How the Power of Entrepreneurship Can Transform Kansas City Communities
It starts with showing up.
This was a common response from attendees, speakers and others when they were asked about what we can do to support community and economic development through small business and entrepreneurship.
On Aug.15, 2024, KCSourceLink and The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City hosted “The Power of Entrepreneurship: Connecting Communities,” an event that brought together small business owners, entrepreneurs, support organizations, community leaders and others to highlight the impact of small business and entrepreneurship in the communities where we work and live. More than 100 partners from across the Kansas City region joined in this half-day session to draw connections between the entrepreneurial ecosystem and other sectors in our region, community and economic development.
Here’s a bit of what we shared.
New, small businesses are impactful to economic development in our region.
In our annual “We Create Jobs” report, we quantify the impact of new and young firms in Kansas City’s economy. These first-time employers, employing fewer than 20 employees, were responsible for 66% of the net new jobs created in our region over the past 5 years. At the same time, these new and young businesses paid an average of $78,985 in starting wages compared with the average wage of $73,175. So not only do new, small businesses create jobs, a key indicator in economic development, they also pay wages that can improve the lives of those they employ.
Entrepreneurship is one of the greatest drivers of economic development in our region.
Across communities, individuals and groups are working creatively to spur economic development, seeking to attract businesses to their areas, create and retain jobs and more. However, the role of small businesses and startups as economic drivers can often be undervalued – or even overlooked.
In Kansas City, several entrepreneurial-led initiatives are aiming to drive our regional economy. Groups like LaunchKC (a partnership between the KC Economic Development Corporation and Downtown Council) and ArtsKC are delivering programming to support innovation in unique ways.
The Kansas City Inclusive Biologics and Manufacturing Tech Hub, a program sponsored by the U.S. Economic Development Administration and led by BioNexus KC, aims to position the Kansas City region as a global leader in biologics and biomanufacturing, increasing domestic production of life-saving vaccines and other preventative technologies. This initiative also aims to promote wealth equity by expanding workforce opportunities for K-12 students in disinvested areas and establishing a community trust.
The Kansas City Area Development Council represents the economic interests of the Kansas City region through enhanced awareness of our metro’s assets and promotion of the KC region as a business and lifestyle location of choice, among other roles. At our event, Tim Cowden, president and CEO of the KCADC, emphasized the need to elevate the role of small business and entrepreneurship in our region. A strong regional economy is not just about big versus small businesses but rather big AND small businesses that can support one another – and our region.
Entrepreneurship has the potential to build equitable economies through community development.
Entrepreneurship has transformative effects. It can be a catalyst to cultural preservation in our communities and has the potential to revitalize our neighborhoods. Through social innovation, entrepreneurship can support diversity and inclusion, empower groups, develop youth and sustain the environment – among other community development activities.
Community development should be viewed as a form of economic development, whose activities promote a bottom-up approach to building our local economies. Small business and entrepreneurship development is one of the few activities that can impact both community and economic development.
In Kansas City, groups like The Prospect KC and WeCode KC do not just aim to develop entrepreneurs and the future workforce for startups, they seek to develop individuals who for so long have experienced barriers to opportunity. Through an integrated approach to entrepreneur development, these groups aim to build better people, leading to better entrepreneurs and small businesses.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the host for the Power of Entrepreneurship event, regularly captures insights on low- to moderate-income communities, capturing and promoting innovative means to economic resilience and mobility in our communities. Small business and entrepreneur development has the potential to address many of the issues faced by LMI communities. But to elevate entrepreneurship’s role in community development, other challenges (access to capital, health and wellness, and more) need to be addressed as individuals and groups are seeking to advance as entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Additionally, corporate entities like KC Current are finding unique ways to partner with organizations in the entrepreneurship space, helping to advance the role of small businesses in our communities.
The Power of Entrepreneurship
Those of us engaged in supporting small business and entrepreneurship in our region understand its impact on areas like community and economic development (highlighted during our event), but there is still a need to help others understand the role it plays in these sectors, in addition to others (workforce development, health and human services, and more).
We hope The Power of Entrepreneurship event will be a foundation for the work that will be done by KCSourceLink and our partners over the next few years, promoting the impact of small business and entrepreneurship in our lives. Through intentional storytelling and the discovery and tracking of key performance indicators, we can work toward a more inclusive and equitable future for our region — one that is driven through enterprising individuals who want to do more for our region through small business development.
So many of us already know of a small business, entrepreneur, support organization or other group making a positive impact in our region. It’s up to us to elevate these stories – and tie them to data that is easy to digest so everyone understands the role of entrepreneurship.
Our Role in Advancing the Impact of Entrepreneurship in our Region
We all have a role to play in supporting small business and entrepreneurship. Whether it be through funding small businesses or those supporting them, promoting entrepreneurship as a career opportunity, purchasing from and promoting businesses or simply helping small business owners and entrepreneurs build their network, we can each leverage our strengths to drive all parts of our region to be better.
As we learned on Aug.15, entrepreneurship has the power to move families out of poverty, revitalize neighborhoods dealing with blight, support health and wellness and just simply improve the self-worth of those engaged in entrepreneurial activities (whether as an entrepreneur or supporter of entrepreneurship).
We are excited to move forward in highlighting the impact of small business and entrepreneurship and highlighting how groups and individuals are supporting this impact. For now, let’s do the easiest thing for small businesses and entrepreneurs in our region: SHOW UP.
If you want to learn more about The Power of Entrepreneurship project or want to be involved, please contact us at 816.235.6500 or [email protected].
Until then, enjoy a few reads we have curated for you:
