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MUNNSVILLE--Colgate University professor Adam Weinberg and Colgate senior Heather Vaughn have put a powerful tool in the hands of Madison County economic-development officials and elected officials. The tool is information--information about the nature and needs of many home-based businesses in the southern part of the county--according to Peter Cann, director of the Madison County Industrial Development Agency and Madison County Edge.

On October 20, Weinberg released results of a survey and study that Vaughn conducted during the summer in an area running from Munnsville to Earlville and from Brookfield to Cazenovia. The survey involved telephone interviews with the owners of home-based businesses of all types within the survey area. Findings, according to Weinberg, should give officials a much clearer picture of the growth potential and needs of a growing segment of the county economy.

"We have identified four primary types of home-based businesses," Weinberg says, stressing, "There is a considerable variety, and each type of business has its own particular potential and needs."

Weinberg's and Vaughn's study, funded in part by grants from Oneida Savings Bank and Oneida Valley National Bank, revealed four primary types of home-based businesses: professional services, such as graphic design, consulting, and accounting; manual labor, such as construction or carpentry, landscape maintenance, etc.; light manufacturing, generally doing subassembly work on larger products; and direct sales-Tupperware, Amway, baskets, and candles.

"Many of the light manufacturers have good potential for expansion and would like to expand," Weinberg says. He adds that some of the professional-services companies also show a good possibility of growing.

The most common barrier to expansion for businesses in all the categories is access to capital. "Their biggest challenge is finding small loans--in the $3,000-to-$5,000 range. Banks are telling the owners to use their credit cards, but if they do that, they are paying high interest rates for the same kinds of investments for which larger companies can get loans carrying single-digit interest rates," Weinberg says.

"What we need is a vehicle to provide small loans at low interest rates," stresses Weinberg. "Basically, these businesses need the same kinds of assistance, but with much lower price tags, that the counties and state make available to larger businesses to encourage them to stay in and to grow in New York."

In addition, light manufacturers also report difficulty finding appropriate sites for expansion. There are few available commercial buildings in the area, according to Weinberg.

Madison County officials and the Madison County IDA are already working on possible solutions to that problem, according to the IDA's Cann. A 150-acre industrial park has been created at the Hamilton Airport, and the county is looking for a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to establish a manufacturing incubator there, Cann says. He adds that he is confident that the HUD will approve the grant.

Weinberg also reports that the surveys found that many of the light-manufacturing and professional-service businesses show a "high level of technical expertise." And many are turning out high-quality, technologically advanced products. Others, he adds, are putting products in nationally distributed catalogs.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:39 AM