Lori Glenn
MOULTRIE — On Wednesday, a state review team toured local business and favorably analyzed the community’s environment for entrepreneurial and small businesses. As a result, the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) designated Colquitt County as an Entrepreneur Friendly Community, which now opens up more doors for local businessmen.
“We were just very impressed overall,” said Dara Barwick, director of the Regional Project Managers with the Entrepreneur and Small Business Program at the GDEcD.
Colquitt County is the 87th community in the state to be so named by the GDEcD. Tift, Cook, Lowndes and Brooks counties already have received the designation. Thomas and Mitchell counties are in the process.
The Entrepreneur Friendly designation entitles community businesses to free market research data and Web optimization analysis. Colquitt County businesses now can apply for an Entrepreneur Friendly Implementation Grant for up to $25,000. This is a matching grant, Barwick said. Also, the state offers a OneGeorgia Entrepreneur Market Development Guaranteed Loan from $35,000 to $250,000. Georgia guarantees those loans at 50 percent. Interest rates are two points above prime but may be an answer for people who have trouble borrowing from a bank.
Eighty percent of new jobs are created by small companies, Barwick said.
The designation indicates the community has worked to develop an environment that is welcoming to small business and entrepreneurs. Of Colquitt County’s 1,401 companies, 91 percent are considered small businesses. These small businesses have fewer than 20 employees.
With the help of GDEcD’s regional representative Rhonda Geiger, the chamber of commerce analyzed its entrepreneurial and small business environment. A survey of 35 small businesses was conducted as part of the process, revealing that 68 percent have been in business for more than eight years and less than 20.
Barwick was particularly impressed that most local entrepreneurs interviewed by the chamber said they would be interested in helping others getting into business. More than half think the county is an excellent or good place to start a business.
Forty-three percent said their sales and marketing were adequate, while 37 percent said improvement was needed in that arena. Eleven percent said sales and marketing were excellent, and 9 percent declined to respond. Regarding administrative and financial management practices, 57 said theirs were adequate while 29 percent said they were excellent. Only 14 percent said their needs improvement.
The majority of sales at local businesses come from within the county, and most don’t export at all.
The local workforce suffers, however, from a lack of a solid work ethic and computer technology skills, the survey indicated. Finding skilled employees is a large challenge, respondents said.
Of the 35 companies surveyed, 49 percent indicated they have plans to grow. That plan indicates a need in finding more money, space or help in that plan of action, Barwick said.
One of the review team, David Dunn of the Small Business Development Center, was surprised at the survey’s results that didn’t list access to capital as a major challenge in Colquitt County. His past experience is that for first-time entrepreneurs acquiring capital in Colquitt County was relatively difficult.
Moultrie stands “head and shoulders” over many other communities Dunn has served, he said.
“I agree, and I deal with them all over the state,” Barwick said.
Barwick and her team recommended a new task force led by a nonmember of the chamber concentrating on entrepreneurial and small business growth and development. Statistics show, she said, that the more entrepreneurs who open businesses in a community, the more successful all companies will be.
She also encouraged the chamber to play up Colquitt County’s unique assets, the Sunbelt Agricultural Expo, the diving well, the arts center, its historic downtown, craft and auto shows, hunting plantations, historic Frank McCall designed homes, its dominance in agriculture and the fact that it’s the hometown of U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
The team also praised the chamber’s custom of recognizing small businesses and its continuance of training and classes to increase their sales, but it would like to see more pointed strategy from the economic development board to recruit small businesses.
Looking at the survey, Colquitt County’s businesses have a “huge opportunity” for enhancing exports and e-commerce, she said.
“Most of the companies are using very little of both. The Department of Economic Development and the (University of Georgia) have international offices and export lists and can help companies either get started or improve their export ability,” she said, adding it might not be useful for some businesses but it could dramatically improve a bottom line for others.
Other suggestions were to incorporate skills and cultivate interest in entrepreneurship through the educational system to students as young as kindergarten level and developing a peer network for entrepreneurs to trade advice.
Thanks went out especially to the Entrepreneur Friendly Committee, its chairman, Katie Harrison of Moultrie Technical College and Amanda Holt Statom, vice president of marketing for the chamber of commerce, for their research and development of growth strategies that ultimately achieved the coveted designation for the county.
