Article: 2013 a Banner Year For STL Startups
March 22, 2014
by Maria Altman
A community
requires tax revenue to provide services such as emergency response, schools,
and personnel who attend to the needs within the community such as well maintained
roads, housing, and infrastructure
support (gas, electric, water, sewage, & trash). All of these things are dependent upon an area's wealth,
which is driven by the area's economy.
After attending a recent community meeting in Ferguson, I realized Mayor
James Knowles and the city council understood the importance of attracting
businesses to Ferguson to stimulate their city's economy. Mayor Knowles shared that people move
away from their community when it no longer contains businesses that meet the
everyday needs. Thus, this prompted me to read a business and economic article
written by Maria Altman, 2013 A Banner
Year For STL Startups." From
this article I learned about organizations whose focus is to strengthen and grow businesses within a region such
as St. Louis city and county areas.
Joy
De Long is the St. Louis Chamber's Vice President of the "New Ventures
& Capital Formation." He
shared with Maria Altman the successes of the St. Louis Regional Chamber during
the past eight years, which resulted this year in a total of 52 new companies
with 37 of those companies focusing on technology-based services. Additional research on www.Forbes.com
revealed that technology-based companies are highly profitable due to their
ability to provide services to a large number of consumers, often anywhere in
the United States and even overseas. At www.stlregionalchamber.com, I learned that the goals of
the Chamber are to unite very successful business leaders in the community who
will help stimulate the local economy through the creation of:
· New public policies to
create a friendly business climate
· Higher educational
attainment in areas of need
· Opportunities for
entrepreneurship
· Opportunities for businesses
to move to St. Louis
· Encouraging innovation and
economic inclusion
· Networks to financially
sustain and begin new businesses
As I reflected
upon the support offered by a city's chamber of commerce, I began to more fully
understand the significance of its impact upon a community and how important it
is for a social worker to become knowledgeable about their city's chamber of
commerce. For example, through the
Chamber's website, I learned about a non-profit organization that has the
potential to become a community resource.
According to De Long, St. Louis has a
unique non-profit nationally recognized organization called the Arch Angels
Investment Group, which is comprised of members committed to buying stock in
new companies and mentoring potential new business owners. This has resulted in an investment of
approximately 40 million dollars in the St. Louis area since 2006. According to De Long, out of the 235
companies started since 2006, 200 are still successfully operating today. Addition reading at
www.fundingpost.com/angelgroup revealed that Arch Angels' investors help
individuals with business planning, team building, fund raising (venture
capital), and training on how to generate business contracts. The support of Arch Angels Investment
Group has the potential to help start successful community programs such as
Angel Baked Cookies.
Our
Code of Ethics states that we should empower individuals and connect them to
resources. Using a strengths
perspective, I believe one of the most empowering services social workers can provide
is to show individuals different ways they can become financially
independent. Have you ever thought
about how an individual and/or community can become more financially
secure? How would you
connect an individual or community to resources to help facilitate financial
security?
No comments:
Post a Comment