How the Scenic City became a home for truly innovative entrepreneurship
Human beings are an incredible species. We dance, laugh, play, evolve, think, and come up with some extraordinarily brilliant ideas. For most, exclusive and potentially prosperous ideas die just as abruptly as they are born due to a multitude of obstacles, a lack of know-how, or resources to help them thrive.
It is a wonder how many people have thought up and/or spoken about solid gold ideas that could be the next big thing, ideas that could help the economy as well as produce a self-sufficient lifestyle for the idea holder. Ideas that could potentially change the world, or that could send an infinite ripple throughout space and time, only they never substantiated due to the fact that they simply did not know how to breathe life into them.
Ideas can reap monumental results with some vision, passion, a little luck, a lot of hard work, and some legitimate resources that can help them flourish. Unfortunately for many, due to the lack of any of those things, stellar ideas form like balls of sand, and crumble just as quickly as they were formed.
Where it is possible for people to successfully grow ideas into valid opportunities and business singlehandedly, the people that manage to make it happen make up just a minuet fraction of the population. It can be, and mostly is a very daunting task. Fortunately for us here in the scenic city, Chattanooga has a virtually unlimited amount of businesses that function solely to help grow small businesses, has become a hub for startup groups, and has formed into a mecca for developing entrepreneurs, small businesses, and ideas.
Over the last decade, Chattanooga has been on the rise in terms of popularity, success, and exponential growth. It is no secret that Chattanooga is an extraordinarily beautiful city with endless views, a direct portal to mother nature, and a rich historical background it just, for whatever reason, was waiting on that “thing” to happen, that would change the whole game. That “thing” that could level the playing field and reinitiate its mark in history.
That “thing” which Chattanooga can thank for happening is Electric Power Board (EPB) for exclusively bringing the fastest internet in the world to Chattanooga in 2010, for blowing the doors open to potential tech startup companies, and opening thousands of other doors in the process.
Chattanooga is the first city in the Western Hemisphere to offer 10-gigabit per second fiber-optic internet to all residents and businesses. At hundreds of times the speed of the national average, the Gig opens the door to endless ways of learning, exploring, and conducting business for everybody.
According to a 2015 study by the University of Tennessee, the cutting-edge internet system helped attract abundant new business to the region, adding approximately $865.3 million to the local economy since 2010, and developing at least 2,800 new jobs. Where the boom is certainly wonderful for the tech community, others definitely continue to thrive because of it as well.
Booms create jobs, which bring in people, needs, demands, markets, and endless opportunities for the locals to step in and fill more needs while opening more doors, and creating more jobs. It is a beautiful cycle that seems as if many people are unfamiliar with. Too many people are blind to the opportunity that is currently engulfing Chattanooga. The time is right now for people to flourish in this glorious city, that was once again placed on the map by its tech boom.
This city is full of diversity, and there are very many extraordinarily skilled people that are full of ideas, potential, and ability, but many of them have no clue how to unleash their capabilities in a way that can benefit their selves, families, or the city.
These individuals go through the rut of everyday life doing whatever they can do to earn money, slowly dying inside as their hidden talents lie dormant, not knowing that there are numerous alleys that are scattered throughout the city that lead to companies that are centered around helping them tap into their potential.
Where it can seem overwhelming for the average person to chase a dream, the surrounding difficulties are mere illusions. Baby steps in the right direction will eventually lead a person to their destination. Will and determination are powerful entities, and can possess the capability to pave the way all on their own.
What people really need to understand is that these companies are out there looking for them. They are actively hunting local people with ideas, so that they can help that person grow their idea into a business that promotes jobs and economic growth. This is not a scenario description, this is actually happening every single day, all over the city.
For starters, the Tennessee Small Business Development Center is made up of certified business counselors, and offers free business consulting/low cost training services. Their services are implemented to assist dreamers, entrepreneurs, individuals, and small businesses in all aspects of business development; they help entrepreneurs realize the dream of business ownership and help existing businesses remain competitive in an intricate, ever evolving marketplace. Once a person makes contact with the center, they are swooped under their wing and guided toward success.
TSBDC helps with obtaining proper business licenses, drafting a functioning business plan, manufacturing assistance, financial packaging and lending assistance, exporting and importing support, disaster recovery assistance, procurement and contracting aid, market research help, 8(a) program support, healthcare guidance, finding lawyers, accountants, insurance agents; they help build dreams, and they stay with the person/people/company that is utilizing their services throughout the entire duration that the business is functioning.
Coinciding with the TSBDC is a seemingly endless list of companies that are built to help ideas, individuals, and small businesses succeed. Businesses such as Launch Chattanooga, Company Lab, Chambliss Startup Group, Edney Innovation Center, LampPost Group, Skuid, Push to Start, Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, StartupCHA, and dozens more, all aim to guide, grow, and sustain, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and start up groups alike.
A particularly helpful asset for startups, brought by local government and the Berke Administration, is the Startup CHA program. The program acknowledges the significance of entrepreneurs, and how they represent the backbone of the local economy, however, they also recognize that it can be difficult for the startup/small business community to be selected by the city due to the potentially complicated purchasing process that is intact.
According to the city’s website, Chattanooga.gov, the program is “modeled after successful initiatives found in cities throughout the country, Startup CHA offers local government and city infrastructure as a platform for startups to pilot their new products and ideas. A single point of entry for entrepreneurs expedites the process and makes City Hall more business friendly, while helping the City provide the most effective and efficient services to our citizens.”
The program essentially is building a bridge between the often left behind small businesses, and the city government, which is a huge step for startup groups, as well as the system.
An often-overlooked powerhouse resource for entrepreneurs is the fourth floor of the public library downtown. The workspace has many tools for small businesses and dream driven individuals to get inspired and grow. The Small Business Collection is a database that is powered by the fourth floor, and contains hundreds of full text periodicals. The database also provides insights, tips, strategies, and success stories for inspiration.
The fourth floor of the public library also has ample meeting, and co-working spaces with white boards, couches, projectors, and tables. The workspace also gives individuals access to enterprise level internet with the Giglab, as well as allowing them access to expanding their branding and marketing horizons with the vinyl decal plotter, and screen-printing capabilities. It is a fantastic, one of a kind, public resource.
Showcasing the ascendancy of the startup community, which concluded last month, was the third year of Chattanooga’s annual Startup Week. Startup Week Chattanooga is a weeklong festival that hosts multiple events and happenings all over the city of Chattanooga, and is designed to highlight the local startup businesses. It is a remarkable event with enormous implications pertaining to the future of the city.
Astoundingly, the local startup community has a whole entire district devoted to it in Chattanooga’s Innovation District. Mayor Andy Berke stated that, “Chattanooga’s Innovation District is our place, where people from all walks of life come together to explore and collaborate, whether it’s within the realm of technology, art, recreation, commerce, or civic engagement. Thinkers, starters, and doers—a bold place full of people working together to discover the next big thing.”
There are countless tools for small business success in this city on the rise. The sky truly is the limit. People that have ideas should pursue them is hopes to turn them into something substantial. People with ideas have the ability to change the world, and these local companies that are designed to assist them will do just that.
If a person with an idea goes one way with their idea and hits a roadblock, they simply should turn another way with it until they find the right help.
People grow ideas, which grow plans, that turn into flowers, that bloom jobs, and growth, development, love, and means to an end of mundane ruts, grinds, and struggles.
Grow and cultivate your ideas Chattanooga, change lives, help is available to lead the way.
Shine your light.