Southeast Innovation Center helping entrepreneurs, businesses to overcome economic climate

During a time of economic uncertainty, one Southeast Missouri organization is equipping individuals in the area with the tools to survive and thrive in the job market.

Since its opening in the fall of 2003, the Southeast Innovation Center has offered leaseable office space, counseling, financial analysis, marketing research, training programs and other services.

Programs offered by the center, operated by Southeast Missouri State University, include the Operation Jump-Start entrepreneurial business training course and the Small Business Incubator. The center plans to organize a network of small-business owners, provide new methods to promote job creation and place 100 individuals in the workplace.

Small Business Incubator director Gina Harper said the Small Business Development Center and Operation Jump-Start are the only programs of their kind in the area.

"There is also no other mixed-use business incubator within two hours of Cape," she said. "Most of our services are free, and for those who graduated from the Operation Jump-Start training program, there is the possibility of startup grant funds to start or expand their small businesses."

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.comSoutheast Missouri State senior Jason Gramlich studies Feb. 3 in the Start-Up Cafe at the Harrison College of Business in Cape Girardeau.

For its efforts, the center has won numerous awards, including Southeast Illinois College's 2008 Business of the Year. Operation Jump-Start has been honored as a nominee for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration Excellence Award in Economic Adjustment Strategies in 2008, Southern Growth Policies Innovator Award in 2005 and EDA Rural Development Award in 2007.

Because of the success of Operation Jump-Start, three new instructors were hired in 2008, Harper said. In the last three years, the course has trained about 500 entrepreneurs and helped start 150 small businesses in its 24-county service area in Southeast Missouri, as well as outside its territory in Southeastern Illinois and northeastern Tennessee. The course has helped add about 240 jobs to the tristate region and through grant funding has injected about $1.5 million into the area's economy.

The center's Small Business Incubator opened July 1, 2005.

The incubator has 13 office spaces ranging from 150 to 1,000 square feet for a reasonable fee, Harper said. Included in the rental fee is daily mail service, weekly janitorial services, all utilities, free parking, Internet capabilities and 24-hour building access. Incubator businesses also have use of a conference room and state-of-the-art training room.

Harper said businesses of one to three employees are allowed to remain in the space for one to three years before growing large enough to find a new office in the area.

Also available to the businesses are business development and planning services, intern assistance and off-site equipment and product testing.

Businesses eligible to rent space are in the areas of research, light manufacturing, technology or service. Harper said the center is not for all business startups.

Entrepreneurial studies

The innovation center isn't Southeast's only entrepreneurial endeavor. The Harrison College of Business formed the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in 1996. It has continued to offer outreach programs and achieved an increasing success in students of all majors, said center director James Stapleton.

The center offers a general studies course, a 15-credit-hour minor available to all majors and an option for students enrolled in the master of business administration program. A new program also is being developed for students in the arts who want to explore various entrepreneurial approaches in their field.

But the center is much more than work in the classroom. Students are offered a wealth of opportunities to improve their entrepreneurial skills through a student organization, competitions, a virtual international cafe and workshops. The center also joined students from around the world in November for Global Entrepreneurship Week, a five-day program featuring local and national entrepreneurs. In addition to educating students, the center also provides training and professional development to 200 schoolteachers thanks to a $25,000 WIRED grant.

"It is difficult to immediately measure the impact of entrepreneurship education programs," Stapleton said. "While one of the expected outcomes is the creation of sustainable new ventures, most undergraduate students lack the necessary funding, experience and confidence to immediately attempt to create a new venture.

"We focus on providing students tools to develop new ventures, but we also focus on teaching them important entrepreneurial behaviors and encouraging them to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset that will help them be competitive and successful, regardless of their career choices."

bblackwell@semissourian.com

388-3628