Brantley County designated Entrepreneur Friendly community today
ATLANTA, May 10, 2006 - Brantley County has joined the state's ranks of 'Entrepreneur Friendly' communities, an official designation indicating the community is developing an environment conducive to small business and entrepreneurs. Southeast Georgia's Brantley County is the 17th community in the state to earn 'Entrepreneur Friendly' status from the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD)'s Entrepreneur and Small Business Office. 'Encouraging and supporting our homegrown businesses and entrepreneurs will help create quality jobs for Georgians,' said Governor Sonny Perdue. 'By helping local communities support the growth of small business, we ensure prosperity and opportunity throughout the state.' An 'Entrepreneur-Friendly' community must complete a program instituting guidelines and strategies that build a local environment and culture to support entrepreneur and small business development. Brantley County also completed a two-day assessment by a review team that identified strategies to implement entrepreneur and small business development programs. Additionally, county leaders asked local entrepreneurs and small business owners to evaluate Brantley County's present environment for small businesses. 'Participation in the Entrepreneur Friendly Community process is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg,' said Jeanie Boland, executive director for the Brantley County Development Authority. 'Initiating this program has given us a vehicle to connect with our local businesses, ask for their input and get to know them. We found that many of our businesses have the same needs, questions and issues. We hope the information we've gathered, together with the implementation to follow, will enable us to help prospective businesses as well as our existing businesses, as they grow and their needs change.' An estimated 90 percent of Brantley County's businesses are currently small businesses. 'Brantley County has taken a proactive approach to sustaining its small businesses,' added Chris Clark, chairman of the Georgia Entrepreneur and Small Business Coordinating Network and GDEcD's deputy commissioner of Global Commerce. 'We congratulate the community for taking the steps necessary to ensure its small businesses will thrive and thus play an active part in Brantley's strategy for local business development.' The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is the state's sales and marketing arm, the lead agency for attracting new business investment, encouraging the expansion of existing industry and small businesses, locating new markets for Georgia products, attracting tourists to Georgia, and promoting the state as a location for film, video and music projects, as well as planning and mobilizing state resources for economic development. For more information, visit www.georgia.org.