When Cary Winch and Craig Edevold saw an opportunity to commercialize their trailer manufacturing business, named one of the top 100 new products for 2006 by Readers Digest, they didn’t have to go far.
They joined the Juneau County Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club.

“The club has gotten us in touch with other small businesses in the area with specialized equipment or abilities that we have been able to take advantage of to really get our business moving forward – even down to the company that put up our new factory,” says Winch, co-owner of Necedah-based Camp-Inn Teardrop Travel Trailers.

Since Winch and Edevold had already done a lot of the groundwork for their business prior to joining the club, they were able to assist other club members. That desire to give back is common among entrepreneurs, a sign of Wisconsin’s growing entrepreneurial culture.

Winch now serves as club president, and both he and Edevold share their expertise with other entrepreneurs, both inside their own company and in the community.

“We actually have an employee in a wheelchair, and he’s a real gearhead,” says Winch. “People have always asked him why he didn’t put an engine on his wheelchair, and he finally tried it. We’re at the point where we’re now about to order production parts for his gasoline-powered wheelchair idea.”

Entrepreneurs have a tendency to inspire others, and that’s exactly what’s happening in Wisconsin.

“Wisconsin really has become sort of an example to the rest of the Midwest,” says Terry Whipple, economic development director for Juneau County and facilitator of the Juneau County Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club.

“We are one of the first to really develop entrepreneurship starting at the grassroots level and continuing all the way up to our state resources, our universities and our tech colleges. We work with all of them. I think we recognize that this can’t just be a university thing. It has to start at the grassroots level in every community in the state.”

That grassroots movement is happening. The number of I&E clubs in Wisconsin has grown from just a handful a few years ago to more than 40 clubs. Wisconsin’s I&E club concept has even become a model for other states, including New York and Nebraska.

The Juneau County I&E club, started in 2003, now has about 1,700 members. Membership includes a wide range of inventors and entrepreneurs.

“We celebrate with every success,” says Whipple. “We get just as excited about the housewife that comes up with an idea to bring in an additional $6,000 dollars a year to supplement her income as we do with the person working on a nanotechnology project.”

Where others see problems, entrepreneurs see opportunities. In response to high petroleum costs, Juneau County has nurtured nine new business startups focusing on alternative fuels. It seems apropos that this club also finds creative solutions for its own problems, including a program that uses a hybrid HSA/HRA for health care coverage.

The Juneau County I&E Club is among the more than 100 partners in the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network (wenportal.org). Launched in 2005 and managed by the Department of Commerce, WEN brings together services, expertise and resources found throughout Wisconsin into a single system. WEN has fielded more than 50,000 requests for entrepreneurial assistance since its inception.

WEN also administers Early Planning Grants to help cover the cost of hiring a third party to help develop a business plan, and Technical Assistance Grants that help high-tech businesses fund efforts to obtain seed, early stage or R&D funding.

“WEN directors have reported an increase from entrepreneurs in the inquiry stage,” says Kim Kindschi, executive director of the UW-Extension Division of Entrepreneurship. “The psychology of the economy right now is that this isn’t an ideal time, but I think we’re going to see a lot more entrepreneurs once people have been displaced from their jobs, they decide they want more control over their lives and they take the time to explore the ideas they do have.”

For those who take that next step, a myriad of resources are available through WEN.

“We provide a whole gamut of resources,” says Kindschi. “It’s not just about high tech ideas; WEN resources are very broad based.”

Entrepreneur Kurt Brandt, president of Brandt Innovative Technologies in Pewaukee, was able to tap into WEN expertise to bring his innovative sensing technologies to commercialization. Brandt successfully secured SBIR funding to advance his non-invasive container inspection technology called Abiolux, which can detect the contents of unopened steel, aluminum, plastic or glass containers.

“One of the places we are looking to apply this technology is security. The Department of Defense has invested nearly a million in this already,” says Brandt.

A student team from a business consulting class at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater provided information and research to advance another of Brandt’s innovations called ArgusNet, a non-invasive sensing technology that measures critical-to-quality health parameters in humans. This technology has already drawn interest from the Department of Homeland Security, NASA and the Department of Defense.

While WEN regional directors work with high-tech businesses, the state’s Small Business Development centers encounter a broader range of entrepreneurs.

“It’s challenging when you meet with some of these smaller opportunities to understand that some of them can eventually become a large opportunity, says UW-Whitewater SBDC director Bud Gayhart, who also assisted Brandt. “You never know which egg is going to develop.”

And that’s part of the excitement of being an entrepreneur.

“There is a risk, but it’s a calculated risk,” agrees Kindschi. “I tell people to stay as optimistic as they can, particularly in the economic cycle we’re currently in, give their ideas a try and go for it.”

By Leah Call