Kansas City: An Infrastructure of Business Support

by David Frankland

One of Kansas City's points of pride is its robust history of entrepreneurship. Many people forget that most of our region's large corporations today--companies such as American Century, Sprint, DST, Hallmark, and Cerner Corporation--were all once small entrepreneurial ventures. In each case, one person or a select group of individuals saw a market, assembled the capital and personnel to form a company, and then launched an innovative product or service. Another important aspect to their success is the network they created to support their entrepreneurial efforts. People often mistakenly think that entrepreneurs tend to be lone wolves who undertake high-risk business ventures alone, isolated from their peers when in fact the most successful entrepreneurs are typically masters of collaboration and networking.

Whether in growth industries like technology and life sciences or in traditional businesses, entrepreneurs seldom operate without a network of peers, friends and partners and seldom thrive without some kind of community support infrastructure. Kansas City's bi-state region is fortunate to have one of the nation's best support environments for entrepreneurs and businesses. A key reason is the entrepreneurship vision and philanthropy of the late Ewing Kauffman and the foundation that today bears his name. The Kauffman Foundation is responsible for creating and/or funding a number of local organizations whose collective missions are to support and fuel entrepreneurship in Greater Kansas City by way of linking people with innovative ideas with people that help make those ideas a reality.

For example, the Kauffman Foundation partnered with the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the U.S. Small Business Administration to create KCSourceLink (www.kcsourcelink.com)--a non-profit organization that serves to link a network of more than 100 entrepreneurial support organizations throughout Greater Kansas City in service to our region's entrepreneurs.

KCSourceLink aims to link small and emerging business owners to those service providers--such as KCCatalyst (www.kccatalyst.com) for technology and life sciences entrepreneurs or a variety of other support organiza- tions such as the Kansas Women's Business Center (www.kansaswbc.org), the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (www.ktec.com) or the Growth Opportunity Connection (www.goconnection.org )--that can best serve their business development needs. Typical services these entrepreneurial support organizations deliver include assisting entrepreneurs with business plan development, product or service assessment, capital formation strategies, business development and marketing and seed capital.

The Greater Kansas City region is also home to an array of business incubators which not only provide entrepreneurial services but also physical space to set up a new business. For early-stage life sciences companies, the Biotechnology Development Center of Greater Kansas City (www.kcbdc.com) is a full wet-lab incubator on the campus of the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. Serving technology entrepreneurs and high-growth companies in Johnson County, is the Enterprise Center of Johnson County (www.ecjc.com). Also in Kansas, entrepreneurs out of Lawrence and Manhattan can access incubation space at the Lawrence Regional Technology Center (www.lrtc.biz) and the Kansas Entrepreneurial Center, which is part of Kansas State's Mid-America Commercialization Corporation (www.ksu.edu/tech. transfer/macc/macc.htm).

Along with these technology-focused incubators, the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation (www.-kchedc.org) operates an incubator for Latino small businesses, and provides services including mentoring, office space and furniture, shared office equipment, and administrative services. The City of Kansas City, MO also sponsors an incubator for emerging small businesses in Kansas City. This incubator, located in the heart of Kansas City's 18th & Vine entertainment and business district, serves small businesses just starting out as well as existing small companies on a rapid growth track. Services include business counseling, full telecommunications and office services.

Every year more than 500,000 businesses with two or more employees are started in the United States. A recent survey by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found that more than 10 percent of all working adults in the United States were engaged in entrepreneurial initiatives. Locally, entrepreneurship formed the basis of this community's past and it is the foundation of our region's economic future. Supporting the network of organizations that provide entrepreneurial assistance is critical to fueling rapid economic growth for our region. With a robust and expanding network of business support systems, the chances for Greater Kansas City developing the next Marion Laboratories, the next Sprint or the next Cerner Corporation are greatly enhanced.

David Frankland is President and CEO of KCCatalyst. He may be reached at 816.379.4290 or by email at dfrankland@kccatalyst.com.