INNOVATION & ENTREPRENUERSHIP

Examples of potential initiatives/projects:

• Engagement in cluster-specific strategies, i.e., specific initiatives targeting the following clusters: machinery manufacturing, fabricated metal product manufacturing, glass/ceramics/advanced materials, agribusiness/food processing/technology, forest and wood products, and tourism; additional focus should be given to technology-based businesses and value-added export service sectors, including personal service occupations and medical occupations

• • Ceramics, glass, and advanced materials cluster, through technology transfer from research institutions to the business and entrepreneurial communities in the cluster, and through assistance in realizing opportunities by businesses in this cluster, and through startup of new cluster businesses
  • Agribusiness, food processing and technology cluster, especially in primary production and secondary processing, through assistance in realizing opportunities by businesses in this cluster, through adoption of new technologies by businesses in this cluster, and through startup of new cluster businesses
  • Forest and wood products cluster, through promotion of increased secondary processing (e.g., dimensioning, furniture manufacturing, etc.) activities, and through assistance in realizing opportunities by businesses in this cluster, and through startup of new cluster businesses

Other cluster-specific initiatives could include:

• • Information technology and telecommunications cluster, through increased utilization of broadband infrastructure, e.g., attraction of back offices, call centers, regional data storage, increased web marketing presence, etc., through assistance in realizing opportunities by businesses in this cluster, and through startup of new cluster businesses
  • Arts, entertainment, recreation and visitor industries cluster, through enhanced development of recreational and tourism destination facilities and cultural assets and services, creation of year-round tourism at destinations that currently are seasonal destinations, increased integration of heritage and cultural tourism with non-heritage/cultural tourism to increase the number and duration of visitor stays, and enhanced centralization and coordination of tourism and recreational marketing and promotion and event scheduling
  • Biomedical/biotechnical (life sciences) cluster through developing increased linkages to the economic development and technology initiatives being undertaken in Erie County in this cluster, through targeted assistance to realizing opportunities by businesses in this cluster, and through startup of new cluster businesses
  • Transportation and logistics cluster, through enhanced access to transportation infrastructure and services, through development of sites and building attuned to cluster business needs, through marketing of locations within the region to cluster businesses, and through targeted incentives and other assistance to existing and prospective cluster businesses
  • Computer and electronic products, through targeted assistance to realizing opportunities by businesses in this cluster, and through startup of new cluster businesses
  • Green and alternative energy business cluster through targeted assistance to development and incorporation of new technologies and startup of new businesses
  • Capitalize on occupational clusters by targeting development of companies and entrepreneurship within the target occupational clusters
  • Networking initiatives
  • Needs /opportunities assessment initiatives: In-person contact and surveys of businesses and other entities (e.g., universities, trade associations, etc.) within the target clusters to determine their needs and their suggestions for initiatives and assistance that would catalyze business development within the target clusters
  • Targeted education / skills training initiatives: Identification of the labor force needs of businesses in selected target clusters, and the encouragement of targeted secondary and post-secondary education college educational offerings and skills training programs to meet these needs
  • Targeted marketing initiatives that market opportunities in the region to businesses in the target clusters, and encouragement of the location of operations within the region
  • Targeted business assistance initiatives directed toward significant regional industry clusters and occupation clusters
  • Encouragement of entrepreneurship in the target clusters
  • Encouragement of cross-contact between businesses in the target clusters, and between the business community and university research community, with the goal of enabling businesses in the target clusters to discover and realize potential opportunities that may be present

Examples of potential initiatives/projects:

Enhanced entrepreneurship education (“creating a pipeline of entrepreneurs”), through:

Inclusion of entrepreneurship concepts in K-12 in-school curricula, preferably using experiential learning techniques

Development and expansion of programs encouraging student-created and student-run after-school entrepreneurship programs

Integration of entrepreneurship into a wide range of courses and disciplines at post-secondary education institutions

Development of business plan competitions and other innovative methods of encouraging entrepreneurship

“Widening the entrepreneurial pipeline” through innovative programs such as:

Adult entrepreneurship training and technical assistance, including basic business planning, marketing assistance,

Enhanced assistance to prospective entrepreneurs and startups, including business planning and counseling assistance, marketing assistance, financial education, product development and marketing assistance, utilization of web-based business infrastructure and services, export assistance, technology assistance, and other types of technical and management assistance

Innovative financial assistance such as enhanced venture capital availability and enhanced debt and equity assistance, etc.

