Muscogee County is states newest designated Entrepreneur Friendly community

ATLANTA, July 24, 2006 - Muscogee County has joined the ranks of the state's 'Entrepreneur Friendly' communities, an official designation indicating the community is developing an environment conducive to small business and entrepreneurs. The west-central Georgia county is the 22nd community in the state to earn Entrepreneur Friendly status from the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD)'s Entrepreneur and Small Business Office. '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.' 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. Muscogee County also completed a two-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 Muscogee County's present environment for small businesses. 'We are very proud that we have an abundant number of small business services in Columbus and Muscogee County,' said Angela Wagenti, who chairs the Entrepreneur-Friendly committee. 'The many services provided by a number of local and state entities are increasing our number of successful small businesses. The Entrepreneur Friendly process has helped us identify opportunities to improve awareness and build upon the financing opportunities that exist for small businesses.' 'Taking a proactive approach to sustaining small businesses is not new to Muscogee County, as the county has been a resource for business for many years,' added 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 enhancing the opportunities for its small businesses to flourish and thus remain a vital component of Muscogee's strategy for local business development.' 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.