Fifteen months ago, Kim Strohmeier and Tony Watkins knew each other only as business acquaintances in the community.

Now, after spending hours together in seminars and workshops and even traveling to Scotland, the two are friends and members of a unique family.

They are among the 27 people from across 19 counties in northeastern Kentucky to graduate from the inaugural class of the Kentucky Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute (KECI).

Over the past 15 months, the group’s members have grown close. They’ve attended weddings of each other’s family members. They’ve consoled each other during the loss of loved ones. Two of the 27 are dating. And last month, they mourned the death of one of their own members, just a few weeks before their planned graduation ceremony.

But through it all, they’ve had one thing on their minds, making a difference in their community by promoting and furthering economic development by emphasizing entrepreneurial activity.

KECI started last year with money from Phase I tobacco funds. The idea was to promote alternative ideas to tobacco farming. Through seminars and projects, Watkins, Strohmeier and the other Fellows learned methods for coaching future and current entrepreneurs. The term entrepreneur is used to describe anyone who is interested in starting a new business or enhancing an existing one.

The concept behind KECI’s work is that the survival of Kentucky’s rural communities depends on economic diversity and that entrepreneurship holds the key to the region’s economic growth.

Yet, according to the institute’s coordinator, University of Kentucky Extension professor Ron Hustedde, many areas are not entrepreneurial-friendly.

“It’s a whole new way of thinking about the potentials,” he said. “Our institute focuses on potential and the assets of the region because so many social scientists focus on the deficits, on what’s wrong.”

Hustedde said, for example, one can look at the winding, twisting roads in eastern Kentucky as a problem for recruiting industrial development or as an asset for developing entrepreneurial activities such as agri-tourism.

Strohmeier said that’s one of the benefits he sees to participating in the program.

“Farmers are facing a very uncertain future, but this uncertainty opens up all kinds of business opportunities,” Strohmeier said. “This program has given me the tools to help advise and coach farmers and other potential entrepreneurs.”

For Watkins, helping the community maintain its identify while offering opportunities for businesses to locate in the community is at the base of why he took part.

“The executive summary for the Owen 20/20 Vision Survey demonstrates an overwhelming desire that Owen County maintain the small town atmosphere, at the same time growing our local economy,” he said. “Building and supporting an entrepreneurial-friendly community will allow growth while preserving our heritage.”

The KECI program prepares community leaders, many of whom are entrepreneurs themselves, to ask the tough questions that can crystallize a person’s initial dream for a business into a concrete plan of action. Coaches are not authorities in marketing or financial plans. Instead, they are experts in listening, encouraging and connecting entrepreneurs with a network of people who can help them succeed.

Institute graduates also act as entrepreneurial leaders and advocates to create youth entrepreneurship initiatives, agri-tourism and policy changes at the regional level.

According to Hustedde the curriculum is “the most demanding, most rigorous leadership program of its kind in the commonwealth.” In March 2005 the Kauffman Foundation, the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy and the National Lieutenant Governors Association recognized KECI as one of the best entrepreneurial practices in the country.

Steve Isaacs, assistant director for Community and Economic Development at the University of Kentucky, spoke to the graduating class and emphasized the groundbreaking aspects of their work. “There are folks who want to replicate this program in other states. This is something we (in Kentucky) are leading in.”

In his commencement speech to this first KECI class Ron Hustedde said, “A wise teacher once told me, ‘You may not see the results of your work in your lifetime. The only thing you need to ask is, is this journey the right thing to do?’ I believe we are on a noble journey in which we are creating a plan where dreams for a better life and more prosperity can be brought to fruition.”

If you are interested in discussing entrepreneurial opportunities in your area, contact Tony Watkins at watkins@monterey-baptist.org or (502) 514-1172, or Kim Strohmeier at kstrohme@uky.edu or (502) 484-5703.

For more information about the Kentucky Entrepre-neurial Coaches Institute, contact Dr. Ronald Hustedde through email at rhusted@uky.edu or by telephone at (859) 257-3186.

Click Here to Go Back to Front