What began several years ago as a monthly brown bag lunch for entrepreneurs and others to hear about business trends and opportunities has grown into the Dayton-based
Entrepreneurial Development Network.
"The idea was that we didn't want anybody to slip through the cracks," explains Ray Hagerman, VP-investments for the
Dayton Development Coalition, one of the lead partners. "Somebody might come to one of the group members and have a particular need, and they couldn't necessarily help them but perhaps someone else could."
That informal approach has evolved into a network of 10 to 15 groups that provide entrepreneurs with key resources, including education and strategic planning assistance, organizational development services, funding opportunities, mentoring, professional services, incubation space and trade association benefits.
The luncheons continue, but much of the action is network-based and takes place outside those gatherings.
"We don't have our own website, we're not part of a formalized entity that's separately branded in and of itself," Hagerman says." Whenever people come through he door, if they come to the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce or come to whomever it might be, they usually just start there and those folks will shuttle them over to an SBDC (Small Business Development Center) or they'll shuttle them to us, or if we get a lead where we can't help we'll shuttle them to someone else."
While that makes it difficult to track the number of people who have been helped, the process is working, Hagerman says.
"The EDN concept is a really good way of getting in the know in the area of entrepreneurial services that are out there, funding mechanisms that are out there and just the general knowledge base," he says. "And it's also become a good way for entrepreneurs to connect with potential technology generators. Not everybody that's a researcher or an inventor or a technologist wants to be an entrepreneur, but they sure would like to see their something be done with their gadget."
Source: Ray Hagerman, the Dayton Development Coalition
Writer: Gene Monteith