BY TROY PRICE, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, BRUSHY FORK INSTITUTE

The Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities program supports rural entrepreneurs in their business ventures to move community development efforts to the next level. The initiative was originally established in Kansas by the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. In a regional effort funded through an Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant, four West Virginia communities – who are working with a team at The Hub – have embarked on this three year initiative to advance their local economies alongside teams working in communities in Eastern Kentucky and Southeastern Ohio.

Here, we bring you advice from a Kentucky community.

At one of our recent Entrepreneurial Community meetings here in southeastern Kentucky, we offered our attendees a selection of free books on a variety of business subjects. Their titles ranged from Starting A Specialty Food Business to IT Issues Facing Any Small Business.

You’ve probably already guessed that these giveaways came from among a bookshelf of recent publications that we have on-hand at the Brushy Fork Institute at Berea College.

What you might not know is that we’ve been able to obtain and distribute a robust selection of brand-new books absolutely free-of-charge.

Here’s how you, too, can manage to do the same:

The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. receives thousands of books each year. Often, copies of the same book arrive from multiple sources—both publishers and distributors, for example— are received for consideration. These duplicate copies are made available via the Library Of Congress Surplus Books Program.

That is all well and good, but their mere availability alone did not get these free books into our hands. It took some deft political intervention on our behalf! I called Congressman Hal Roger’s office (R-KY) and asked to speak with an intern. I explained who I was, whom I worked with and asked if someone from the office could go over to the LOC Surplus Book Room and select business books that we might share with our community partners throughout Eastern Kentucky.

Less than an hour later the very diligent intern called me back and said they had obtained approval to go over to the Surplus Book Room and pick out a selection of books for us. They also were able to use our Congressman’s Franking Privilege to mail the books to us free-of-charge. Sure enough, about a week later, five boxes of free books arrived at our doorstep. We currently use these books both for reference in our Institute’s own library as well as to share appropriate titles with our clients and partners.

This has been a genuine win-win for everyone involved!

So, the next time you’re thinking about how to further inspire and energize the communities with whom you work, keep our friends at the Library of Congress in mind.

They’re a great resource—and as I said, the books are FREE!

BY MELISSA CONN, DIRECTOR, KENTUCKY HIGHLANDS INNOVATION CENTER

The Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities program supports rural entrepreneurs in their business ventures to move community development efforts to the next level. The initiative was originally established in Kansas by the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. In a regional effort funded through an Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant, four West Virginia communities – who are working with a team at The Hub – have embarked on this three year initiative to advance their local economies alongside teams working in communities in Eastern Kentucky and Southeastern Ohio.

Here, we bring you a story from a Kentucky community.

For many counties in the region, out-migration is a problem. Owsley County, Kentucky is hoping that nurturing local entrepreneurs will not only create more businesses, it will create more employment and people will come back to the county.

That’s where initiatives like the Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities (E2C) come in. People want to start businesses but need direction and resources to get started as well as assistance to keep from getting discouraged once they are up and running. As part of the E2C program, the Kentucky Highlands Innovation Center (KHIC Center) participated in a roundtable/workshop meeting in Booneville in late August along with the Owsley County E2C Committee, the Owsley County Action Team and the Kentucky Innovation Network Richmond Office.

The meeting was organized by Glenn Baker—who until recently was the community education director, Owsley County Community Education—with full support from the Owsley County Action Team. “The workshop was fantastic,” Baker said. “The visiting technical assistance providers were able meet individually with each of three local enterprises and share with them specific information they need to succeed as well as offer immediate feedback regarding each business owner’s ideas about how best to move their small business forward.”

The Owsley County entrepreneurs ranged from the co-owners of a bed and breakfast, the owner of a monogrammed apparel company who would like to expand online, and two social entrepreneurs from a Booneville community-based organization that has a black-box theater and seeks to buy the old theater to show movies and stage productions.

Melissa Conn, director of the KHIC Center, which is the London office of the Kentucky Innovation Network, spoke to the entrepreneurs. She is a certified facilitator of the Ice House entrepreneurial training program and brought copies of the book, Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur, for all of the meeting participants as well as several students. Those students are participating in the Kentucky Lieutenant Governor’s Entrepreneurship Challenge, an annual competition for high-schoolers.

Other speakers were Zachary Stanifer, a KHIC loan officer; Kristel Smith, director of the Kentucky Innovation Network’s Richmond office; and Robert Donnan, who is the Kentucky Coordinator working on the seven-county Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities. The larger initiative is hosted by the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, working in a partnership with The Brushy Fork Institute at Berea College.

“Repeatedly throughout the meeting, these entrepreneurs said they wanted to stay in Owsley County because of a love for the community,” Conn said. “I believe that in some of the smallest communities we serve, we find the biggest pockets of hope.”