Improved access to capital by entrepreneurs and businesses, through:

Provision of training and assistance to entrepreneurs and businesses seeking debt and equity capital infusions to help them create better funding assistance applications

Capitalization and utilization of public sector and non-profit revolving loan funds and venture capital funds to meet capital demand, especially with respect to (a) start-up and early stage business situations in which subordinate collateral asset lending positions are needed to leverage senior collateral asset position private sector debt and equity capital into project funding structures, and (b) the specific needs of entrepreneurs at different levels of development

Encouragement of the increased use of public sector guarantee programs (SBA 7A, USDA RD B&I, etc.) to encourage commercial lenders to provide debt financing to start-ups

Development and utilization of non-traditional public business financing sources (e.g., public sector equity/venture capital fund, etc.), including the Western and Central New York’s Region Entrepreneurship Action Plan (REAP) program and the New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund

Encouragement of the increased use of and improved access to private sector angel and venture capital small business financing

Entrepreneurial community and cluster networking to promote access to networks and entrepreneurial culture, through:

Creation of networks, mentoring, and ambassadors programs that allow entrepreneurs to share ideas, learn from one another, and conduct business together, linking them to new markets, new sources of capital, new employees, strategic alliance partners, and service providers

Encouragement of increased cultural, social, and civic engagement that will encourage, nurture, and raise the profile of entrepreneurs, helping them achieve success and encouraging others to become entrepreneurs

Networking and collaboration initiatives

Entrepreneurial mentoring and entrepreneurial internship programs, such as Business Mentor NY

Undertaking a regional business plan competition

Celebration of entrepreneurship

Business incubator initiatives, and incubator business development initiatives, including utilization of the New York State Business Incubator and Innovation Hot Spots Program

Increased collaboration and links between the university, business, and economic development communities, especially as regards industry cluster building

Market entrepreneurial opportunities to college graduates and those who previously had out-migrated from the region

Promotion of the utilization of START-UP NY Program

The creation and utilization of non-traditional ownership mechanisms and business ownership formats (e.g., publicly owned, quasi-public-owned, private-non-profit-owned, joint venturing and partnering mechanisms, ESOPS, and umbrella business start-up corporations) to start-up/spin-off program to catalyze new business creation

Encouragement of broadband-based business development, especially at locations along the fiber trunk line

Examples of potential initiatives/projects:

Analysis of the productivity and technology utilization of individual businesses to develop business specific assistance

Education of individual businesses regarding the technologies, improvements, and productivity enhancements that might be appropriate for and available to them

Provision to individual businesses of the specific financial, technical, and training assistance that is necessary to encourage and enable them to adopt new technologies and other productivity-enhancing improvements, including:

Replacement, upgrading, and updating of obsolete and inefficient physical plants, machinery, and equipment

Increased utilization in business operations of computerization, robotics, telecommunications infrastructure, internet, etc.

Encouragement of increased levels of technology transfer at both the supply side (e.g., at both regional technology research institutions and extra-regional technology research institutions) and the demand side (i.e., in the business and entrepreneurial communities)

Technology commercialization initiatives

University-business collaboration and partnership initiatives

Technical consulting initiatives

Internship placement activities

Mentoring activities

Promotion of increased utilization of by-products, resulting in (a) cash flow generating economic activity and (b) reduction of waste produced, waste handling costs, and waste disposal costs

Examples of potential initiatives/projects:

Analysis of the productivity and technology utilization of individual businesses to develop business specific assistance

Education of individual businesses regarding the technologies, improvements, and productivity enhancements that might be appropriate for and available to them

Provision to individual businesses of the specific financial, technical, and training assistance that is necessary to encourage and enable them to adopt new technologies and other productivity-enhancing improvements, including:

Replacement, upgrading, and updating of obsolete and inefficient physical plants, machinery, and equipment

Increased utilization in business operations of computerization, robotics, telecommunications infrastructure, internet, etc.

