The Small Business Association of Michigan this week announced a 12-month pilot project to delivers market research to small entrepreneurs in Tuscola, Houghton and Keweenaw counties who want to accelerate the growth of their businesses.
The SBAM “Economic Gardening Pilot Project” is funded by $130,000 in grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Enterprise Grant program. If successful, SBAM plans to expand the project across Michigan.
Under this project, a team of business development experts over the next year will work with small business entrepreneurs in the three counties to assess their growth potential and market research needs. The experts then will secure market research on a deeply discounted basis by partnering with libraries and help the entrepreneurs effectively utilize the research results.
The Keweenaw Economic Development Association and Tuscola County Economic Development Corp. were selected as local partners because of their previous experience and strong desire to grow their local economies through the creation, retention and expansion of growth-oriented small business entrepreneurs, SBAM says.
In addition to the local partners and their community library systems, SBAM is being assisted by Michigan State University Extension; Growing Local Economics Inc.; Shepherd Advisors Inc., Michigan Library Association; Michigan Library Consortium; the State Library of Michigan; the Michigan Municipal League; and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.
A key component of this effort will be to use the aggregated purchasing power of SBAM’s membership to secure discounts on marketing research for growth-oriented small business entrepreneurs in the target communities.
For more information contact Mark H. Clevey, vice president for entrepreneurial development at SBAM, at (800) 362-5461 or e-mail mark.clevey@sbam.org.
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