December 11, 2020
Grant expands Accelerate Rural NC
Thanks to a $150,000 NC IDEA IDEA ECOSYSTEM grant, the Crisp Small Business Resource Center will be able to continue its successful Accelerate Rural NC program, which recently completed its inaugural phase in Nov. 2020.
Designed to increase the resiliency of rural communities in eastern North Carolina, the virtual program focused on helping 12 Pitt County businesses gain access to global markets with innovative products. The accelerator’s key components included e-commerce development, high-value offerings for niche markets, export training, and innovative business models based on customer discovery.
With the new grant, the program will expand to all of ECU’s 29 county service region, i.e. Eastern North Carolina. Instead of one cohort, there will be four 10-week cohorts. Also, the program will open itself up to 20 companies participating in each cohort.
“The program’s inaugural phase focused on developing curriculum and processes for a single county with three participating communities,” said David Mayo, director, Crisp Small Business Resource Center. “This expanded or ‘development’ phase will leverage existing entrepreneurial assets in the ecosystem to provide programming statewide in partnership with technical assistance providers.”
The development phase will expand the reach and impact of the accelerator and create connections within the ecosystem. Training sessions will be recorded to develop online training resources that can later be used for the expansion phase. The development phase will focus heavily on ecosystem development to support businesses interested in expanding their rural communities. Following each cohort, further university resources will be utilized to continue to develop the companies long-term.
Based on the advice of Dennis Tracz, the program’s director, companies will be placed with semester-long classes, which include the award-winning Rise-29 internship program and nationally-recognized consulting courses. In 2019 students at ECU contributed more than 12,000 hours to small business consulting; ARNC will be a primary pathway for small business student consulting project selection and intern placement through RISE-29.
“North Carolina’s rural communities have experienced a loss of small businesses at a rate of 7% since 2005 while urban areas have experienced an increase of 9%,” said Mayo. “While rural communities are seeing population and business losses, there is a growing trend toward businesses moving back to downtown areas. The Accelerate Rural NC program will be there to assist these companies.”
The development phase of Accelerate Rural NC is expected to start in 2021.
About the Crisp Small Business Resource Center
The Crisp Small Business Resource Center provides ECU’s students and community the best practices and proven knowledge required to start and sustain enterprises in eastern North Carolina. It is operated out of the College of Business’ Miller School of Entrepreneurship.
Related links
An update from the Crisp Small Business Resource Center
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