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Calling entrepreneurship a vital part of state’s reinvention and continued growth, Gov. Rick Snyder has proclaimed February 15-22 Entrepreneurship Week in Michigan. Along with celebrating the innovators whose ideas and creativity are creating new businesses and jobs, the special designation is being used to highlight the state’s entrepreneurial eco-system—one of the most complete entrepreneur support systems in the country.
“Michigan is the comeback state in part because we have created a business climate friendlier to entrepreneurs following their dreams of going into business for themselves,” Snyder said. “Whether it's commercialization support, access to capital, or free professional business services, we have developed a comprehensive toolkit to support entrepreneurial ventures of all kinds in every sector and at every stage of development.”
Last year, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, working with partners like universities and other strategic service providers, helped create over 350 new technology companies through Michigan-born innovations like SmartZones.
SmartZones include technology business accelerators that provide a broad range of services including business development mentoring, incubator and wet lab space, entrepreneurial training, market analysis, federal grant program assistance and venture capital preparation and introductions.
 MEDC is engaging with lenders and creating new public-private partnerships to connect small businesses with the capital they need. Grow Michigan, a Plymouth-based investment firm that works with banks, the MEDC and the Michigan Strategic Fund provides loans to small businesses throughout the state. In its first year, it has loaned more than $20 million to a dozen companies.
A similar public-private effort, the Pure Michigan Lending initiative led by Huntington Bank and MEDC, provides micro loans to growing companies in Detroit and across Michigan. The initiative launched last winter with an initial $5 million commitment by Huntington Bank for a pilot program in Detroit.
Free and low-cost professional services like legal, accounting, consulting, business education, business lending, marketing and web support are available to Michigan entrepreneurs and small businesses through Pure Michigan Business Connect. Approximately 20,000 pro bono hours are available from firms like Media Genesis (marketing communications), Varnum (legal services), and Yeo & Yeo (accounting and business consulting).
Over the next five years, for example, Yeo & Yeo is donating up to $250,000 in services to PMBC participants, including accounting structure and internal controls, business plans and initial financing applications, budgeting and cash flow management, accounting software and QuickBooks support, technology solutions, and tax planning.
In order to attract more skilled, entrepreneurial-minded immigrants to Michigan, Snyder last month created the Michigan Office for New Americans and called on the federal government to secure an additional 50,000 employment-based visas over five years for skilled immigrants who would live and start businesses in Detroit. He also is urging Washington to approve Michigan’s application to become only the second state with a state-sponsored EB-5 visa regional center to attract investment and create jobs.
The governor noted that immigrant entrepreneurs are net job creators. Nationally, immigrants start businesses at twice the rate of native-born Americans, and during the last decade, immigrants created nearly one-third of Michigan’s high-tech businesses, at a rate six times the rest of the population.
For more information on starting a business in Michigan, please visit. http://www.michiganbusiness.org/#startup-intro
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