Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana

William D Bygrave, Frederic C Hamilton Professor for Free Enterprise, Babson College and lead researcher of the GEM Financing Report said, "Entrepreneurs seeking capital to start a business must first use their own savings, then turn to family members, next friends, work colleagues, and neighbours and finally strangers for informal investment. They should forget about formal venture capital."

Pierson oversees the small-business division, which is charged with helping Phoenix small companies expand and create jobs.

Thanks Beth.

In Montana, businesses are much smaller. In Montana, 40 percent of private, nonagricultural businesses employ 20 employees or fewer, compared with 26 percent nationally, according to Montana figures from 2002. A big small business by national standards would be an anchor tenant in Missoula, where 80 percent of businesses have 10 or fewer employees.

To be sure, entrepreneurship isn’t a slam-dunk for older corporate refugees.

Dozens of states are now in the process of designing comprehensive entrepreneurial development strategies.

"It’s almost like yeast; it’s helped companies leverage over $200 million in public and private funds, which has enabled them to grow much faster than the average Maine company,"

Gone are the days when economic development meant hoisting the Jolly Roger and raiding neighboring states to bring back the plunder of a major factory. Today, successful states choose husbandry over piracy. They prefer to grow their own companies from intellectual seeds planted in a fertile business climate.

"The number-one killer of start-ups is when entrepreneurs confuse ‘being lucky’ with ‘being smart.’ You must possess the humility to distinguish one from the other."

Much of the thinking about entrepreneurship—which is embodied in support efforts—is very male-dominated.