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Institutional Communications
Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-2929
Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu


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Wyoming Business Tips for July 22

A weekly look at issues facing Wyoming business owners and entrepreneurs from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.

By Mike Lambert, Market Research Center manager, Wyoming SBDC Network

In recent months, a lot of effort has gone into renewing the vision for economic growth in Wyoming. One component of the plans by Gov. Mark Gordon and the Wyoming Business Council recognizes that entrepreneurs drive economies. A challenge has always been how to provide services to businesses that result in measurable employment gains and in increased revenues for companies.

One tool in Wyoming’s toolbox is an economic development model called economic gardening (EG). According to the Kauffman Foundation, “Economic gardening is an economic development model that embraces the fundamental idea that entrepreneurs drive economies. The model seeks to create jobs by supporting existing companies in a community.”

EG is designed to assist successful, high-growth companies to continue to expand and grow. These companies -- called stage two or gazelles -- generally employ between 10 and 100 people, and have revenues of $1 million or higher. Nationally, these companies make up 10 percent of the businesses but create 35 percent of the jobs. EG assists gazelles by connecting entrepreneurs to resources such as competitive intelligence on markets, customers and competitors that are comparable to the resources customarily only available to large firms.

The program has proven itself wildly successful across the country. What is not widely known is that Wyoming offers a certified EG program of its own, which is available through the Wyoming SBDC Network’s Market Research Center. The Market Research Center’s staff are all certified as specialists by the National Center for Economic Gardening and can offer a wide variety of services to second-stage companies to help them make the decisions that will enable them to continue to grow and add jobs.

If you are an entrepreneur with a rapidly growing business in Wyoming and would like to learn more about how EG can work for you, contact your local Wyoming SBDC Network adviser at www.wyomingsbdc.org.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their businesses. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by UW with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.

 

 

Contact Us

Institutional Communications
Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-2929
Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu


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