The Problem - Florida’s Unemployment

 Associated Press Economic Stress Index

                                             2007              2011

          Sarasota

                    Stress Index                       7.17             13.50

                    Unemployment %               5.30              10.40

                    Foreclosures %                 1.46               2.24

                    Bankruptcies %                   .52               1.25

          Manatee

                    Stress Index                       6.33             13.35

                    Unemployment %               4.60               10.20

                    Foreclosures %                 1.38                2.36

                    Bankruptcies %                   .45                1.18

A Solution – New Business Startups that Create Jobs

Our belief is that, the proper mix of community businesses can create more jobs relative to growing unemployment.  We support all startups but place added emphasis on those businesses than can innovate and accelerate new revenue for our community which will translated into faster generation of new jobs.  Innovation can take many forms, for example…

• Innovative products can generate revenue from sources outside of Florida.
• Manufacturing innovations can make Flordia products more competitive.
• Innovative retail businesses encourage tourist to spend more incremental dollars while visiting Florida

The economic theory is that innovation increases investment to materialize those innovations.  And investment increases demand on our community’s economic resources which will increase their prices. In turn, other entrepreneurs will imitate the leaders by adopting the new innovations. Since labor and materials are required to produce the new items wages should increase and unemployment decline.

A Collaborative Effort

Gulf Coast Startups is a collabortive program designed to energize the launching of startups.  Our goal is to help entrepreneurs (i.e., Participants) to fulfill their dreams and concurrently help rebuild our economy and create jobs!

Gulf Coast Startups is the first stop for prospective entrepreneurs having an idea for starting a company.  We put the odds in favor of the new entrepreneur by helping them overcome the number one reason why startups fail – no customer and no market.

Gulf Coast Startups is a seminar or self study program enabling startups to define, quantify and justify their idea for launching successful and sustainable businesses.  We’re starting within the Sarasota-Manatee Counties but our plans are to rapidly expand to other Florida communities.

Seminar participants become an expert on their market opportunity through a customer centric process. It requires over 200 hours of research, interviews of prospective customers, suppliers, industry experts and competitors, and consultation with business and technology advisors.  The result is a detail product specification, a methodology for building a loyal customer based and the definition of a market that can support a sustainable business. 

Participants then present the opportunity to experienced industry entrepreneurs.  They validate the findings and approve the development of a business and funding plan, recommend additional research or send the startup back to the drawing board.