Recently, a handful of companies announced they are coming to Daviess County to construct a state-of-the-art micro processing chip plant. When it is complete, the plant will include hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investments and more than 300 high-paying jobs. While southern Indiana has a number of those types of out-of-town business operations, it has even more jobs that have been built by locally developed businesses. Some started on a kitchen table, others in a garage or out of the back of a pickup truck. They were ideas that eventually became businesses that wound up taking off.
“A lot to be said about entrepreneurship. There are multiple ideas on how to build communities. This is growing new ideas in our communities. The entrepreneurship idea is one that is always growing in Daviess County. Graber Post, D.C. Metals, K&K, True Scripts, True RX, Indiana Safety and Supply, Williams Brothers’ Pharmacy. That is just a part of our local DNA,” said Bryant Niehoff, executive director for the Daviess County Economic Development Corporation. “It is a vital part of any community’s economic development. Small things can have big impacts. With Crane there, innovation is a key and they are working with even small businesses that have unique approaches.”
That idea of innovation and entrepreneurship was part of the development of Westgate Academy from day one. The building was put together with co-working space with the notion that new, small businesses could get a foothold there. The idea expanded when the Purdue Academy moved in and brought with it the Fire Starter Program.
“In 2017, Purdue began managing the Westgate Academy. The Westgate Academy has always had a commitment to entrepreneurship,” said Purdue Research Foundation Program Manager Samantha Nelson. “When Purdue became involved, the Fire Starter program began. The idea is to build a better economic arena. There is a synergy there between defense and startups. There are a lot of opportunities for those new businesses to become involved with NSWC Crane.”
Nelson says the program is about education and interaction to get the businesses moving from ideas to reality. She points out that since Purdue moved into Westgate, they have assisted 100 potential startups.
“The Fire Starter program is a five-to-six-week program and it is one day a week for three hours a day. We facilitate and just ask questions that they may not have considered because they are so close to their idea. The people in the program ask each other questions so they can think of things outside of the box with their ideas. It is a designed curriculum but the co-work is what drives it,” said Nelson. “We want start ups to build innovation, especially in tech. There is a need for innovative solutions. People have a sense of freedom to try and solve those problems. A lot of time entrepreneurs have a personal stake in what they are working on and it gives them a passion to find those solutions.”
In Vincennes, there is another entrepreneurial center that is putting new businesses center stage. The first life for the Pantheon was as a vaudeville theater. Its current life is as a center to help people get small businesses going.
“Essentially, we want to be a landing place for people who have an idea, but don’t know where to go or how to get started. We see that a lot of people have ideas, but they don’t have the resources. They don’t have the jumping point of where to start and then it doesn’t go anywhere,” said Keri Lane, operations manager for the Pantheon Business Development Center. “We want to be the landing place where people can come and we can refer them out to our different partners who are experts in the field of entrepreneurship and they can help that individual develop a business plan. They can help that individual with market research or even the legality of how to start your own company and set it up and protect yourself.”
Lane points out that the Pantheon offers co-working space where start up businesses can get out of the garage and the owners can begin bouncing ideas off other budding entrepreneurs.
“The idea that we are a co-working space follows that because we are a place where you can get a membership with us and this essentially becomes your office. You can come here and do your work. You can network and meet other people and bounce your ideas off of them. It gives you the social interaction you need so that you don’t become tied inside your home,” said Lane. “We are now just two years in operation. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive. Once people get in here and see what we are doing and how we are doing it, it makes sense to them. Once they see what we are doing and that we are helping small businesses people are pretty supportive of what we are doing here.”
The goal of the Pantheon and other small business development centers is not to fill up their buildings, but to help those who come in looking for help to eventually find their own footing in the business world.
“The ultimate goal of what we are doing here is a long-term thing. We are creating opportunities that sustain the growth of our community in the long term. We hope we are building a foundation that will support our community in 10, 20, 30 years. Something for generations to come,” said Lane. “This is a place to get your feet wet and the goal is to get out and establish yourself.”
Something that seems to have plenty of roots in southern Indiana.
“There is a lot of self-made businesses in this area. In southern Indiana we are more apt to do that,” said Nelson.