Starting up: Be an entrepreneur, even if you don’t own your own business

I see this as investing in my children’s future. I moved back here because I wanted to raise my family where I grew up. I don’t want them to have to move away to get a decent job.

Aside from being a weird, hard-to-spell French word, what exactly does entrepreneur mean? In the simplest definition of the word, it means one who is willing to take ownership for something, usually a business. However, some of the greatest entrepreneurs I’ve known never owned their own business. I’ve also known more than my share of business owners whom I would not call entrepreneurs.

We all need to take ownership of our local business economy if we’re going to get through this current market. Those of you working day jobs: This means you, too. You don’t realize the value you bring to the local start-up ecosystem.

No business owner succeeds on his or her own. It takes a huge support network to help. In a climate like this, no network is too big. That’s one of the problems Idaho small businesses face: We typically have smaller networks. We’re often restricted by geography and, yes, even in the age of the Internet, this is a huge hurdle for companies.

By Tac Anderson – Special to the Idaho Statesman – TechBoise blog http://www.techboise.com

Full Story: http://www.idahostatesman.com/business/story/641579.html

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Here’s an outstanding example of what Missoula, Montana is doing to develop the entrepreneurial spirit in our youngest next generation of entrepreneurs – "City Club Missoula Hosts the Warren Miller Freedom Foundation – "Young Entrepreneurs of the World Unite" http://matr.net/article-32470.html