Michigan Still Struggles On Entrepreneurship Score Card

Michigan's rankings were mostly unchanged and on the dismal side on the 2010-11 Entrepreneurship Score Card released Friday by the Small Business Foundation of Michigan.

The figures released, however, represent conditions during the miserable recession year of 2009.

Michigan retained a rating of one star out of five on the benchmarks of entrepreneurial change and entrepreneurial climate, and maintained a two-star rating in entrepreneurial vitality.

The fact that Michigan's ranking didn't change when it was among the states hardest hit by the Great Recession is cause for relief, according to Graham S. Toft, president of Growth Economics Inc., which compiles the survey for SBFM. Former Small Business Association of Michigan executive Mark Clevey, now with the Snyder Administration's State Energy Office, also helps.

The star ratings are generated by a combined ranking of Michigan's place among the 50 states in a wide variety of economic indices -- roughly 150, all told.

In the entrepreneurial change category, Michigan ranked poorly in growth in the number of small businesses, small business payroll growth, and the increase in the number of high performance firms. Michigan ranked fairly well in net establishment increase.

In the entrepreneurial climate category, Michigan ranked poorly in measures such as gross state product growth, foreign direct investment growth and large business payroll growth, but ranked fairly high in categories like private lending to small business, export-related jobs, patents and private industry research.

In entrepreneurial vitality, Michigan ranked well in Small Business Technology Transfer and Small Business Innovation Research grants from the federal government and university pspinoffs, but not so well in the number of high-performance firms.

The report also mentioned a number of positive indicators that bode well for the state's entrepreneurial score card moving forward, including new entrepreneurial education programs at Michigan universities, a move toward "economic gardening" of firms already here as an economic development strategy, strong second-stage businesses and a strong commitment to participating in the global economy.

To view the full survey, visit this link.

https://www.sbam.org/Portals/0/docs/Score%20Card%202011%20web%20version%20one%20page.pdf