Economic gardening is an innovative, entrepreneur-centered economic development strategy focusing on a long-term approach designed to generate new jobs from the community’s existing base of businesses of second-stage companies. According to the Edward Lowe Foundation, “Second-stage companies are those that have grown past the startup stage but have not grown to maturity. They have enough employees to exceed the comfortable control span of one owner/CEO and benefit from adding professional managers, but they do not yet have a full-scale professional management team.
“A business typically begins to enter its second stage when it approaches $1 million in total receipts. The transition process can continue until it hits $100 million in receipts, although for most companies $50 million represents the upper limit of second stage. By $100 million, a firm will have to be professionally managed in order to continue to thrive and grow and be in its third stage of development. Employee numbers and revenue ranges vary by industry, but the population of firms with 10 to 100 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in receipts includes the vast majority of second-stage companies.”
Economic gardening was first developed by the city of Littleton, Colo., as a demonstration program and has since emerged as the latest trend in business retention and expansion. Economic gardening programs can have the most direct impact for long-term, sustainable strategies to grow and to diversify our economy.
The EDC will promote the economic gardening framework through expansion of program offerings for resident companies. These programs will focus on stage-specific needs of these growth companies, filling gaps along the continuum of entrepreneurship and, most importantly, building and creating an entrepreneurship culture in the community.
The first program the EDC will be offer is the CEO connectivity and mentoring program. These programs allow current CEOs to discuss with one another the issues that are important and specific to their current stage of growth. Over the next three months, the EDC will be seeking interested second-stage businesses who wish to participate in this program. This program is specifically for the CEO-level executive. To participate in the CEO Economic Gardening program, please contact Brooke Gabrielsen at the EDC, (239) 263-8989, ext. 109.
For an Economic Gardening Loan Application pleaseClick Here
The Economic Gardening Business Loan Pilot Program was created in 2009 out of Florida Statute 288.1081 within the Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development. The Economic Gardening Business Loan Pilot Program (EGBLP) is to support those small businesses that are in the best position to use the loan to continue making a successful long-term business commitment to Florida.
Eligibility Pre-Qualifications
An applicant must be a business eligible for assistance as provided in Statute288.1082.
The business must be a for profit business legally authorized to do business in the state of Florida.
The business must employee at least 10 but less than 50 employees.
Must generate at least $1 million but no more than $25 million in revenues annually.
Must have maintained its principal place of business in the state of Florida for at least the previous 2 years.
The business must qualify for the tax refund program for qualified target industry businesses.
The business must have increased both its number of full-time equivalent employees and gross revenue in the state of Florida during 3 of the previous 5 years.
Such business loans will be a minimum of $50,000 and a maximum of $250,000 and may be used for working capital purchases, employee training, or salaries for newly created jobs. One (1) job must be created for every $50,000 borrowed.
Interest only is due during the first 12 months of the loan, after which the loan is amortized over four years. Interest rates will be a minimum of 2% and a maximum of prime rate published in the wall Street Journal, plus 4%.