Community-based entrepreneurship efforts take hold in Watauga County

One day last fall Lisa Clements opened her local newspaper and heard opportunity knocking. Interested in starting, expanding, or diversifying a business? asked the advertisement for the free one-day seminar in Boone. The workshop was billed as a way for Watauga County entrepreneurs to network and meet with local business professionals in an effort to develop and refine their early-stage ideas. This is it, Clements thought, a chance to find out if her dream of turning her self-described healthy obsession with chocolate into a bona fide business venture was realistic, or even possible, for that matter.

"For a long time, making chocolate was just a hobby, but I knew I was good at it and I had a passion for it," said Clements, a Boone graphic designer who realized her dream of becoming an entrepreneur earlier this year with the opening of Paradise Chocolatier. "The workshop was a chance for me to bounce my idea off people who would be able to tell me honestly if it would work or not, and what I would need to do to make the business successful. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for me, and I think it was a real blessing for this community."

The workshop Clements attended was the first in a series of three sponsored by the Watauga Entrepreneur Development Partnership, one of 11 community-based projects taking part in an entrepreneurship demonstration program funded last year by the Rural Center and the N.C. Department of Commerce. Designed to boost entrepreneurial activity, the projects are helping 27 rural communities form the partnerships necessary to creating an environment that allows entrepreneurs to grow, thrive, and ultimately contribute to their local economy. After the second workshop last spring, Clements solidified her business plan and dropped back on her hours at her graphic design job to devote more time to Paradise Chocolatier. The third and final workshop paired her with experienced business professionals who, though they knew little about chocolate, were able to advise her on regulatory, quality control, bookkeeping and other issues she now finds essential to the day-to-day running of her fledgling business.

And though it's not yet a full-time enterprise, business is starting to pick up for Clements, whose all-natural truffles and molded chocolates are handmade each day in a small commercial kitchen on her family's 100-year-old farm five miles outside Boone. She sells her confections in a booth she rents in a retail space downtown, a location that draws locals, tourists and students from nearby Appalachian State University who tell her that her chocolate is among the best they've had anywhere. As the buzz on her chocolate grows, Clements says she is also getting orders for weddings and private parties.

"I think the biggest thing the workshops did for me was to show me that it was possible, because opening your own business is just about the scariest thing you can do," she said. "I think I m surprising myself with how well I've done. Now that I've come this far, I don t plan on staying still."

One year after the project was launched, a total of 11 new businesses have been created, two of which have hired additional employees. Watauga County economic development officials speak glowingly about the project, so much so that the county has committed $10,000 to continuing the program for a second year, with the hope that it will become embedded in the county's economic development strategy. Efforts are also under way to use the project as a regional model that could be replicated in Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Wilkes and Yancey counties.

Chilton Rogers, assistant director of the Appalachian Regional Development Institute (ARDI) and a lead organizer for the Watauga Entrepreneur Development Partnership, said her organization has submitted a grant proposal to the Golden LEAF Foundation to expand the project into those counties. "There are a lot of commonalities amongst those counties, and from an economic development standpoint, entrepreneurship and homegrown businesses are a requirement of a growing economy," Rogers said. "As far as the grant application goes, we're building off a project with demonstrated success and we have that on our side, but at the same time we know that Golden LEAF receives many, many good proposals."

Rogers said she recently presented the project before the High Country Business Network, a newly formed group brought together by the partnership, ARDI and AdvantageWest to encourage business and entrepreneurial groups in the region to network and seek out continuing education opportunities. As the organizational strength of the High Country Business Network grows, Rogers said she expects entrepreneurship to become even more of a priority in the future.

"We are very excited about this group because it is so community and civic minded," Rogers said. "There is a lot of energy behind the network, and I think the workshops will be a catalyst for their efforts in the future."

Workshops offer entrepreneurs a chance to develop ideas and build solid business plans with help from seasoned business owners. For an entrepreneur, turning a good idea into a strong, profitable business is a daunting and often times lonely journey. Well-meaning friends and family offer words of encouragement, but may not be the objective, practical sounding board that an entrepreneur needs.

That is why it is so important for an entrepreneur in the early stages of developing a business to have opportunities to connect with seasoned professionals who have been through the same trials and tribulations, according to Rogers, who helped develop the Watauga Entrepreneur Development Partnership's successful three-part workshop series last year.

Rogers said the goal of the first workshop wasn't to push the entrepreneurs toward formalizing a business plan, but rather to give them an opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs, have their ideas heard and receive valuable feedback on those ideas. "That first workshop was designed to get them thinking strategically and asking the questions, both of themselves and others, that could lead to a stronger business plan," Rogers said. "They were asked to think about things like local business trends, their own business experience and whether or not their business idea would serve an identifiable need in their community." Participants worked to solidify their business plans during the second workshop, refining their business concept with regard to specific products and services. They wrote a mission statement that would communicate the essence of their ventures, and were asked to develop a five-year plan outlining the future direction of their business. The entrepreneurs then discussed effective marketing strategies to showcase their business, learned the benefits of market research, how to conduct financial and human resources planning and the importance of having effective risk analysis measures in place. The third and final workshop paired entrepreneurs with one to two business mentors who related their own experiences, offered advice on how to strengthen the business plan and helped shape the entrepreneurs short and long-term action plan. Though the workshops have been over for several months, Rogers says many of the entrepreneurs have stayed in touch with their mentors as they work to get their businesses off the ground. "The long-term relationships that are being formed around the business community in Watauga will ultimately go a long way toward building a culture of entrepreneurship in the county," she said.