Wisconsin Regional Organization
Aids Entrepreneurs

By William Amt, EDFS Manager, NADO Research Foundation

(This article is the second in a series that profiles the winners of the NADO Research Foundation’s Pioneer Award for Promoting Entrepreneurship in Rural America. Northwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission was the first runner-up.)

A variety of integrated business support programs developed by the Northwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, an Economic Development Administration (EDA) funded district, have played an important role in the revitalization of the region’s economy. Traditionally dependent on timber, mineral resources, tourism, and, to a lesser extent, agriculture, the rural region’s ten sparsely populated counties had per capita incomes as low as 35 percent below the national norm. For the past 20 years, the Commission has been actively involved in fostering entrepreneurial business growth that has diversified the economy and increased incomes.

New Capital Sources

Myron Schuster, the commission’s executive director, said that when the Commission established the Northwest Wisconsin Business Development Center (NWBDC) in 1984 as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, it was the first region-based revolving business loan fund in Wisconsin. Among its 146 borrowers is City Forest Corporation, a recycle tissue grade paper mill in Ladysmith. In 1993, entrepreneur Wayne Gullstad obtained financing through NWBDC’s EDA revolving loan fund as part of a financial package to acquire and reopen an idle paper mill. The $100,000 EDA loan was instrumental in leveraging more than $6.5 million in other public and private financing. Since then, 85 jobs have been created and the company was named as one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest growing companies.

Over the past five years, NWBDC has expanded its market reach by segmenting the loan fund into three parts, including a technology seed fund, microloan fund, and the original gap financing fund.

Equity financing is hard to obtain in rural areas, but the Wisconsin Rural Enterprise Fund is doing its part to change this. The Fund, established in 2000, is not a subsidiary of NWRPC, but an NWRPC affiliate. The Wisconsin Business Innovation Corporation (WBIC), was an incorporator and investor member of the fund.

WBIC works to solicit additional investor-members, and counsels and screens entrepreneurs seeking equity financing from the fund. Investments from community economic development corporations, rural electric cooperatives, and private financial institutions have provided more than $1 million to the fund.

Technical Assistance

The Wisconsin Business Innovation Corporation was established in 1996 as a 501(c)(3) to provide a menu of business support services to foster enterprise formation and growth based on innovations and new technologies. Its services include technical, economic and market feasibility studies; preparation of business plans and financial projections; and linkages with US Department of Agriculture research laboratories and European innovation centers. Entrepreneurs have access to an on-line Electronic Knowledge Service where they can access technical, scientific and business databases worldwide. Services are delivered through a network of eight business incubators and an incubator without walls.

Since the Commission instituted its business support programs, more than 2,500 jobs have been created and saved by the 150 businesses that have received support from the entrepreneurial program, which is significant in a region with a population of 180,782. Since 1996, 21 businesses that have participated in the incubators with walls program have created and saved 87 jobs, and an additional 88 have received assistance through the incubator without walls. The Wisconsin Rural Enterprise Fund has so far invested in six entrepreneurial start-ups, encouraging the location of technology-based firms that pay wages significantly higher than the regional average.

For more information, contact: Myron Schuster at 715/635-2197 or mschuster@nwrpc.com.

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