ENTREPRENEURS SEEING – AND SEIZING –OPPORTUNITY

from Enterprise Magazine Winter 2019

ENTREPRENEURS SEEING – AND SEIZING –OPPORTUNITY

A definition: An entrepreneur is a person who organizes a venture to benefit from an opportunity, rather than working as an employee. Entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy. These are the people who have the skills and initiative necessary to anticipate current and future needs and bring good new ideas to market.

By James Day

Entrepreneurship is alive and well in the mid-valley. The examples abound.

Consider Mount Angel Soda Company, the Salem-based maker of handcrafted sodas. The company, which consists of four members of the Hadley family, bought out the Mount Angel Brewing Company last year.

Set up in the 45th Parallel Building on Hyacinth Street Northeast, the Hadleys currently serve up soda for the Portland metropolitan area and the greater Willamette Valley with plans to expand to all of Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Consider the Hopewell Hub, an eclectic studio, gallery and general store opened by three sisters in “downtown Hopewell,” a small town in Yamhill County. Three Rothan sisters took over the old Hopewell Store on July 4, 2018 – talk about a fortuitous opening day for independent entrepreneurs – and they sell everything from paintings and jewelry to truffle salt and biodegradable soap. They plan to add coffee, pastries, sandwiches and jerky.

Consider Oregon CBD. The Polk County concern is leading the way in producing high-quality hemp seed that can be used for a wide range of products.

Started in 2015 and led by Seth Crawford, a cannabis expert and former Oregon State University sociology professor, and brother Eric Crawford, an OSU horticulture grad and former owner of a landscaping firm, things are going so well that the company recently donated $1 million to OSU’s new hemp innovation center.

Families working together on a dream project. Innovators helping innovators. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about. But there is more to the story. Just like the 45th Parallel Building has to have a sound foundation to remain viable, entrepreneurs throughout Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties benefit from a wide range on programs aimed at keeping the innovation fires burning. Mentors. Grant funding. Angel investing. Collaborations and workshops.

The Rothan sisters and the Hadleys both noted assistance

from SEDCOR and the Salem branch of the SCORE business resource and mentoring program.

“We have made exhaustive use of agencies such as SEDCOR and SCORE,” said Sam Hadley of Mount Angel Soda. “Their services have been invaluable.”

Other key groups providing assistance are:

Oregon Entrepreneurs Network

“OEN has a 28-year track record of helping entrepreneurs start-up and scale their businesses by connecting them to peers and mentors, start-up funding opportunities, and hands-on training,” said Mike White, the Mid-Valley venture catalyst with OEN.

“We are Oregon’s only organization that supports scalable start-ups from every industry across the state. I wear multiple hats as I’m trying to build a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem and catalyze start-ups through various activities.”

Among those activities are pub talks, which White said “are networking events with guest panelists from different industries,” and start-up weekends that are designed to “catalyze new businesses.”

In recent pub talks and workshops topics discussed include hemp and CBD, crowdfunding and “how to start your startup.” In addition, OEN also gave out its 26th annual statewide Tom Holce Entrepreneurship awards in October. Included among the honors was a Game/Changer award, an Entrepreneurial Achievement award and awards that honor companies in the bootstrap, early, development and growth stages.

That’s the good news. There are also challenges for mid-valley entrepreneurs and those who work with and support them.

“We currently have a fragmented entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Mid-Valley where there are a few problems,” White said “First, entrepreneurs don’t know where all the resources are. Second, economic development organizations have a hard time allocating resources to entrepreneurs, And third, there are a lack of resources overall … entrepreneurs are all over the place

Left: Alex Paraskevas, SEDCOR’s specialist in regional innovation, pitches an idea at a workshop. Right: Indy Commons, an Independence incubator hub.

starting their business projects.

“Some of the challenges that entrepreneurs face include access to early stage capital, mentoring/coaching, and workspace. Other factors include how to do the small things like filing your business with the Secretary of State, what licensing is needed, financial planning and/or overall business planning and where to go to get help.”

Launch Mid-Valley

SEDCOR’s Launch Mid-Valley program is described by Alex Paraskevas, who specializes in regional innovation, as a “collaborative effort amongst economic development folks in the region to promote entrepreneurship in our region. Functionally, this means creating a website with resources

listings, cross-promoting events and workshops in the area.” Launch mid valley’s first big initiative was recruiting participants from our region for the Virtual Incubation Program (VIP) put on by Oregon Technical Business Center (OTBC). “I think the state of entrepreneurship in the valley is promising,” Paraskevas said. ”A lot of resources exist in this area, and it’s a matter of making sure people know who and what those resources are. I think on top of that we’re in the earlier stages of building an ecosystem and a network of people and businesses.”

Launch Mid-Valley also has launched the Mid-Valley Angel Fund. The fund is recruiting new investors to raise money to invest in businesses in the region. The first organizational workshop for the program was held Nov. 19.

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45th Parallel in Salem, left, and Indy Commons in Independence, right, both house businesses needing a business launch pad.

Yamhill, Polk

Yamhill County has set up an economic development program that “supports innovation and sustainable growth through strategic investments and partnerships in economic development initiatives and projects that create or retain jobs, generate increased economic activity and improve the economic and social livability and vitality of local communities.”

The program includes small grants up to $10,000, start-up grants up to $25,000 and a strategic investment fund that can deliver amounts up to $100,000.

Yamhill County grants and special projects manager Carrie Martin said the program “has existed in the form of grants to local businesses and organizations for a number of years.”

Martin added that changes were made for fiscal year 2019 “as a result of collaboration between Abisha Stone (SEDCOR’s Yamhill business retention manager) and county staff to update the program and align it with county economic development priorities.”

Funds for the program come from the Oregon Lottery.

SEDCOR’s Paraskevas praised the work of the Indy Commons group in Independence, led by Kate Schwarzler.

Independence received a rural opportunities initiative grant from Business Oregon and Schwarzler was chosen to execute it. The goal, Paraskevas said, is “to help communities further their offerings … and ecosystem building.”

Indy Commons is a work space owned by Schwarzler on South Main Street in Independence. Members share space and resources, including individual and group workspace, highspeed internet, printers, a conference room, and informal meeting areas.

Indy Commons also hosts educational opportunities and networking events.

Independence also features a thriving Meetup group, with connections to more than 100 groups, from writers and artists and singers to real estate investors, home buyers … and entrepreneurs.

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