Like many rural and northern Wisconsin communities, Merrill’s population decline is shaped by an aging population and fewer young people moving to or staying in the area. “If you don’t address those and turn those around, what happens is your city, no matter what you do, will struggle to remain vibrant,” said Scott Steele, former VP-Chief Marketing Officer at Church Mutual in Merrill.
Steele is part of a leadership team focused on boosting entrepreneurship in Merrill, a city of 10,000 people in Lincoln County. Merrill, along with eleven other communities, is part of the Wisconsin Rural Entrepreneurial Venture (REV) program, a new initiative facilitated by UW-Madison Extension. REV is designed to advance entrepreneur-focused economic development by helping communities put systems in place that support new businesses and the growth and retention of existing businesses. By doing so, entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed, leading to a more resilient, sustainable, and diversified economy over time.
The program operates on a flexible framework that allows each community to set its own goals while following a structured process. The typical REV community has a population of 1,500 to 10,000 residents with local leadership teams committed to strengthening their local entrepreneurs.
“How do we create a culture of entrepreneurship that makes it possible for people, or comfortable for people, to start an entrepreneurial venture? When they do, how do we make sure that we have the basic building blocks for them to be successful in their town?” said Kristin Runge, Extension’s Community Economic Development program manager. Her team partnered with Compeer Financial, Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, and Energizing Entrepreneurs “e2” framework to develop REV. Their goal was to create a program that could be replicated in communities throughout Wisconsin.
Creating an ecosystem through REV
Entrepreneurship plays an important role for communities. New businesses create employment opportunities, generate income, contribute to tax revenues, support poverty alleviation, and spur innovation. “Entrepreneurs and small businesses can provide that sense of belonging and quality of life that are often part of a small community’s identity,” said Tessa Conroy, associate professor and Extension specialist at UW-Madison. The REV program asks the questions and generates possible solutions to what makes a thriving community.
“Often, local businesses play a large role in shaping the experience of living in a place in a variety of ways, from meeting essential needs to offering gathering places where we build relationships and make decisions that shape our communities,” said Conroy. “We often think of entrepreneurship as an independent pursuit—an aspiring business owner strikes out on their own—but it’s also embedded in a community and deeply collaborative.”
What is REV?
Launched in 2024, REV starts with a research-based framework for an entrepreneurial ecosystem. A community begins there, looking at how their community is doing on the seven domains important for entrepreneurial support:
- Access to financial capital
- A ready and able workforce
- The knowledge needed to start and run a business
- Policies and regulations in place that support new businesses
- A community culture that embraces new businesses and innovation
- Access to the right markets
- Connections to the community, vendors, other entrepreneurs, and their customers
Entrepreneurs operate within a community, or ecosystem, that determines the resources, information, and opportunities that are available to them and contributes to their success. “This ecosystem helps entrepreneurs get what they need when they need it, allowing them to address challenges as they arise and make progress toward their goals,“ said Conroy.
Extension provides detailed community data that analyzes local businesses, including industries represented, the potential need for more businesses in certain industries, workforce availability, the number of sole proprietor businesses that exist, and more. Lisa Taylor, Extension’s REV Specialist, says these pieces give local leadership teams insights into where they should invest their time and energy, helping them set goals. Then the REV leadership team talks with local businesses and entrepreneurs to see if the proposed REV goals align with their lived experiences.
“The program is designed to help them better support their entrepreneurs and their small business owners that are already in their communities. And it is a framework that they are all taught. But the goals that they establish are customizable, so the goals for each community are different, because communities are all different,” said Taylor.
For Merrill, that step helped them realize that their initial goals were too limited. “We hear people say, I have to go down to Wausau for fine dining, or for certain types of entertainment or nightlife. And these are things that young folks want,” said Steele. “So we thought we should focus on that.”
After interviewing current businesses, the team changed its direction. “What we realized was there were a lot of good ideas that could attract people here for other reasons, to build their businesses. And by limiting ourselves to one or two specific categories, we are actually limiting the potential of Merrill to grow an entrepreneurial environment.” In those interviews, they realized that current businesses are struggling as well, and REV could do something about that. “There’s some people that are having a hard time, and we should be helping them grow. We should help them succeed. Why just new businesses? It should be existing businesses. That’s why we’re fostering both new and existing businesses,” said Steele.
Fostering local leaders
A foundational piece of REV is finding a committed team of local leaders who are willing to make a three-year commitment to the process. The ideal leadership team is made up of local leaders, representing government, nonprofits, different industries, and a range of life experience, who can provide diverse perspectives and connections as they build the entrepreneurial ecosystem. “We’ve got a really nice, diverse group, which is great, because we don’t have one mindset in any way, shape, or form. There’s a lot of debate, which is productive. But we get on the same page, and we move forward,” said Steele. “We’ve completed several key stages and are excited to turn what we’ve learned from interviews and research into concrete actions and valuable resources.”
Through the leadership team, REV provides opportunities to develop current and future leaders. “In small rural communities, you see the same people sitting on the school board, sitting on the chamber board, volunteering to be on this REV team. As this REV team is working more and more with stakeholders and with the community, we want others to indicate that they will come alongside them and help at different points,” said Taylor, “So the program is designed to increase capacity for this work in small communities.”
Working through the REV process
Already, REV communities are seeing impacts. “In the past, there wasn’t a cohesive leadership team working on this. They didn’t have a strategy or a framework, and they certainly didn’t have a coach that was going to make sure that they kept progressing,” said Taylor. But now that they do, “They are able to approach either individuals or organizations that have the capacity to fund some of these efforts for entrepreneurs. They’ve been able to identify some sources of funding that previously were not really viable for them.”
As REV communities are growing their capacity to support entrepreneurs, Runge points to the potential for entrepreneurs to solve some of Wisconsin’s systemic and endemic issues, such as housing and childcare. “At the end of the day, those problems are solved by people doing jobs. When we look at the common thread — entrepreneurship and teaching people — not only do we see a need in your community for those missing pieces, but we’re going to make it possible for your community to support their development through entrepreneurship.”
REV is funded by Compeer Financial. Communities that are interested in becoming a REV community can begin at any time. To learn more, go to go.wisc.edu/REV