Sumter County Declared “Entrepreneur Friendly” for Small Businesses

ATLANTA, October 25, 2006 — Sumter County has joined the fast-growing ranks of the state's 'Entrepreneur Friendly' communities, an official designation that means a community is strategically developing an environment that welcomes small business and entrepreneurs.
'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.'

The southwest Georgia county is the 26th community in the state and the ninth since May to earn Entrepreneur Friendly status from the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD)'s Entrepreneur and Small Business Office. Other certified Entrepreneur Friendly counties in the region include Schley, Turner, Miller, Dougherty, Cook and Lowndes, and several additional communities are in the process of being certified.

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. Sumter County also completed a full-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 Sumter County's present environment for small businesses.

'The Americus-Sumter County committee began work on our Entrepreneur Friendly designation over a year ago,' said Gaynor Cheokas, director of the Center for Business and Economic Development for Georgia Southwestern State University. 'The entrepreneurs we interviewed helped us map the most valuable resources that support small business owners in our community. As we move forward, our committee will use this information to create in Americus and Sumter County an environment conducive to growth in small businesses and entrepreneurship — a place where ideas can become reality.'

According to the Georgia Department of Labor, of the 1416 businesses located in Sumter County, 1283, or 91 percent, have fewer than 20 employees.

'It's great that Sumter County is proactively supporting its small businesses,' said  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 steps to ensure their growth. These small businesses are an essential part of the county's strategic initiative to develop and grow its business community.'

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.