As big box retail corporations like Bon-Ton Inc. continue to struggle, a program in southwestern Wisconsin is working to churn out the next generation of small business entrepreneurs on Main Street.
Couleecap, a nonprofit agency based in Westby that helps fight poverty, helped bring Co.Starters to La Crosse and Viroqua.
The program has helped create 70 jobs in southwestern Wisconsin in its first four years, with plans to expand later this year.
“I think that was the spirit of the United States back 100 years ago that entrepreneurs dominated the landscape and then it became more of a corporate America,” said Mike Palin, who went through the Viroqua Co.Starters program last year. “I think hopefully we are seeing a trend back to that small business owner/entrepreneur that is so important to keep small towns alive.”
Palin enrolled in Co.Starters to help a solar energy business venture he was involved in, but wound up starting a yoga studio with his wife in downtown Viroqua.
A Different Model
Co.Starters began a decade ago in Tennessee and is now being offered in communities around the world. It’s a nine-week training course for those who have a business idea. People who have been successful in business mentor the budding entrepreneurs in areas like how to financially structure a business and how they can raise capital to start a business.
Palin said he appreciated the ability to share business ideas with a group and learning from veteran business owners who’ve operated for years in Viroqua — a city of less than 5,000 people, 40 miles southeast of La Crosse, and a community that’s had a vibrant downtown business district for years.
“One of the most important ways that it (Co.Starters) does its job is by helping people really look at the meat and potatoes of what their business plan is,” said Nora Roughen-Schmidt, the executive director of Viroqua Chamber Main Street. “To see if its viable, to test it with other people who are also part of the group.”
Communities Share Ideas
Roughen-Schmidt helped facilitate the Co.Starters program in its first year in Viroqua last year. Now the La Crosse Co.Starters program is borrowing a successful business start-up idea from Viroqua, hoping to enhance the chances of success for entrepreneurs.
Since 2014, Viroqua has offered three months of free downtown storefront space to entrepreneurs around the holidays. The so-called Pop-Up store program has had a 70-percent success rate since it started. Roughen-Schmidt said they define success as businesses that sign a one-year lease to continue as a business after the initial three months. Of the 22 businesses that have participated in the pop-up program, 14 have signed a one-year lease and eight still remain as downtown Viroqua businesses.
Now the La Crosse program, with the help from a grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., is planning its own pop-up stores around the holidays in the downtown and north side La Crosse business districts.
Helping Create Wealth
Couleecap started the Co.Starters program in response to a Kauffman Index report ranking the number of start-up businesses that showed La Crosse County ranked 70 of 72 counties in the state, and Wisconsin as a state ranked dead last.
So, the agency that’s traditionally known for helping poor people find housing or transportation was suddenly in the business of creating start-up businesses.
“It definitely fits in with the self-sufficiency aspect of what we do,” said Couleecap business and income developer Aaron Reimler. “We’re giving people the tools they need to create their own jobs and create their own way in the market. We are basically allowing people to find ways to create their own wealth.”
Not every idea is launched as a new business start-up, and Reimler said preventing people from starting a business that isn’t well-developed is a good thing too.
The program is available to anyone with an idea for $300, but there is a discounted rate depending on a person’s income.
Couleecap is planning to offer the program in Sparta later this summer.
– John Davis
Episode Credits
- Hope Kirwan Host
- John Davis Producer
- Nora Roughen-Schmidt Guest
- Aaron Reimler Guest
- Mike Palin Guest
- Lissa Carlson Guest
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