Entrepreneurship Workshop Aims to Grow Small Business in Selma

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

Business professionals and small business owners in Selma got some help finding ways to grow and expand their businesses.

The Selma-Dallas County Chamber of Commerce hosted an entrepreneurship workshop last week — conducted by economic development experts from Auburn University.

The goal of the workshop was to help entrepreneurs — better understand their customers — and improve the chance of success — for any business idea they may have.

David Mixson is the Associate Director of the Government and Economic Development Institute at Auburn University.

“Entrepreneurship’s real critical for a lot of different areas of the state but especially those that are in more rural communities. A lot of times a large plant won’t typically locate, they may not have the workforce there, so communities entrepreneurial and creative in just trying to figure out how to stimulate jobs and give people opportunities to work,” he said.

Chamber Director Sheryl Smedley said the workshop supports in the Chamber’s effort to recruit — and support retail.

“When it comes to small businesses we try to provide them with the latest trends, data that they need, where to go, just giving them a canvass of ideas on how to open and become a successful business owner,” said Smedley.

Smedley said nurturing entrepreneurship is very important in any community — because small businesses are what drive — a local economy.

If you’d like more information about this — and other entrepreneur workshops — go to auburn.edu/gdei.