Building Supportive Infrastructure for Entrepreneurs



Building Supportive Infrastructure for Entrepreneurship

Curriculum developed in part with funding from

USDA/RCDI Building Entrepreneurial Community Capacity Project

Slide Narrative Comments

This session requires the gathering of information regarding the current condition of broadband infrastructure in the community. The instructor may want to invite local experts to the session so that they can share their knowledge of the local area with the participants. Most communities today have a local organization or committee that is dealing with broadband and internet access issues. Representatives from these groups can be a good resource to help move discussions along by providing useful, accurate information.

The following is a narrative to supplement the slides used during the presentation. The numbered items below correspond with the power point slides used, with the title slide being number 1.

1. Title slide: Building Supportive Infrastructure for Entrepreneurship

2. Infrastructure that Supports Entrepreneurship slide: this slide presents the types of infrastructure that are important within the community to support entrepreneurship. The instructor will explain each type of infrastructure briefly and then focus in on the Connected Community for the remainder of the session.

Entrepreneurs require access to different types of infrastructure in order to do business with success. Some of the needed infrastructure that supports entrepreneurship includes:

• People based infrastructure

Access to service providers: lawyers, accountants, consultants, business support

• Transportation networks

Access to transport of goods & people

• Educational infrastructure

Access to higher educational institutions

• Connected community

Access to affordable high speed internet services

While each of the infrastructures listed on this slide are important to most types of businesses, entrepreneurs, particularly those in rural areas, need to be able to be part of a connected community. The availability of affordable, quality, high speed internet can even level the playing field between rural communities and their more urban counterparts by providing virtual access to people based infrastructure, resources and services, and educational opportunities through on-line courses. This presentation will focus on what it means to be a connected community and why this type of infrastructure is so important to building an entrepreneur friendly community.

3. A Connected Community slide: this slide focuses the presentation on the importance of entrepreneurs being connected locally and regionally with customers, other entrepreneurs and expert service providers. Being connected is important in two ways:

• Connectivity provides access to information, resources like workforce, professional services and other entrepreneurs and finally customers. This connection is especially important for entrepreneurs in rural communities so the entrepreneur can have access to a larger market and available resources provided by linking to urban regions

• Connectivity also supports the informal networks of entrepreneurs in the community but particularly connecting within a larger the region.

4. Connected Communities Have… slide: this slide focuses the conversation on the importance of electronic connectivity by identifying three characteristics of a connected community. Connected communities have:

• An infrastructure that supports high speed internet activities

• Individuals who can provide support services and a workforce that uses and understands internet tools and activities

• A culture in the community, particularly by public officials that value their communities capacity to be connected to the world

5. Businesses Use Digital Tools slide: this slide presents seven connectivity applications by entrepreneurs:

• ecommerce to complete business to business and business to customer activities there is an identified team that champions the support of entrepreneurs and the team has an identified leader who also champions the team

• Telework that allows the high growth entrepreneur to employ a workforce that has the skills needed and to provide a competitive work environment where employees can work in an environment that meets their personal and family needs

• Remote data connection to back-up the computer to provide storage and safety of vial information and data

• Receiving and submitting contracts because high entrepreneurs will be competing on a regional basis

• Automating internal process and services necessary to reduce cost of equipment and time to increase efficiency

• Out sourcing non-core activities to job out processes that are better accomplished by others allowing focus on the entrepreneur’s critical activities

• Employee training to take advantage of distance education opportunities

6. Discussion Questions slide: this slide is intended to be used by the instructor to facilitate a discussion among participants about how they see local entrepreneurs using digital tools or, if they are entrepreneurs, how they use it themselves.

Facilitate a group discussion of these three questions, and record responses on flip charts.

Save these flip charts to be used as data for subsequent sessions and the strategic plan.

7. Ability to Use Digital Tools slide: this slide presents two reasons why it is important for entrepreneurs to be able to use digital tools. It is not enough to have access to broadband; it is also important to have the ability to be able to access the benefits it has to offer. Two of the major benefits include:

• Access to courses, seminars, resources to learn new tools and competencies

Slide #2 talked about Access to Higher Education as an important infrastructure component needed to build an entrepreneurial community. In some rural communities the distance to colleges and universities makes it prohibitive to take courses on campus. With the growth in on-line courses, degree programs, seminars and other educational resources, it is possible to access higher education through the internet.

• Existence of supportive networks to help in adopting new tools and competencies and solving problems

Networks can form over the internet that can help an entrepreneur adopt new tools and solve problems. The module on Building Supportive Networks for Entrepreneurs gives an example of such a resource: the Go Big Network. More informal networks, such as user groups and blogs can be used to help in understanding and adopting tools and solve problems. Knowing what digital tools exist and how to use them is important.

8. Community Indicators of Broadband Effectiveness slide: this slide provides three basic indicators (measurements) of your local broadband services that can be used to determine the effectiveness of your existing infrastructure and capacity.

• Penetration: Number of subscribers per 100 inhabitants

For this measurement, it would be useful to obtain, prior to the session, a map of existing services and providers and overlay this with population. Maps can be obtained through existing providers, local committees and/or organizations, state agencies, or educational institutions.

• Speed: Kilobit per second

The FCC’s definition of broadband is “any system that is capable of transmitting data in excess of 200 Kbps upstream and downstream.” In comparison, communications systems that operate at a slower speed are called “narrowband.” To put this in perspective, DSL (Digital subscriber Lines), cable modems and satellite service, T1 lines, and an emerging technology, BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) are broadband while dial up is narrowband. Satellite, which is being used increasingly in rural areas where DSL and cable is not available, is faster than dialup, but not as fast as DSL or cable.

• Affordability: Cost per kilobit/megabit

Higher broadband penetration (i.e. more customers receiving service) results in reduced costs per kilobit/megabit. In rural areas, services may be more expensive because of a smaller population base to spread the cost of providing services among.

• Options available: number and type of providers

A profile of the local providers is useful in identifying the resources currently available to entrepreneurs and community residents. Oftentimes these providers can provide their expansion plans and timetable, providing a useful picture of future expansion of services.

These five indicators can be used by the participants and community to evaluate the current status of their internet availability and leads into the next slide discussion.

9. Discussion Questions slide: this slide is used to help class participants gain an understanding of the current broadbanding and connectivity capacity of the local community by answering specific questions. The three questions are used to frame the information presented by informed local community experts who provide leadership regarding the community’s broadbanding and connectivity system. The presenters are not limited to the three questions but should address these as the foundation of their comments.

10. Web Resources for Entrepreneurs slide: this slide provides an excellent resource for entrepreneurs through the RUPRI newsletter. This link can be shared with the participants. It will be particularly useful for resource providers and entrepreneurs who may be in attendance.

11. Web Resources for Communities slide: this slide presents a web based resource guide for communities who are interested in enhancing the use of the internet and development of needed infrastructure in their communities. It was developed by the Southern Regional Development Center and is available for use free of charge.

Title: Connecting Rural Communities: A guide to community information technology

Description: Connecting Rural Communities is a guide to enhancing the use and adoption of information technology tools and infrastructure in rural communities.

Use of Guide: Cooperative extension educators and community leaders can use this guide to:

• Help communities understand what connected communities are and their potential

• Conduct community capital and technology assessments

• Engage the community in a visioning process to identify goals for the adoption and use of technology

• Design projects that help the community reach their goals

• Facilitate the implementation of the community projects

• Help communities document their progress and tell their story

If the instructor is interested and high speed internet is available in the teaching location, they may want to log onto this site to briefly discuss the components of the guide. The web address is:

12. Contact Information slide: Provide information for each of the presenters of the session with contact information so that the community has a contact for further information or assistance.

Also please give credit to Ohio State University Extension and Author, Myra Moss, Educator.

13. – 15. Graphical Information: These three slides are optional and can be used if you want to graphically show internet usage in the U.S. and the U.S. position in the world.

13. The US ranked 16th among the top 20 world economies based on the number of broadband subscribers per 100 residents according to a January 2005 report from the International Telecommunications Union. It should be noted that almost all of the countries ahead of the US using this measure are much more densely populated than the U.S. with its rural areas.

14. Canada is very similar to the US relative to its large rural areas and it has achieved a much higher broadband penetration that the US. The Brookings Institution predicts that because the US is falling behind other countries in broadband penetration will result in a potential loss of $1 trillion in economic productivity and more than 1.2 million jobs over the next decade.

15. The Pew Internet & American Life Project conducts surveys of US households. This chart from a 2006 report compares home broadband penetration by community type for the US. Household broadband penetration is growing over the time period, but penetration in rural communities continues to lag urban and suburban communities. The website for the Pew Internet & American Life Project is:

For further information or questions, please contact the author:

Myra Moss, Associate Professor

Educator, Ohio State University Extension - Community Development

moss.63@osu.edu

740-607-5177

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