The National Climatic Data Center, the world's largest active archive of weather, is located in Asheville and is drawing private meteorological companies to the region.
News Room
Haywood champions fertile ground for entrepreneurs Date Posted: 10/29/2008
Haywood champions fertile ground for entrepreneurs By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer
Smoky Mountain News – Cover Story 10-29-08
If large-scale industry in the mountains is a sinking ship, Haywood County is but a distant speck of a life raft furiously paddling the opposite direction.
The loss of big manufacturing — think furniture, textiles, and factories in general — has been a serious economic blow to many rural communities in Western North Carolina.
As the age of industry in rural NC comes to a close, however, Haywood County officials aren’t exactly waiting around for the grand finale. Mountain folk have always been known for an intrepid spirit, and Haywood County is embracing that by positioning itself as a place that welcomes small business entrepreneurs with open arms.
“We can no longer be reliant on the Evergreens and Daycos — we have to be independent,” says Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown. Once the county’s two largest employers, the Dayco rubber plant shut its doors in 1998 and Canton-based Evergreen Paper Products has downsized its workforce in recent years.
“The days of Blue Ridge Paper and Dayco — those days don’t exist anymore,” agrees Mark Clasby, the county economic development director. “We as a community recognized the importance of entrepreneurship a long time ago.”
The county has worked hard to hone its vast resources that make Haywood one of the easiest places anywhere to start a business, and the stats are impressive. The county today boasts 1,388 businesses that employ between 1 and 100 people, and an average of 30 new businesses incorporate here each month, according to filings with the North Carolina Secretary of State department.
Still, “Twenty percent of the population goes out of the county to work,” said Brown. “I’d like to switch the numbers around and see an inflow of people. That’s what it’s all about — jobs, and an economy that can withstand the current financial downturn.”
Local business leaders see a grass-roots economy as the key to the future. In their mission to make Haywood fertile ground for small business, the county has become the first in the nation to earn the Certified Entrepreneurial Community designation — putting itself on the map as the ideal locale for entrepreneurs.
No shortage of tools for entrepreneurs
The rigorous CEC designation process, created by regional economic development entity Advantage West, is nothing to laugh at. In order to achieve the certification, communities must prove they have all the pieces in place to enable entrepreneurs. For example, a clear economic development plan must be in place. The Chamber of Commerce must be organized by a strict set of guidelines. Broadband must be available.
If any of the pieces are missing or not up to standard, a community must create or revise them — which can potentially take years.
Haywood County has stayed ahead of the curve in cultivating an astonishing array of resources that sits at the fingertips of anyone wanting to start a business.
Take the experience of Nicole Polzella. An Ohio native and lifelong dancer, Polzella dreamed of opening a dance studio — but had little clue of how to make it happen.
Polzella enrolled in a free class at Mountain BizWorks, a regional nonprofit that helps startups. She learned how to formulate a business plan and scale back her budget.
“When I came to them, I had grandiose ideas,” Polzella remembers. “I had never started a business to this scale before. They helped me at the beginning to get perspective on a startup, starting with the basics and growing from there.”
When Polzella had trouble convincing a bank to give her startup money due to her lack of credit history and young age, Mountain BizWorks came through with a loan.
“I had worked so long and hard and gone to so many places,” she says. “Mountain BizWorks gave me an opportunity based on my resume, references, and management skills — they take into account things a bank just can’t.”
Things snowballed from there for Polzella. She secured $10,000 more for her winning entry in the Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Business Plan Startup Competition, begun three years ago as an incentive for entrepreneurs.
“That was a huge amount of money for us,” she says.
The town of Waynesville expedited the permitting and licensing process. The Chamber sponsored a ribbon-cutting when Smoky Mountain Dance Studio opened its doors in July of 2007 and continues to direct new families to the studio. Since then, Polzella has sought advice from the Economic Development Commission and continues to build her knowledge through free classes and the library at Haywood Community College’s Small Business Center.
Today, Smoky Mountain Dance Center has over 140 students and employs six part-time teachers.
“There are numerous dance options in Haywood County, but the reason we can all coexist and all be successful is because Haywood County provides these amazing resources for small businesses,” says Polzella.
Other business owners, like John Fuller, praise the wealth of resources that make Haywood County an entrepreneur’s dream. Fuller started WNC Go Green in August. The company supplies other businesses with green materials, such as biodegradable cups, plates, fabrics, cleaning supplies and bags. To test his products for effectiveness, Fuller has partnered with officials in the science department at HCC who have started a composting trial and also deconstruct products to verify what they’re made of.
“The college has backed me 100 percent in trying to increase the business,” Fuller says.
Fuller relies heavily on the HCC Small Business Center. He touts its library — “they’ve got a strictly small business section with almost every resource that you need” — and the staff, particularly director Sharron Donnahoe. She’s even helped Fuller find out more about potentially lucrative military and government contract opportunities for his products.
“There are so many great free resources,” Fuller says.
A tradition of firsts
The county has been working for years to build up resources for entrepreneurs — and in a way, the Certified Entrepreneurial Community designation makes it official.
“This is kind of a recognition of the efforts that we’ve been doing,” says Clasby.
Brown says that the designation has turned the county’s resources into an actual strategy for cultivating small business.
“It shows that we’ve brought it from the level of the gut feeling of some person with an idea floundering around in the community and running against walls and problems, to a situation where we have a map, directions, goals and a way of getting there,” he said. “This gave us an opportunity to find a methodology for doing things, which is something we’ve been talking about for a long time.”
Indeed, being the first community to receive the Certified Entrepreneurial designation is simply the latest in a long line of firsts when it comes to entrepreneurship in Haywood County. The county boasts the first certified industrial site model, which is now used around the nation, as well as the first business incubator in the state. HCC was the first community college in the nation to implement the Rural Entrepreneurship through Active Learning (REAL) program, which incorporates entrepreneurship in the classroom.
“We weren’t just teaching people how to make pots,” Donnahue says of how the program worked in the Professional Crafts department. “We were teaching them how to sell them.”
Today, HCC, along with neighboring Western Carolina University, is the first college in the state to offer a degree in entrepreneurship.
Looking forward
Officials hope the Certified Entrepreneurial Community designation will send a clear message to those thinking of doing business in Haywood County.
“I think it says we’re a place where businesses grow and survive and thrive,” says Donnahoe. “It says to people that are starting to think about coming to Haywood County to do business that we’ve gotten our act together.”
Apparently, entrepreneurs around the country are already taking note.
“People are emailing now wanting to know more information about the area — it’s just sort of starting,” says CeCe Hipps, director of the Chamber of Commerce. “It’s almost overwhelming to think of what it could be and how quickly this could really take off. The success of this program will be when we can say we started a business in Haywood County because of this program.”
County officials intend to talk with other communities around the country about the designation process — in turn, drawing even more attention to Haywood County.
“Being the first, we actually will sell ourselves to other communities,” said Brown.
In a true entrepreneurial spirit, the county is looking to patent the program as a product it can market to other communities.
Officials have high hopes that business will continue to flourish in Haywood County. Clasby says ideally, new small and medium-sized businesses will join the ranks in the county and existing ones will continue to grow.
“All companies start somewhere,” he says. “Even Microsoft and Google started with only an idea. Ideas create businesses, and businesses create jobs.”
Haywood officials hope their designation will benefit all of Western North Carolina.
“We would like to mentor other communities in WNC,” Hipps says. “We feel like it’s important. If they’re strong, we’re strong. Strong economic development and business friendly policies in WNC are good for all of us, not just Haywood County.”
