"The Enterprise Development Corporation was a great benefit to me in getting my business started."

"Without the facilitator, we would probably not have been able to expand our business."

"The facilitator program is just what we and Lincoln County needed."

What do these entrepreneurs have in common? They are four of the hundreds of clients assisted by the Lincoln County Enterprise Development Corporation (LCEDC). From new start-up businesses in metal fabrication and agricultural marketing, to business expansions in hardware and crafts, LCEDC is making a difference in the local economy and in the lives of the people it serves.

For years, federal and state governments have spent millions of dollars in their attempts to revitalize rural economies by "remote control," with bureaucracies telling local people what they "need" for economic development. In 1989, citizens of Lincoln County, Minnesota, decided to take matters into their own hands.

With the assistance of Southwest State University in Marshall, Southwest Minnesota Initiative Fund, Communicating for Agriculture, Southwest Regional Development Commission, and Mr. Ernesto Sirolli (a consultant from Australia), LCEDC began as a pilot project for the first six months and is now operating on a permanent basis. To date, it is one of a very few programs of its kind designed to assist small businesses and entrepreneurs in developing their ideas through a one-to-one approach with a professional "enterprise development facilitator."

LCEDC is governed by a diverse, grass-roots Board of Directors which oversees and directs the work of the Enterprise Development Facilitator, Vince Robinson. The Board is made up of 9 citizens who represent all geographic areas of Lincoln County.