Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

The process of starting and building your own business has been compared to herding cats. For this reason, entrepreneurs of all ages need ongoing expert advice to create and grow their companies.

Raising happy, healthy — and maybe entrepreneurial — children.

"By developing a virtual location where people can go for information and to share ideas, our intent is to quickly build a critical mass of talent to enhance and grow Iowa business," said Kurt Heiar of Regena Therapeutics Corp. and chair of the ICIG’s Entrepreneurial Formation Hot Team. "The Web site is a portal that we hope leads users to make face-to-face connections with constituencies that can help them.’

The top five finalists will have an opportunity to present their plans to the AARP services group in Washington, D.C. Sponsors of the competition include AARP, Tyco International, Les Concierges, Pulse Data/Humanware, Met Life Mature Market Institute, IBM, and Ceredian Performance Partners.

We are poised for an extraordinary era of creativity and entrepreneurship, an era in which entrepreneurial energy and innovation will reach more broadly, more rapidly, and more deeply than in any other era in history.

16th Annual John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition – Prize Money Increased to $10K

"In order to finance my education I decided to combine my interests in small business and social responsibility," Randazzo said. "I wanted to create a for-profit business that contributed a percentage of the profits to local and national nonprofit organizations."

The Enterprise Corp. report validates the "incredibly important economic development strategy" of promoting entrepreneurism, he said, which accounts for 75 percent of jobs and wealth creation in the United States.

"We’re moving in the right direction," Higdon said. A decade ago, "we weren’t on the radar screen. Since then, we are on everybody’s radar screen."

Still, there is "a long way to go," he added. Here’s what they’re doing. Why not your community?

The cosponsors of this conference are interested in submissions from state
government policymakers and economic development leaders for initiatives that have
yielded more small business growth, created new jobs, and improved the state’s
overall economy.

Back in Jesse’s classroom, the kids loved Draper’s minibusiness class. The teachers loved it, too. So Draper took it a step further and started an educational foundation/business called BizWorld (http://www.bizworld.org). The outfit packaged Draper’s initial program and marketed it to schools around the world.