Lawrence Tech study gives voice to entrepreneurs' needs

Talk to entrepreneurs about what they need the most and the answer is almost always the same -- capital. Lawrence Technological University's new survey on the needs of Metro Detroit entrepreneurs wanted to dig deeper than that.

"We knew what the top item was going to be going into the survey," says Mark Brucki, executive director of economic development and government relations at Lawrence Tech and the principal investigator in the study. "What we wanted to find out is what they needed beyond that."

The recently completed study, the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Needs Assessment Survey, took the entrepreneurial temperature of more than 1,200 people over the last 14 months. They include Michigan-based business owners, investors, entrepreneurs, consultants, business accelerators, employees, and displaced workers. Among the top needs after capital access are: securing new customers, access to market data, assistance with structured innovation, assistance with product development/launches, and short-term advocacy with state and local agencies.

"All of these things are focused on securing new customers," Brucki says.

The final report recommends pursuing a collaboratively-based Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship that uniquely addresses those needs at the grass-roots level. The U.S. Dept of Commerce gave $70,000 to fund a feasibility study on creating the center, which would connect the dots of the economic development services already available in Metro Detroit and actually fill in the blanks in some spaces.

Source: Mark Brucki, executive director of economic development and government relations at Lawrence Technological University
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.