USDA Undersecretary of Rural Development attends Roundtable about Northern Michigan Small Businesses

GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY - Venture North is nonprofit community development institution that supports small businesses in 10 Northern Michigan Counties. Some of the services include free coaching and consulting, grants, bookkeeping and more. Their goal is to keep small businesses up and running.

Laura Galbraith, President of Venture North says, “It’s important for us to be able to surround them with resources and make sure that they have their doors open and that they continue to hire employees and keep them retained.”

Wednesday’s roundtable was put on, so small businesses could share their own struggles and talk about the support they have received. The United States Department of Agriculture partners with Venture North for small businesses to receive funding.

USDA Undersecretary Of Rural Development, Dr. Basil Gooden says, “When you can reduce the cost of operations, that actually provides more funding for the opportunity for that organization to grow or provide other opportunities for that business. And so we also invest in trying to provide technical assistance for companies and organizations to be able to just maximize the impact that they have.”

With over 900,000 small businesses in Michigan. The USDA plays a huge role in our communities.

Galbraith explains, “The data from what we had researched a few years ago, I think 90% of the businesses in the ten county region have less than nine employees. They a lot of micro enterprises in northern Michigan and they really are the heartbeat of many of our small rural communities.”

With the partnerships created between the USDA and Venture North, they are able to take the information and stories shared about Northern Michigan small businesses back to Washington.

Dr. Gooden says, “we’re hoping that there will be more conversation, just more exchange of ideas, more innovation, and just more excited about the work that that we’re doing in rural America and just the great things that are happening here in rural Michigan as well.”