Shoals Entrepreneurial Center, in two Alabama locations, supports would-be entrepreneurs with extensive planning advice, rental space, loans, business training, and back-office infrastructure. The center favors business plans with the potential to create fairly high-paying jobs, a different focus from other businesses in the region, and an…

Describes various programs in Appalachia that offer small loans and extensive technical assistance and training to entrepreneurs that operate microbusinesses (businesses with five or fewer employees). Discusses the potential of entrepreneurs and microbusinesses to stimulate economic development in small towns and rural areas such as Garrett…

In Tompkins County, New York, the Business Innovation Center (BIC) uses "intellectual capital" to help local entrepreneurs succeed. Founded by faculty from Cornell University and community members, BIC helps successful scientists start up businesses and uses the combined expertise of area businesspeople and college faculty to solve the…

Describes Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation (KHIC), a nonprofit community development organization that creates jobs and helps small manufacturing businesses succeed in nine "perpetually poor" rural Kentucky counties. Outlines KHIC services: loans for both expansion and working capital; equity and real estate investments;…

The Ceramics Corridor has created new jobs in New York's Appalachian region by fostering ceramics research and product development by small private companies. Corridor business incubators offer tenants low overhead costs, fiber-optic connections to Alfred University's mainframe computer, rental of lab space, and use of equipment small companies…