wnc’s small business landscape

Learning Program Associate Lilley Washburn said sometimes business owners may think that growth is the solution to their challenges, but that’s not always the case. She said sometimes it’s more of a focus on the profitability of what a business is currently doing and tuning that in that can open up opportunities. “When a business is marginally profitable, market research analysis is extremely helpful,” said Washburn. “Capturing the customer segment a business is targeting and where they can be found is key, and it’s possible to run experiments and see what happens to demand. Minor adjustments can make a big difference.”

There are also several specialty programs that highlight important areas of opportunity for the community. For example, focusing on the artsy nature of the region, Washburn said Craft Your Commerce is a twice-yearly program focused on local crafters, makers, and artisans. The program is helping those creative and craft-centered businesses understand strategies through business training classes that were designed by makers.

Washburn also said WNC is a great region for small businesses. “Our communities are super locally focused and love local businesses,” she said. “They think local first, which creates a great environment in which to get started. The high level of collaboration and connectivity allows entrepreneurs to grow teams within programs and organizations which can give each other a good edge and support when they need it.”

Transitions

When business owners are ready to sell their business, they can also turn to Mountain BizWorks for help. The organization now offers a Market Advisors program that can help both buyers and sellers looking to transition into or out of business ownership.

“We are in a decade of transition,” Raker said. “Over half of area business owners are older than 55, and 80% of those will look to shift out of their business in the next decade. There is a whole other avenue to business ownership through acquisition, and we are helping entrepreneurs realize those opportunities.”

Raker said the goal is to help retain these established local businesses because small businesses were struggling to find buyers.

“We can help increase the market and help these businesses do more,” Raker said. “Entrepreneurs can take advantage of this economic opportunity and be their own boss, realize their dream, create financial security, and gain value from their predecessor without having to build something from the ground up.”

Tips

Raker and Washburn agree that though some entrepreneurs may be hesitant to share their ideas, the opposite is more beneficial. They said it is really important to gather different points of view and different opinions, and that people have to get over the hesitancy to share their ideas.

Raker and Washburn also shared that there are lots of great organizations working on various aspects of small business support. “We work closely with small business centers at local colleges who offer very specific classes, whereas we offer more in overall strategies,” Washburn said.

“Whether it’s through any other organization, we try to do a good job of referring people back and forth,” Raker said. “The important thing is that entrepreneurs can reach out to any of us; just get started somewhere and one of us will get you plugged in to where you need to be.”

New Entrepreneur Resource Connects Small Businesses to Entrepreneurial Support Organizations

With so many entrepreneurial support organizations throughout the state of North Carolina, Supportedly Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Kissel saw an opportunity to help connect entrepreneurs to the support that they need to grow their business at whatever growth level they are in.

Supportedly is a new free online platform that helps business owners find the support, advice, and access to capital that they may need. “We were just a directory at first, then we discovered that there is a deeper need to connect these entrepreneurs to the right entrepreneurial support organization for where they are in their business journey,” Kissel said. “Now, they will no longer have to dig through multiple websites; they can go directly to the organization and program that suits them best.”

Kissel said anyone in the state can use the Supportedly platform to get right to region-specific content, share their journey and their business, watch videos of fellow entrepreneurs giving industryspecific advice, engage in peer-to-peer learning, find applicable ESOs, and interact with other entrepreneurs to ask questions and gain feedback.

The organization is working on a new directory-piloting navigator program that should be launched toward the end of April, according to Kissel, which can provide entrepreneurs a match to the specific support they need in the area in which they operate. Since not everyone will visit the Supportedly website directly, this system offers a plugin that can also be installed on the websites of ESOs without breaking the user’s experience. They will get curated listing links to websites’ programs and options of places where they can learn more.

“Organizations using that host navigator on their site will have the ability to add, update, or archive their own programs,” Kissel said. “It’s a tool that the entire ESO community can proactively help keep updated, allowing the community to stay on top of the most recent additions.”

With funding coming from a Dogwood Health Trust grant, this dynamic tool provides a holistic look at what the startup ecosystem provides throughout the state. “Supportedly will be able to offer its services at no cost through June of 2024 for DHT’s area footprint, and we can embed the plugin on sites for free until then,” Kissel said. “After that time, we still want this to be a low barrier, affordable annual subscription-based tool for organizations.”

Supportedly will continue to add functionality and perform needed updates to sustain the tool, as well as add additional curated core business training pieces and specific webinars from small business centers, according to Kissel. She said additional webinars from other organizations may be added to the website as well.

Supportedly also offers entrepreneurs the ability to ask questions, some of which Kissel answers herself. She said if she doesn’t know the answer or if someone needs a specific recommendation, she will happily make an introduction to a known, trusted connection within the community. If she receives similar questions from a