Former Moniteau Regional Economic Development Council (MRED) president Mike Kelley made his return during the organization's Startup Moniteau Entrepreneurial Mixer. After retiring at the end of July, Kelley decided to come back to the organization to help MRED's startup and workforce efforts.
Several aspiring entrepreneurs and guests arrived Thursday evening at the Co-Mo Connect Community Room in Tipton for the event, including State Rep. Willard Haley, R-Eldon, and MRED Startup Launch U alum Toni Kueffer, of Red K: Design and Showroom. There they met Kelley and Lauren Carter, director of the Missouri Small Business Development Center at Lincoln University. Carter welcomed back Kelley after his three-month absence.
He explained after he initially took over as president of the organization in 2017, one of the first elements he established was a program for startup businesses. Every year MRED hosts the Startup Moniteau program which teaches entrepreneurs how to grow and manage their businesses.
"The Moniteau County Regional Economic Development Council strives to improve the economic opportunities for both businesses and individuals. You'll find a lot of economic development groups are just going after businesses or just focusing on workforce," Kelley said. "Me, I think, in Moniteau County, specifically that the best opportunity for business growth will come from homegrown businesses."
Kelley presented the three-phase program to guests - first, the entrepreneurial mixer; second, MRED's six-week business curriculum Startup Launch U; and third, the Startup Pitch Competition. During the pitch competition, entrepreneurs meet to promote their business models to win seed money from the organization. The competition acts as a graduation for those enrolled in the course.
Kelley said entrepreneurs play a vital role in economic development because they start businesses, hire employees, and pay and invest money back into the local economy via taxes. They help build communities, he continued.
"The chances of us landing a big company here that's going to employ 100 or more employees is slim to none," Kelley said. "But Startup Moniteau can bring businesses here that will start here, that will grow here. I mean, look at Burgers Smokehouse. They're pretty well nationally known now. They were a startup at one time in their history. So...why entrepreneurship - it's important because it improves the standard of living."