Creating an entrepreneurial climate is a bit like skydiving. For success, first and foremost, you need people brave (or is that crazy?) enough to take the risk and jump out of an airplane. These people are the entrepreneurs. You also need instructors and safety gear – the advisers, agencies, and financiers who help ensure those skydivers float majestically and don’t fall flat.

So does our region have what it takes to get a squadron of skydiving entrepreneurs aloft, drifting downward bearing jobs and economic vitality? Local experts say that, while the Chippewa Valley may not be Silicon Valley, the right resources exist here to help new, innovative businesses succeed.

“I think success is more dependent on the specific concept and the person.” – Luke Kempen, UW-Eau Claire Small Busines Development Center

Brian Doudna, executive director of the Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corp., lauds the amount of technical assistance available to would-be entrepreneurs. “Most area service providers are embracing the lean start-up model,” Doudna says. “This provides the entrepreneur a quicker sense of their opportunity’s   viability, and generates less risk to starting a firm.” Doudna adds that there is improved coordinator among the multitude of agencies that provide support for entrepreneurs. These entities include (among others) the Economic Development Corp., Western Dairyland Business Center, SCORE, and the UW-Eau Claire Small Business Development Center.

The latter agency offers business counseling for entrepreneurs and expanding businesses throughout west-central Wisconsin. But there are limits to what advice and counseling can do, says Luke Kempen, a business counselor and the center’s interim director.

“I think success is more dependent on the specific concept and the person,” Kempen says. “Being an entrepreneur, people glamorize it sometimes.” Would-be entrepreneurs often talk about the security of being their own bosses and the desirability of working fewer hours, not realizing the uncertainty that come with stepping out of the proverbial airplane. “As a business owner, you’re constantly making decisions,” Kempen says, “and if you struggle with that … being an entrepreneur is probably not a fit for you.”

Kempen knows all about these challenges from his own life: A certified public accountant by trade, he started his own organic lawn-care company in 2002 and sold it five years later. This experience gave him a taste of the importance of marketing (in his business, he says, the marketing was more intensive than the yard work) as well as geography. In retrospect, Kempen says, starting the business in the Twin Cities instead of Eau Claire would have given access to many more customers interested in what was then a niche service.

Geographic considerations are important for entrepreneurs, but they cut both ways: Markets like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, or Madison have far more potential customers, but they also have far more potential competitors.

So what other entrepreneurial assets could the Chippewa Valley gain from? For one, improved matchmaking between beginning businesspeople and equity investors and business mentors would help, says Doudna, of the Economic Development Corp. The region also has a lower-than-expected number of information technology start-ups. That may be changing, however: Doudna notes that UW System seed grants at UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout are intended to spur on-campus innovation. Likewise, two seed grants from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. aimed at the region are designed to fund prototype development, Doudna added.

Overall, Doudna is bullish on entrepreneurial growth in the region. Our educational institutions provide talent and technical expertise, he says, and financial resources are available for those willing to step out into the blue sky. “Wisconsin and the Eau Claire area have programs to fill the majority of the financial barriers,” he says. “This is one area of true competitive strength.