years ago with a simple mission: linking local entrepreneurs, inventors, nonprofits, communities and existing businesses with helpful expertise and financial resources. Riverbend isn’t geared only to creating new business ventures in south-central Minnesota, Stading said. Helping retain jobs by strengthening financial plans or business strategies is equally important. By Stading’s reckoning, Riverbend saved individuals and communities $68,000 in 2006 by helping retain jobs and getting local businesses on a better financial footing, meaning that debt obligations and community investments were preserved. The cost of Stading working as a one-person business facilitator, with lots of volunteer mentors: Just over $59,000 a year. “Instead of having a dairy farm go out of business, let’s work to get them back to a level of profitability,” he said. The same applies to manufacturing and service businesses. Expertise comes from food and agriculture advisers, financial planners and business development educators. Stading has his own mentors, too, including an 86-year-old financial adviser whom he meets for coffee or lunch at least once a month. “I try to make a new contact or find a new alliance everyday with someone or a group that can help our clients,” Stading said. Riverbend picks up 10 to 13 new clients a month. It had 162 clients in 2006, 96 men and 66 women. The results for the year, according to Riverbend, were 11 new full-time jobs, 21 part-time jobs and the retention of 61 other jobs. Often, Riverbend’s assistance to entrepreneurs stretches over several years and can evolve into long-term relationships that foster still more business development. Laura Dhuyvetter began making flavored marshmallows and s’mores kits in 2004. She moved her Laura’s Candy Kitchen from her home in rural St. Peter to a parochial school kitchen and then to a new building on the Dhuyvetters’ home property. Riverbend found a commercial realtor to advise on commercial kitchen needs and helped Dhuyvetter link with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to get licenses and inspections. In three years, Laura’s Candy has grown from an in-home enterprise Dhuyvetter operated with her five young children to a growing business with two employees. This month Dhuyvetter was preparing a help-wanted ad to recruit one or two more employees. Laura’s Candy also has grown from being a Riverbend client to mentoring other new ventures, Stading said. “When someone is experiencing a similar problem, I call up and say, ‘Laura, you got a moment?’ She always is willing to help someone else,” Stading said. One woman who had questions for Dhuyvetter took a sample of her s’mores kit to a customer, which led to new business for Laura’s Candy. Meanwhile, the candy company’s growth created business for a local woodworker who makes beechwood boxes for the kits. Another Riverbend client is as international as Laura’s Candy is local. Faraz and Sarah Paul are bringing a three-generation family custom sewing and drapery business from Surrey, England, to a new base in Mankato. Teamed with a brother-in-law in Europe, the Pauls have opened FeeKoz International with a showroom in Mankato and an office in New Prague. They are working with another company now on fire-retardant treatment of drapery material, Faraz Paul said. Riverbend has helped FeeKoz find expertise on how to do business in the United States. Besides Surrey, the family has operated elsewhere in Europe and in Asia. Groups such as Minnesota Rural Partners have urged public support for a statewide network of mentors and facilitators of local economic development. Riverbend, jointly supported by modest grants from Blue Earth County and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, shows that a big, costly government boondoggle isn’t necessary to produce results. “We are small and really under the radar screen,” Stading said. Most of the center’s clients come from word-of-mouth referrals. Riverbend “encourages entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs,” said Laura Dhuyvetter. “That makes a community willing to help one another. We see that with the connections we make.” For more information about Riverbend Center for Entrepreneurial Facilitation, go to www.rcef.net. For information about Laura’s Candy, check www.lcandy.com and for FeeKoz International drapery and products, check www.feekoz.com. Courtacy of: Minnesota 2020 2324 University Avenue West Suite 204 Saint Paul, MN 55114 Phone: 651-917-1026 Fax: 651-917-0765
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