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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

MCC to help entrepreneurs


A speaking out essay submitted by Economic Development and Innovative Workforce Services Vice President Todd Oldham and Executive Dean of the Damon City Campus and Community Partnerships Pete Otero was published in the July 15 Democrat and Chronicle. The essay is available below and online.


MCC to help entrepreneurs

Our community is coming out of a challenging recession that has created a new economic reality.

We have an economy increasingly filled with small- to medium-size businesses, including many new entrepreneurial ventures that start under the radar but have the potential to grow into great success.

As our community’s primary preparer of the workforce, Monroe Community College is looking to support these new entrepreneurs. MCC has spent the last 50 years focused on educating our community’s workforce.

We see an opportunity to extend that mission by helping entrepreneurial students and workers launch their own small businesses by creating an incubator at the planned downtown campus at Kodak.

There are other incubators in the area, but they focus almost exclusively on supporting various aspects of the technology sector. MCC’s incubator will focus exclusively on “kitchen table” businesses — the small, mom and pop businesses that are often started and operated from the home.

A recent article in the Democrat and Chronicle notes that the trend of self-employed people working from home is growing because of “the struggles of the economy, stalled job market, elevated unemployment and corporate downsizing.” By tapping into the resources we already have in our Entrepreneurial Studies program, Division of Economic Development and Innovative Workforce Services, as well as our partnerships with organizations like SCORE, we can provide these entrepreneurs and small-business owners with the guidance, expertise and resources they need to successfully start and grow their business.

At the planned downtown campus at Kodak, we will have enough space to provide new business owners with an environment they otherwise would not have. This would include an office suite. The incubator would provide a “store front” of sorts — that brings a presence and legitimacy to a new business that a home address simply cannot.

We feel strongly about our role in the community and our ability to prepare people for successful careers. With the relationships we have built, our location in downtown Rochester, and the creation of an innovative incubator focused on “kitchen table” businesses, we will be perfectly positioned to make MCC’s downtown campus at Kodak the hub for entrepreneurship and small business in Monroe County.

Oldham is vice president, Economic Development and Innovative Workforce Services; and Otero is executive dean, MCC Damon City Campus.

Rosanna Condello
College and Community Relations
07/17/2012