Program to help rural entrepreneurs…in Minnesota

Rural Minnesota entrepreneurs could get a helping hand from a Web-based set of
tools that will be launched on Wednesday.

Benno Groeneveld Web Reporter Business Journal

The "Virtual Entrepreneurial
Network" (VEN) will open
an online portal for budding
entrepreneurs that day. The
program will them help write
business plans, find funding
and provide access to both
governmental and
non-governmental
resources. VEN will initially
run in a test version and will
be fully up and running this
fall.

In addition to the electronic
support, the program also
will provide some
face-to-face assistance.

Supported by a $526,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s
Technology Opportunities Program, VEN is a cooperative effort by a number of
organizations including the Minnesota Rural Partners Inc., Vezone, the
Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development (DTED) and the
Northern Tier High Technology Corridor.

With farms and agriculture-related jobs waning in rural Minnesota, the program
aims to support new business activities in order to diversify the economy and
encourage new job development outside the state’s urban areas.

DTED spokesman John Fisher said that the
program can also help recently laid-off
Fingerhut employees in the St. Cloud area
and former employees of the Potlatch paper
plant in Brainerd. A study by DTED found that
a large number of these unemployed workers
are interested in entrepreneurship. "Of 500
people we surveyed, 11 percent had started a
business, 19 percent was in the process of
starting a business and 39 percent said they
were considering that," Fisher said.

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