MDA Executive Director Tours Neshoba Business Enterprise Center
PHILADELPHIA - - A Mississippi champion for the MyBiz Entrepreneur Network paid attention to a community champion for entrepreneurs. On June 12, 2008, Gray Swoope, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority – who provided substantial funding for Mississippi’s MyBiz program – visited the new Neshoba Business Enterprise Center. A model of community, community college, SBDC, and business collaboration, the Enterprise Center offers business counseling, connections and space to prospective entrepreneurs.
“Our community colleges will play an integral role in the MyBiz Network by identifying lead entities in each community, pinpointing information important to small business owners, and distributing information to connect directly with entrepreneurs,” said Gray Swoope, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. He was announcing $627,000 in funding to take the MyBiz program statewide in Mississippi.
Business services at the Neshoba Business Enterprise Center are supported through a partnership with East Central Community College (ECCC) and its Small Business Development Center. Both are key partners in the MyBiz Entrepreneur Network and its progenitor, the West Alabama – East Mississippi WIRED Initiative. Entrepreneurs needing office, manufacturing, and warehouse needing may stay in the Enterprise Center for up to three years. After three years they “graduate” moving to another space in the area to make room for new start ups.
ECCC’s Small Business Development Center has an office at the Enterprise Center staffed with a business technology counselor who provides technical support for tenants and other small business clients. The Enterprise Center is located in the Philadelphia/Neshoba Industrial Park.
MyBiz started was developed through West Alabama – East Mississippi WIRED Initiative, a U.S. Department of Labor demonstration project. MyBiz – through local, regional, national, and Internet connections – works to link entrepreneurs with needed resources to help start-up and grow businesses (see MyBiz.am for more information).
Gray Swoope, Executive Director for the Mississippi Development Authority (pictured above right) speaks to Ronnie Westbrook, Director of the East Central Community College Small Business Development Center (pictured above left) as he toured the Neshoba Business Enterprise Center (inset). ECCC Small Business Development Center Technology Counselor, Wade Hollingsworth, provides technical support for all tenants and other small business clients within the five-county district. For more information on the Center contact David Vowell, President of the Community Development Partnership, Phone 601-656-1000; or starting a small business contact Westbrook, Phone 601-635-6297 or Hollingsworth, Phone 601-389-0803. The email address is dvowell@bellsouth.net , rwestbrook@eccc.edu, or whollingsworth@eccc.edu. (EC Photo)