From the outset of the ISBDC program, Project Future has hosted the regional South Bend Area ISBDC office (SBDC Region 2), which serves clients in Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph counties and manages a client revenue portfolio of nearly $70 million. Project Future affects entrepreneurial opportunities, with initiatives such as a growing municipally-owned fiber optic cable system and a state-certified technology park/business incubator, realizing that the success of entrepreneurship in St. Joseph County helps drive added achievement for surrounding communities.
Objective
While working to enhance the economic environment of South Bend, Mishawaka and St. Joseph County since 1982, Project Future acts as a catalyst between the community and prospective businesses, which include entrepreneurial ventures through its support of the South Bend SBDC office. For nearly 30 years, Project Future has worked to attract and sustain over $2 billion of capital investment into St. Joseph County.
Activities
The South Bend area ISBDC office is part of Project Future's Business Counseling Group (BCG), assisting start-up and small businesses by providing entrepreneurs with counseling and information referrals. The BCG represents a strong network of support that also includes the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). Working with area financial, marketing and accounting professionals, the BCG is a one-stop consulting center for the area's entrepreneurs.
With its pioneering spirit, Project Future united a group of community leaders to create the St. Joe Valley Metronet, the “dark” fiber optic cable network linking local users to continental digital cable systems’ “points-of-presence,” placing the community on par digitally with cities like Chicago and St. Louis. The Metronet’s mission is to provide readily available, cost-effective access to high-speed telecommunications for local businesses, encouraging technology-based economic development. The Metronet is vendor-neutral: this means it is open to all telecommunications service vendors and any user who wish to subscribe.
Among the organization’s developmental priorities for several years, the first half of the two-site, state-certified technology park began with a ground-breaking ceremony in 2008. Innovation Park at Notre Dame will provide space not only for Notre Dame faculty and students, but also for entrepreneurial minds that are prepared to develop and commercialize start-up business enterprises. The other half is Ignition Park, the downtown location where viable enterprises, successfully incubated near the university, are expected to thrive. Anticipated to have significant long-term benefits that will send continuous ripples through the community’s economy, the two-site technology park becomes a major platform toward converting intellectual property, perhaps including a nanoelectronic architecture platform, into economic growth.
The conduit of St. Joseph County’s business and economic climate information, Project Future conducts marketing communications on international, national, regional and local levels in order to increase awareness and understanding of the area’s attractive business assets for prospective commercial concerns. While the South Bend Area ISBDC office addresses the fundamental concerns of small start-ups, Project Future’s organized inquiry answering service, equipped with an extensive database, provides prospects with the detailed information they need to make informed site selection decisions.
For those firms considering St. Joseph County as their businesses’ destination, Project Future is prepared to offer information for:
- Industrial park and industrial site overviews
- Labor market and area demographics
- Wage and benefit information
- Utility district and service tariffs
- Transportation support and logistics
- Local and state business assistance
- Regional business profile
- Regional economic history and profile
http://www.projectfuture.org