5 minute read

Starting a Business is Hard

StartUP COLUMBUS IS WORKING TO MAKE IT EASIER

By Erick Richman

After just a few moments with Ben MacMinn, his passion for uplifting small business is clear.

Ben MacMinn

Photo by Trey Walker

“We have incredible people here doing incredible – I should say amazing - things,” Ben says. As director of StartUP Columbus, he’s focused on answering the question “‘How are we going to support these entrepreneurs?’”

That focus drives his work helping citizens create their own small businesses, launching new shops like BeeJou Craft Kombucha and Plant Hustle Vegan Bakery. In addition to free consultations and a nine-week, low-cost CO.STARTERS course that guides aspiring entrepreneurs in creating realistic, personalized business plans, a newly created Incubator Program offers a free workspace and a structured environment to young businesses.

Main Space for CO.STARTERS

“Columbus has had a rich history of entrepreneurship,” Ben says, mentioning former startups turned major local employers like TSYS, Synovus, and W.C. Bradley Company. However, in a 2015 comparison with nine other cities, the Columbus 2025 Regional Prosperity Initiative found that Columbus ranked last on metrics such as the number of employees in firms less than five years old.

To him, that meant Columbus wasn’t lacking enthusiasm or ideas, but the resources and support systems that these other communities were using, like incubator spaces, entrepreneurship programming and accessible networking opportunities.

Though he praises the work by the SCORE mentorship non-profit and the local office of the University of Georgia’s Small Business Development Center (hosted in Columbus State University’s Cunningham Center), he says the rankings convinced him that “we needed to do more.”

The three organizations are now partners.

“StartUP Columbus, we created it to really tie all those resources together, as well as provide our own resources. There’s so many other pieces that have to be in play to support entrepreneurship,” he says.

Participants in the nine-week CO.STARTERS program explore how to set up their business for success, from revenue projections to legal considerations.

Great Views to work from at StartUp Columbus office space

“It really dives in deep, but at an easy-to understand level.”

With nearly one in three Americans reporting trouble paying household expenses, part of the commitment to lowering the barrier to entrepreneurship involves keeping the program low-cost. The CO.STARTERS’ $200 fee is intended as a ‘checkpoint’ for participants to ensure they have a realistic understanding of what to expect.

“It’s very difficult,” he says, “It’s not the ‘I’m going to go sit in a coffee shop and make $100,000 a year doing nothing and going on vacation.’ It’s hard work.”

The $200 fee doesn’t make the company money – the notebook itself costs them $125, he says - and it wasn’t decided upon lightly.

“We wanted to set a price that was not extravagant,” Ben says, explaining that it was chosen to reflect his belief that the people who might be struggling with financial insecurity are exactly “the people that need this knowledge.”

That manifested in a commitment to work with individuals oneon-one when the fee does present an issue.

“Sometimes people can’t afford it, and I understand that, but if you’re really trying to grow your business, you have to take risks. And this is a small risk. $200 is a small risk, when you think of the lifetime of what a business can be.”

Ample meeting space at StartUp Columbus

One of Ben’s goals is to make entrepreneurship more accessible to low socioeconomic areas and marginalized communities by exploring “how we impact people of color and minority businesses, and how we support them.”

Home ownership was a primary method of accumulating wealth in America throughout the 1900s, with many families using home equity to launch businesses; federal housing policies denied African Americans from taking out home loans regardless of eligibility or ability to pay, preventing access to those means of entrepreneurship. Although such policies were finally made illegal by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, they left lasting effects that are still felt across the country today in the presence of those low socioeconomic status areas.

“The conversation starts internally,” he says, with the board members asking themselves and their partners questions, like “What are the resources that we can provide? What are the things that we can do to support them where they’re at?”

Comfy & Cozy Stylish Workspace

StartUP Columbus

“We don’t have all the answers yet, but that is a passion for StartUP Columbus,” Ben says. “We have to be mindful, and thoughtful, and listen to what those needs are.”

His enthusiasm for practical, realistic entrepreneurship is rooted in a desire to support the people around him. His approach is informed by thinkers like Alan Grant, author of Think Again: The Power of Knowing.

“The whole book is based on the notion of thinking again, thinking differently, really pivoting your ideas,” Ben says, “And changing to be open to what the world has to offer.”

Other influential authors include writer Malcolm Gladwell and theologian Dietrich Boenhoffer, whose explorations of faith and grace are known for a similar type of re-thinking. Ben brings that open-minded perspective to his work, reflecting how StartUP Columbus, despite launching many successful businesses, is still trying new ideas and continuing to be a fresh-minded startup themselves.

He describes himself not as an optimist, but a realist, and tries to introduce others to the possibilities that they might miss.

“We hope we’re one of the organizations shedding a light on what that looks like, because we want to keep people here in Columbus,” he says, mentioning the widespread changes the city has undergone in the last few years, especially the wave of new businesses and family-friendly activities alongside Columbus State University’s River Park campus expansion.

“Mercer coming here, that’s a sign of incredible growth.” The university’s new four-year medical campus is planned to open within the next few years at a location near the downtown TSYS campus.

Ben’s already seen the area populated with new and innovative businesses such as Dr. Meghan Galer’s ColGACare and hopes to see his participants’ startups thrive throughout the city.

“We really want to see these individuals succeed,” he says, declaring that entrepreneurship will be “one of the most important economic drivers in our community.”

Celebrating Graduation 2019

Ben is active across social media with information, videos and events at the StartUP Columbus Facebook and Instagram accounts. Their primary online presence is the website, StartUPcolga.com, which has information on their services, a guided tour of the new incubator space, and more.

With so much growth, he says, “I foresee a bright future for Columbus.”

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