HANCOCK - Michigan Tech Enterprise Corporation SmartZone's new CEO laid out a strategic plan for the organization's next 10 years at the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance meeting Wednesday.
The SmartZone, one of 15 in Michigan, has served as a business incubator and accelerator for the area since 2003. It now includes four incubator locations, 19 start-ups and two Fortune 100 companies.
Over the first nine years of its existence, the SmartZone has created 250 jobs, said CEO Marilyn Clark. In the next decade, she hopes to create 750.
In July, the SmartZone held an all-day planning event attended by board members, community business leaders, Michigan Technological University staff and other experts. That was followed by a strategic planning committee that met over the next five months to develop a vision for the next decade.
One hundred twenty jobs are projected to come from start-up companies, with 420 more coming from expansion. Another 210 would come from companies attracted from out of the area.
Those 750 jobs have a multiplier effect in other industries, creating a total of 1,195 jobs.
"They're bringing money in here that then translates into jobs over here in this community," Clark said.
The SmartZone recently launched the Enterprise Support Center, a collaboration with Finlandia University and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The center provides assistance to people who are thinking of or are in the early stages of starting a business.
The course is $25 for students, $50 for entrepreneurs without companies and $100 for business owners.
More than 55 people have gone through the program.
Initially funded by a one-year, $100,000 grant from the MEDC, the program will continue next year, said SmartZone program director Jonathan Leinonen.
The Fortune 500 companies in the area have had a mutually beneficial relationship with the student workforce, picking up promising future employees as the students gain experience. Clark said two or three more may come to the area by fall.
"I would say we have five or six companies interested enough to move forward in their corporate structure to be able to do this," she said.
