In the 2007 State New Economy Index, the Kauffman Foundation recommends supporting industry clusters and reorganizing programs around these clusters. The Kauffman Foundation found that “in regional economies, the whole is often greater than the sum of the parts.”
As a result, the Hannah Grimes Center started developing targeted programming focusing on the productivity and innovation of regional small business owners from four industry clusters:
For each industry, we created a monthly e-newsletter, identified partners/service providers, held a focus group and are producing a resource brochure.
You can view our archived emails here and subscribe to one of our focus email lists here.
Our goals for this project are to:
- Strengthen our connections with individuals, businesses and associations in each industry cluster to understand their needs and look for opportunities to collaborate.
- Become the regional resource for these clusters by compiling and disseminating existing information and services (we have piloted this successfully with an e-newsletter for agriculture).
- Identify the gaps in services and begin to develop programs that will help make these businesses more innovative and productive.
- Increase the wages offered by small business owners in these industry clusters.
