Podcast 236: Stop Treating Entrepreneurship Like a Side Project with Peter McGee
How to turn entrepreneurship from a checkbox into an actual economic development program.
Episode 236 of the Econ Dev Show Podcast is out. Listen now.
In this episode of the Econ Dev Show Dane Carlson talks with Peter McGee of Light Your Beacon about why entrepreneurship support is often included in economic development plans but rarely given the same strategic attention as attraction, retention, and infrastructure.
Peter explains how better entrepreneurship programs can help communities connect residents to economic development, support business owners with coaching and practical business fundamentals, and generate meaningful metrics instead of simply counting meetings and referrals.
They also discuss why information alone is not enough, the value of human coaching in an AI-filled world, and how economic development organizations can create locally branded entrepreneurship programs without having to build everything from scratch.
Sitehunt helps economic developers find, understand, enrich and market their sites, match them to projects, and respond with confidence in minutes instead of scrambling for days.
10 Actionable Takeaways for Economic Developers
- Treat entrepreneurship as a program, not just a referral. If supporting entrepreneurs appears in your strategic plan, define what your organization will actually do to deliver that support.
- Track outcomes beyond meetings and introductions. Measure whether entrepreneurs participate, complete programming, develop their businesses, and ultimately launch companies rather than relying only on activity metrics.
- Maintain visibility after making a referral. If another organization delivers entrepreneurship services, create a process for learning what happened after you sent someone there.
- Pair information with human coaching. Business information is easy to find; entrepreneurs also benefit from having someone who can challenge their assumptions, answer questions, and help them work through decisions.
- Teach fundamentals before tactics. Help entrepreneurs clearly identify their ideal customer, the problem they solve, their differentiation, their offer, and their call to action before worrying about things like websites or marketing campaigns.
- Build community into entrepreneurship support. Cohorts, group coaching, and regular interaction can give entrepreneurs support that a collection of online resources cannot provide.
- Connect entrepreneurs to the broader economic development ecosystem. Use the EDO's convening role to introduce participants to relevant partners, resources, and opportunities in the community.
- Align entrepreneurship programs with local priorities. If your community wants to grow a particular industry, consider recruiting or organizing an entrepreneurship cohort around that sector while still teaching broadly applicable business fundamentals.
- Make reporting part of the program from the beginning. Give staff a way to monitor participation, coaching activity, progress, and outcomes so they can easily explain the program's impact to leadership and partners.
- Don't assume you have to build everything yourself. Economic development organizations can use outside curriculum, technology, or coaching while keeping the program locally branded and retaining visibility into its results.
Episode Links
Econ Dev Show Newsletter
Join the newsletter to receive the latest updates in your inbox.
