Why entrepreneurship matters for Southeastern North Carolina

As challenging as the current economic environment is, the current situation here in Southeastern North Carolina is not as bad as other parts of the country where economic growth is forecasted well below our 1.2 percent growth estimate. Yet the downturn has and continues to have an impact by exposing the faults in our regional economy, highlighting its strengths, and ultimately allowing us an opportunity to lay the foundation for a stronger economic future going forward.

Five types of businesses dot our landscape; corporations, small businesses, franchises, growth businesses, and non-profits. With roughly 73% of all businesses in Southeastern NC employing less than ten employees, our economy is local in nature and scale. However, outside of the real estate industry and the large corporations with local operations here, our economy lacks a strong foundation that is scalable, innovative, and growth oriented beyond our region, state, and national borders. Entrepreneurship can and needs to play a crucial role in this future.

Entrepreneurship represents new and current businesses that have the potential to grow exponentially in revenue and employees. It represents the development of new technologies and processes that have application in multiple industries and countries. It attracts innovative thinkers to our region and leverages the skilled labor base we already have to new heights. These entrepreneurial dynamics bring equity capital to town in search of emerging companies to invest in and creates opportunities for new and existing service providers to support the entire process.

This entrepreneurial environment is vastly different from having lots of small businesses that provide a basic local service, employ five or six employees, and often close once the owner(s) retire, move, or get hit with an economic recession. Instead these organizations have names like Castle Branch, PPD, and Wilmington Pharmaceuticals. Castle Branch started with four employees in 1997. Today it employs over 140, has products and services in ten different industries, does business nationwide, and is putting the finishing touches on its 30,000+ square foot headquarters off of Military Cut Off Road. It hired local graduates, used local legal and accounting firms, brought in knowledge workers from around the world, and engaged local retired
executives. PPD started with Fred Eshelman in 1985 and is now a $1.6 billion dollar public company with over ten thousand employees whose downtown Wilmington headquarters provides a symbol of entrepreneurship in our region.

These are the stories and companies that build an economic foundation on entrepreneurship. These companies do more for Southeastern North Carolina economically than small businesses. And we need more of them.

The good news is that we already have many of the pieces in place to create and strengthen such a foundation. UNCW provides students with a strong educational base and CFCC gives individuals, young and old, an opportunity to develop skills in important trades. We have an angel investment group that funds emerging ventures, and a Chamber of Commerce whose recently completed Cape Fear Future project identified entrepreneurship as one of its top three pillars for our economic future.

We have a number of industries that have a reputation on a national and international scale including film, biotechnology, and contract research organizations (CRO). And most importantly we have an existing, albeit fragmented community of entrepreneurs, some of who are currently building and leading companies, others who are currently looking for the next big opportunity, and some who are retired and live in the region because of what it offers.

The next step in creating an entrepreneurial foundation is to create a local environment that fosters “growth-oriented entrepreneurship”. The UNCW Entrepreneurship Center was launched on March 26th to be the vehicle and catalyst to do just that. The Center is built around attracting a local group of growth-minded entrepreneurs as members, surrounding them with top area business leaders and representatives to focus on entrepreneurial economic development. This development will take the form of “entrepreneur-only” networking events linking these individuals together to generate discussion on key issues, initiate new relationships, partnerships and business growth opportunities. Creating a speaker-series that brings in thought-leaders to share entrepreneurial wisdom and advice. Establishing a mentor program where experienced entrepreneurs can mentor nascent ones as they build and expand their businesses. And offering training workshops covering advanced business topics for growing businesses.

The UNCW Entrepreneurship Center will also be a vehicle for identifying regional growth businesses and partners while also reaching outside the region to attract emerging ventures and entrepreneurs to the area. Another priority for the Center will be the pursuit of an incubator for Southeastern NC that can selectively house startup companies through their initial launch and early stage growth. The UNCW Entre­preneurship Center has begun providing some of these services while others will take time to build, fund, and develop. But the key themes running through all these services, members, and goals will be 1) entrepreneurship and 2) generating growth oriented businesses, leaders, and opportunities for our region’s economy and future.

To find out more about the Center please visit: www.uncwentrepreneurshipcenter.org.

Jonathan Rowe is a Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Cameron School of Business and the Director of the UNCW Entrepreneurship Center.