Encouragement of increased levels of technology transfer at both the supply side (e.g., at both regional technology research institutions and extra-regional technology research institutions) and the demand side (i.e., in the business and entrepreneurial communities)

Technology commercialization initiatives

University-business collaboration and partnership initiatives

Technical consulting initiatives

Internship placement activities

Mentoring activities

Promotion of increased utilization of by-products, resulting in (a) cash flow generating economic activity and (b) reduction of waste produced, waste handling costs, and waste disposal costs

Examples of potential initiatives/projects:

Projects to capitalize and encourage appropriate use – as development tools – of specialized business development zones, industrial development agencies, and innovative debt and equity incentive financing programs including industrial incentive financing, industrial revenue bonds, revolving loan funds, venture capital financing, public sector or community-based equity capital (including the Western and Central New York’s Region Entrepreneurship Action Plan (REAP) program and the New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund) and micro-capital funds (especially seed or first stage capital funds), etc.

Use of pension and community endowment funds to invest in local job creation strategies and to provide community venture capital for nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and employee-owned firms.

Technical assistance to business, entrepreneurs, and prospective entrepreneurs, including business planning, counseling and crisis assistance, procurement, export, marketing, productivity enhancement, new technology, engineering, human resource development, vending, procurement, operational, environmental / other compliance, and other technical and financial assistance, etc.

Development and utilization of a standardized team-based client/prospect management system to be used by economic development and human resource organizations, to include:

An integrated internet-based site/building database, including database management protocols, and a lead agency system for client/prospect management

Provision of consistent information and contact information at municipal and county offices

An integrated internet-based economic development program database

Training of system users to improve networking amongst economic development and human resource organizations, to increase understanding of each other’s capabilities and missions, to improve referral performance, and to reduce response times and costs experienced by target clients/prospects

Provision of training and assistance to businesses and entrepreneurs seeking debt and equity capital infusions to help them create better applications

Streamlining access to existing public revolving loan funds

Increased private sector access to private sector financing, through:

Encouragement of commercial banks to offer aggressive, development-oriented non-traditional lending practices to the specific selected target clusters

Increased utilization of public sector guarantee programs (SBA 7A, USDA RD B&I, etc.) to catalyze increased access to commercial bank loans

Encouragement of the increased use of and improved access to private sector angel and venture capital small business financing

Workforce development and training initiatives

Initiatives to encourage broadband-based business development, especially at locations along the fiber trunk line

Buy local” programs and other local vendor sourcing programs

Examples of potential initiatives/projects:

Business visitation initiatives

Economic resilience initiatives

Technical and financial assistance initiatives providing assistance as needed by regional businesses

Workforce development and training initiatives

Regulatory assistance initiatives

Business productivity assistance initiatives

Mentoring initiatives

Development of programs to assist businesses with utilizing their excess production capacity and labor force surpluses

Promotion and development of multi-firm operating and/or marketing initiatives, and/or shared supplier networks

Encouragement of government procurement and regional and international exports

Encouragement of the maintenance of local ownership of manufacturing, value-added and export sector firms, and promotion of the return of non-locally owned manufacturing, value-added and export sector firms to local ownership

Assistance with the takeover of a failing or otherwise exiting business by employees (e.g., an ESOP), and provision of assistance to employee-owned businesses

Examples of potential initiatives/projects:

Regional marketing initiatives, including:

Development and maintenance of databases of buildings and sites within the region, in conjunction with the private sector real estate brokerage community

Increased utilization of BNE and NYS ESD marketing programs

Increased direct marketing activities to business in target clusters

Increased utilization of site development publications and consultants

General direct extra-regional marketing activities involving marketing the entire region as a brand, at the three-county and five-county Western New York levels, focusing on our collective workforce talents, low (or at least competitive) cost of living, low (or at least competitive) cost housing, and rural quality of life

Increased readiness for business development, including development of shovel-ready sites, construction of speculative buildings, renovation of redevelopable buildings, remediation of brownfield sites and buildings, enhancement of utility and other required services, etc.

Regional business ambassador initiatives, through which successful local business persons would meet with businesses and entrepreneurs considering locating businesses within the region in order to provide a sense of the region is a realistic and positive choice for their business location

Development and utilization of project teams that will respond to individual businesses interested in locating within the region

Innovative financial assistance initiatives