On-demand training is available to organizations to build a more supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Read about “Homegrown” and “Maximizing Success” below to see what training would best fit your needs.

Homegrown:
Entrepreneurship in Your Community

Homegrown: Entrepreneurship in Your Community (“Homegrown”) is a curriculum that teaches the importance of entrepreneurship to a community, and the importance of active networks to business owners. Homegrown offers:

• Facts about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and why they are important.
• Who your local entrepreneurs are.
• The power of entrepreneurial networks and how to strengthen them.
• The power of inclusion and belonging to spur entrepreneurial activity.
• Up to two guest entrepreneurs share about their businesses and support networks.
• Homegrown is a 3-4 hour training, typically split into 4 modules. 
• Training can be facilitated in person or virtual.

Maximizing Success with
Entrepreneurs of Color in Your Community

Maximizing Success with Entrepreneurs of Color in Your Community (“Maximizing Sucess”) is a curriculum that empowers economic development and small business professionals to build best practices with entrepreneurs of color. Maximizing Success offers:

• An Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion framework for economic development.
• Facts about entrepreneurs of color in Wisconsin.
• Historical context of economic development practices that negatively impacted communities of color.
• Awareness → Assessment → Action framework: Modules integrate increased awareness, with ways of assessing and moving forward with action items for your organization.

→ Contact Mia for scheduling and more information.

• Entrepreneurs of Color (EoC) may identify as Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, or mixed-race individuals. 
• Entrepreneurship is a well-recognized strategy for poverty alleviation and wealth creation for marginalized communities and is an emerging and more inclusive economic development strategy. 
• People of color are vastly diverse, but they share similar barriers to business growth, resources, and networks. 
• The population in Northeast Wisconsin is changing. Black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic residents accounted for three-fourths of the population growth in Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago counties in the past decade (U.S. Census and USA Today).
• EoC in Wisconsin starts businesses at a lower rate than white business owners despite opposite national trends (SBA).
• On average, entrepreneurs of color (EoC) earn ⅔ of what a white entrepreneur makes (ABS).
• EoC are three times more likely to be solopreneurs than white business owners (SBA). 
• EoC are disproportionately concentrated in the sectors most negatively impacted by COVID-19 (Conroy, Hammer, Ljung, Chriestenson, 2020).
• Black entrepreneurs in Northeast Wisconsin indicate entrepreneurial resilience despite a lack of startup capital, formal networks, or relationships with economic development organizations (Hammer, Malual, Allen, & Schmieder, forthcoming, 2019).

• Community Economic Development State-wide Business Resource Page
  Through programming, assistance, and applied research, we work with Wisconsin communities to develop strategies to support new and small businesses as part of their economic toolbox.
• Understanding and Mobilizing the Potential of Entrepreneurs of Color in Wisconsin
  WIndicators Volume 5, Number 5: Written by Diana Hammer (Fond du Lac County)
  A part of the WIndicators program
  November 2022 — People of color are starting and growing businesses at high rates in Wisconsin. This study explored the experiences of BIPOC entrepreneurs in Fond du Lac County through 1-1 interviews and the Community Capitals Framework (CCF). 
• Black Business Owners Speak
  In the summer of 2019, Extension partnered with Fit Oshkosh to interview 48 African American business owners in Fond du Lac, Winnebago, Outagamie, and Brown Counties. Preliminary findings are now available in this infographic.
• In Our Words: Black Entrepreneurs Speak
  Extension partnered with Milwaukee-and Northeast Wisconsin based Black business owners to create this podcast to gain understanding of challenges faced and overcome by Black business owners, while also providing success stories and strategies implemented along the way that have helped grow their business start-up and growth resources.
• A Playbook for Equitable Economic Development offers guidance on identifying structural racism and implementing equitable practices. IEDC, 2022
• A Playbook for Improving Diversity and Inclusion in Entrepreneurship Centers
  InBIA, 2020