What is an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is a business support network routed in a specific place. There are six components that define the environment an entrepreneur or business owner will encounter when they begin to build or grow their businesses.
It is the combination of these six elements that create the environment, or ecosystem, that a business exists. When all of these pieces are in place, it creates a welcoming environment for entrepreneurs and businesses to grow and thrive.
Earlier this year we conducted a series of surveys, discussions, and a focus group with local stakeholders and entrepreneurs to see what opportunities and resources exist in our business environment as well as to identify where there are challenges and issues for those when they start out or aim to grow their business here. The feedback and stories we received, as well as our ongoing research and outreach to our business community, shapes our EE project going forward. We are continuing to generate ideas and to find a variety of local programming solutions that address aspects of the EE framework and improve the accessibility, vitality, and resilience of Westbrook’s EE. Below is an outline of where we are in the process so please continue to check in as our work continues to evolve.
Click the circles below to check out each of the six aspects
Calling all Creatives
Most importantly, we see this as a collaborative effort. Our business community and creative power is only as healthy as our relationships and interest to contribute to making Westbrook a vibrant place to live, work, and play. If you are a business owner, entrepreneur, merchant, artist, maker, and/or your own boss of some sort working in Westbrook, please connect to us and to one another on our business network on Facebook and sign up for our monthly business newsletter. By working and sharing ideas together we can become more effective at bolstering our local business infrastructure, activating our commercial districts and shared spaces, anchoring and amplifying the place-based identity of Westbrook, attracting more visitors and entrepreneurs, and displaying the diversity and creativity that Westbrook has to offer.
We are looking to engage entrepreneurs of all stages, from inception to successful and thriving businesses and everything in between. The goal is to reach entrepreneurs across the city of Westbrook.
