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The New Tool In Economic Development

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas 

Expansion Building Coming Soon 

We blinked before New Year's Day and now we are already into the second twelfth of 2018While we race into the New Year, we inch steadily toward the ground breaking of the new Fab Lab ICC expansion building. We use the term expansion building to indicate it's not a building we'll move into, but rather expand into. So, in addition to the nearly 8,000 square feet we occupy now, we'll be adding an additional 6,400 square feet. The new building will house a paint booth, a few welding stations, a business incubator and a new studio into which we will move our wide-format printing, still image and video studio and our electronics work stations. We're expecting to put the project out for bid during the first part of February, 2018 with completion by August 1. 

At $700,000 the project is not huge as far as building projects go, but it is the first new building on the ICC campus in about 20 years. It's quite remarkable that the concept and related funding for this project has come about in just two short years. Interesting to note is the fact that the project did not come about with a primary purpose of serving academic programs. This project is a part of our development of a new tool in rural economic development; assisting entrepreneurs and small business owners in starting and building their businesses to collectively make substantial contributions to area employment and, indeed, rural area economies.  

Economic Development is Changing 

There's a continuing nationwide debate about the effectiveness of the traditional model of economic development that involves luring big companies to come in and build large facilities that will employee many people. In the northeast, they call this "chasing smoke stacks," a reference to the businesses that used to characterize the industry base in the northeast. The challenge is the concessions and abatements necessary to get the "smoke stack." Many times, when the benefits of the concessions and abatements are exhausted, the smoke stack leaves after engaging in a new auction to see who will pay the most to attract it to a new area. 

Entrepreneurship Can Help Large Numbers Even in Tiny Markets 

Entrepreneurship and small business ownership has the greatest potential to help the largest number of people, world-wide, even in areas too tiny to effectively bid on the smoke stacks. One-hundred small business owners are the equivalent of a company coming to an area, bringing 100 jobs; only the small businesses generally don't receive abatements and financial concessions. Some of the 100 businesses will grow to need employees and thus we have a tool to grow from within. We offer access to Fab Lab ICC and our services through memberships available to anyone in our "community" without geographic or other limitations and this includes many entrepreneurs and small business owners working to start and grow their busiensses. 

We Need More Start-Ups 

New business start-ups across America are down and we need to do something to inspire a new generation of problem-solving entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses. We need to change the mindset from one that thinks new businesses require massive planning and funding to a mindset realizing that 98% of new businesses have always started small—with $10,000 or less in start-up funding—validating their markets early and then growing, some to become large employers. 

Expansion Building Funding 

This is the reason the United States Economic Development Administration is funding 50% of the Fab Lab ICC building expansion. They see the need to have more business start-ups and they believe the Fab Lab can be a catalyst toward that end. The Independence Community College board of trustees will provide $250,000 toward the matching funds required for the other 50% of project cost. The remaining $100,000 has come from individuals and a couple of non-tax based organizations. 

New Model for Work Force Training 

In addition to our efforts to grow small businesses, we will provide a new brand of work force training, called Fab Force, that will emphasize entrepreneurial thinking, a variety of technical knowledge skills and experiential project-based learning. Eventually this kind of learning will be a big attraction to traditional students looking for an exceptional and affordable experience during their first two years after high school. 

We believe the combination of the Fab Lab maker space and entrepreneurial mindset can be an economic driver in rural communities all over the United States and world, even those too small to afford the cost of attracting large employers. 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks. 


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