The Small Business Association of Michigan this week announced a 12-month pilot project that delivers complex and sophisticated market research to small entrepreneurs in Tuscola, Houghton and Keweenaw counties who want to accelerate the growth of their businesses.

If successful, SBAM plans to expand the project across Michigan.

The SBAM “Economic Gardening Pilot Project” is funded by $130,000 in grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Enterprise Grant program.

Under this project, a team of business development experts over the next year will work with small business entrepreneurs in the three counties to assess their growth potential and market research needs, secure market research on a deeply discounted basis by partnering with libraries, and then finally help the local entrepreneurs effectively utilize the research results to substantially grow their small businesses.

SBAM hopes to dramatically expand this effort after the year-long pilot phase and extend it to communities all across the state, according to project director Mark H. Clevey, vice president for entrepreneurial development at SBAM.

“Small business entrepreneurship is Michigan’s hope for a better future,” Clevey said. “Michigan simply must become a world class expert in the creation and expansion of growth-oriented small businesses in high economic multiplier industry sectors. A business-as-usual approach to small business development is no longer viable. Michigan needs economic development that both fosters the start-up of growth-oriented entrepreneurs and accelerates the expansion and growth of existing firms.”

The Keweenaw Economic Development Association and Tuscola County Economic Development Corp. were selected as local partners because of their previous experience and strong desire to grow their local economies through the robust creation, retention and expansion of growth-oriented small business entrepreneurs, Clevey said.

In addition to the local partners and their community library systems, SBAM is being assisted by Michigan State University Extension; Growing Local Economics Inc.; Shepherd Advisors Inc., Michigan Library Association; Michigan Library Consortium and the State Library of Michigan. In addition, Clevey says the Michigan Municipal League and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority “seeded the foundation for this effort and are important advisors on the project.”

According to Clevey, most economic "gardening programs" -- designed to grow local small businesses as opposed to attracting new businesses -- specialize in market research and operate under the guise of local economic development programs.

“Qualified economic development practitioners, however, note that this approach is expensive and local communities have limited leverage when seeking to lower program costs with negotiated discounts," Clevey said. "Also, the administrative costs associated with multiple programs within a given state make this approach expensive. Lastly, while some communities offer business centers that provide information support for businesses, the vast majority of Michigan communities have limited resources to fund such an effort, in addition to the fact that most local libraries have limited capacity to conduct high-end market research. Within this context, the purpose of the pilot project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a statewide economic development approach, versus a local community-based approach," that overcomes those limitations.

A key component of this effort will be to use the aggregated purchasing power of SBAM’s membership to secure substantial discounts on expensive and high-end marketing research for growth-oriented small business entrepreneurs in the target communities. For over 30 years, SBAM has successfully aggregated the purchasing power of its members to secure deep discounts on products and services that lower the cost of business startups, operations and growth.

For more information contact Mark H. Clevey at (800) 362-5461 or e-mail mark.clevey@sbam.org.