Attracting The Entrepreneur to Your Downtown: Do Motivations and Values Count?

Starting and fostering business development is a key driver of economic growth. A healthy economy depends on a steady stream of new businesses forming, while older, overly complex ones may naturally decline—making way for more agile and efficient ventures. At the center of this cycle is the entrepreneur—the engine of innovation and economic renewal. These individuals invest their ideas, time, and resources to launch new enterprises and reshape markets.

Entrepreneurs are driven by a range of motivations. While financial gain is often a factor, many are inspired by deeper goals—such as revitalizing local communities, addressing social challenges, or advancing meaningful causes. Recognizing and understanding these motivations is essential to encouraging more people to pursue entrepreneurship.

(I often think of how this might apply to a town like Escanaba who has a downtown with significant investment potential. The lifestyle is top quality, there are strong support networks, an active DDA, distribution center coming in, rail, roads, and even a port. Finding ways of bringing in businesses that create products and services for locals and the wider market can help.)

Tapping into these drivers through marketing, advertising, public policy, and economic incentives can help attract entrepreneurial talent to communities and support local innovators in turning their ideas into reality.

According to the study referenced below, entrepreneurs are frequently motivated by values such as universalism and benevolence—not just traditional goals like achievement and power. This suggests that purpose-driven messaging and support systems may be especially effective in nurturing the next generation of business leaders.

What motivates start-up entrepreneurs? Exploring the role of human values in success