State certifies Cherokee County Entrepreneur Friendly for small businesses

ATLANTA, November 8, 2006 - Cherokee County joined today the fast-growing ranks of the state's 'Entrepreneur Friendly' communities, an official designation that means a community is strategically developing an environment that welcomes small business and entrepreneurs. 'Encouraging and supporting our homegrown businesses and entrepreneurs will help create quality jobs for Georgians,' said Governor Sonny Perdue. 'By helping local communities support the growth of small business, we ensure prosperity and opportunity throughout the state.' The metro Atlanta county is the 27th community in the state and the tenth since May to earn Entrepreneur Friendly status from the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD)'s Entrepreneur and Small Business Office. Other certified Entrepreneur Friendly counties in the metro Atlanta region include Douglas, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale, and several additional communities are in the process of being certified. An Entrepreneur-Friendly community must complete a program instituting guidelines and strategies that build a local environment and culture to support entrepreneur and small business development. Cherokee County also completed a full-day assessment by a review team that identified strategies to implement entrepreneur and small business development programs. Additionally, county leaders asked local entrepreneurs and small business owners to evaluate Cherokee County's present environment for small businesses. 'The Entrepreneur Friendly process provided our advisory board the opportunity to focus on Entrepreneurs' needs in Cherokee County. The suggestions gathered from 72 businesses interviewed during the process will allow the Cherokee County Chamber and the Development Authority of Cherokee County to customize their strategies in order to meet the needs of Cherokee County's growing entrepreneur population,' said Pam Carnes, president of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce. 'Both organizations' 2007 business plans will include implementation of entrepreneur specific services.' 'The Development Authority has been happy to be part of this very worthwhile Entrepreneur Friendly process,' said Misti Whitfield Martin, executive director of the Development Authority of Cherokee Co. 'We have learned even more about how to effectively serve the businesses of our community and we look forward to continuing to improve the resources for entrepreneurs and small businesses in the months to come.' Ninety-two percent of Cherokee County's businesses have five or fewer employees, according to the Association for Enterprise Opportunities, which gathers statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census. 'It's great that Cherokee County is proactively supporting its small businesses,' said Chris Clark, chairman of the Georgia Entrepreneur and Small Business Coordinating Network and GDEcD's deputy commissioner of Global Commerce. 'We congratulate the community for taking steps to ensure their growth. These small businesses are an essential part of the county's strategic initiative to develop and grow its business community.' The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is the state's sales and marketing arm, the lead agency for attracting new business investment, encouraging the expansion of existing industry and small businesses, locating new markets for Georgia products, attracting tourists to Georgia, and promoting the state as a location for film, video and music projects, as well as planning and mobilizing state resources for economic development. For more information, visit www.georgia.org.