An early-stage startup that develops electronic musical instruments for sonic exploration won $500 from a small business hub – in Traverse City.
A new company dedicated to empowering women received $10,000 to expand, thanks to an incubator program run by a small business hub – in Muskegon.
And a one-of-a-kind farm services company got off the ground – literally – thanks to the support of a small business hub – in The Thumb.
Those success stories demonstrate the importance of the work of small business hubs, which can be found all over Michigan. Among the newest is the Eastern Michigan Small Business Network, which was established in 2024 and played a role in helping Noah Dutcher and his company gain momentum.
The Eastern Michigan Small Business Network was created by the
Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County to help launch and grow small businesses in the six counties of Shiawassee, Lapeer, Tuscola, Huron, Sanilac, and St. Clair.
The Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County launched the hub with the help of a $2.5 million grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The support includes a new small business Cohort program that provides up to $7,000 in professional services to participating entrepreneurs.
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Kanchan Wankhede
The hub is a partnership of organizations committed to serving the needs of startups and small businesses in the rural region. Other organizations include The Underground, an accelerator program and designated SmartZone operated by the Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County.
Kanchan Wankhede, who is director of entrepreneurial services with
The Underground, says these hubs help start-ups navigate Michigan’s small business ecosystem and gain awareness of federal, state, and local resources. Resources include coaching, workshops, mentor matchmaking, and pitch competitions.
Within the support services, The Underground serves as a physical co-working space for businesses to use for training, counseling, and other resources.
“It’s a one-stop shop business service,” says Wankhede, noting important services like tech education and marketing are also available to startups.
Across the state
In all, there are 27 small business hubs across Michigan. Their services include comprehensive programming and direct support to small businesses, whether it’s helping develop a business plan to secure funding, growing a customer base and industry connections, or hiring and managing employees.
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20Fathoms offers coworking space with panoramic views of Grand Traverse Bay; free snacks and beverages; conference rooms; and more.
In Traverse City, that hub is known as
20Fathoms, which started in 2018. The organization has become the hub of entrepreneurship and innovation for all of Northwest Michigan, sitting at the center of a network of startup support organizations, funders, entrepreneurs, and startup enthusiasts.
“In the last year, 20Fathoms has helped more than 150 startup founders and small business owners launch or grow their businesses by providing educational programming, small business grants, startup coaching, and coworking space,” says Keri Amlotte, who is head of Outreach & Strategic Programming for 20Fathoms.
The startup that won the Audience Choice Award – $500 – was founded by John Woodruff, a former sound engineer for Apple. Through 20Fathoms, his company, Oddment Audio, received access to capital and professional services, startup coaching, and the opportunity to pitch at TCNewTech in 2024.
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The audience at TCNewTech, a recurring pitch competition sponsored by 20Fathoms in Traverse City.
The Muskegon Innovation Hub traces its roots to 2003 and began as part of Michigan’s SmartZone network. The Hub is part of the Muskegon Lakeshore SmartZone, one of the original eleven SmartZones in Michigan. They were created in the late 1990s as a way to revitalize abandoned and declining urban areas. Muskegon’s educational institution partner is Grand Valley State University.
Like other hubs, the Muskegon Innovation Hub offers coaching, funding, networking, and provides a synergistic work environment. Services include business incubation, coworking space, funding assistance, events and programming, and meeting space rentals. It also offers a pitch competition, ElevateWest Pitch Night, for participants of an accelerator program.
Last year, the hub assisted 93 new companies, helped create 11 companies, and served 257 companies overall, resulting in the creation of 72 direct jobs and many other achievements, according to its annual report for 2024.
“Should every community have a program like the Hub? I think that depends,” says Kevin Ricco, executive director of the Muskegon Innovation Hub. “There needs to be a critical mass of businesses and population to support a program such as ours. And if I am being truthful, I am often a bit jealous of the resources some of our peers have in other parts of the state, especially those in southeast Michigan. Each community is unique in its needs, and all should be assessed independently.”
The Thumb
Interest in establishing a hub in the Port Huron area came after the success of a similar program,
The SmartZone. The county received $60,000 for this program, run in partnership with the Economic Development Association of St. Clair County, the
Blue Water Area Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations.
Many types of businesses use the hub, says Dan Casey, CEO of the Economic Development Association of St. Clair County. The businesses run the gamut, from agrotourism to retail to tech. Currently, more than 700 companies across the region are using these services to grow their business.
Noah Dutcher, founder of
On-Target Precision Services, tapped the program about a year ago during the
Catapult Student Tech Pitch Competition.
“I won that competition and it was just an idea when I had presented it to them but then I was like wow this might actually turn into something,” Dutcher says.
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Kevin Dutcher (left), father of Noah Dutcher (right) in front of an Apache self-propelled sprayer.
His win in the pitch competition provided him with funding. From there, he was able to create an LLC for his business. Through this program, he’s used financial and marketing services like creating a website and business cards, as well as some classes to help him understand how to run a business.
His company provides farmers with custom applications of fungicide, herbicide, and foliar fertilizer, crop seeding, and roof cover applications to regulate temperatures inside greenhouses using drone technology.
Dutcher, who grew up on a farm in Shiawassee County, understood there needed to be another solution in providing these applications.
“For spraying, they have a few options,” Dutcher says. “They can either hire an airplane to come spray it or you can do it with a ground machine. The airplane is not super accurate and then a ground machine you kind of risk running over some of your existing crops so that kind of puts a damper on things.”
His company uses the
Agras Series Drones, which provide more accurate and precise agriculture management through pump speed sensors and flow meters to monitor the flux of materials, on-demand adjustable droplet sizing for maximizing crop coverage, and omnidirectional radar/obstacle avoidance that detects trees, power lines, and other things to prevent collision.
“The incubator program really helped because I was able to meet one-on-one, mostly with Kanchan to be able to bounce ideas back and forth or she would tell me where I need to go to get certain things like filing for an LLC,” Dutcher says, “Which I wouldn’t have been able to do if I wasn’t in this program.”
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Edwin Sechrist, Founder of Tidal Industries.
Another company, Tidal Industries, also received help from the incubator program
Edwin Sechrist, owner and founder of the Port Huron-based gaming software company, credits the program and Wankhede for helping him navigate the tough world of business.
“It’s extremely helpful,” Sechrist said. “But you do have to listen to others and even when they’re going against the grain of what you’re trying to do, you have to work within your means.”
Sechrist believes these small business hubs
greatly benefit the community, especially for people who don’t have the funds or assets to launch a business. But the program, he said, needs to become more well-known and accessible.
Unfortunately for businesses in The Thumb, funding for the Eastern Michigan Small Business Network runs out in 2026.
Wankhede hopes to continue to support it along with other ongoing programs.
“We have developed a great circle of partners, with whose help we will still continue having entrepreneurial education workshops and hopefully we are able to raise funds from local and our regional partners,” Wankhede says. “We are also hopeful that MEDC will continue supporting this program in some way or another.”