Resource network is formed

The state has several activities cooking to help business development, including a program to bring fragmented resources under one brand.

Martin Frey, co-director of the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development, told the state Board of Business and Economic Development on Friday that Utah Business Link resulted from talks with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Utah Small Business Development Center, chambers of commerce, the Service Corps of Retired Executives and others.

The new group will be "a tightly integrated network of service providers, all looking to support entrepreneurial development in the state," Frey said.

Utah Business Link will include both software and a portal for entrepreneurs "and an integrated suite of knowledge that we want entrepreneurs in the state to know," he said.

A business-to-business directory will serve as "the infrastructure to support a 'Buy Utah First' campaign," and the new initiative also will feature the technology to support matching people with job opportunities in the state.

Another related initiative will be the Utah Business Resource Center, pooling existing organizations under the same brand, he said.

"They will be focused on supporting entrepreneurs, the idea being that it's very confusing to entrepreneurs and young or new CEOs where to get the resources," Frey said. "They see a number of entities all over the state providing services, some offering certain services, some offering others. We're going to try very hard to provide a very unified, simple presentation to entrepreneurs so that they have a much easier time accessing the resources they need to be successful."

Frey also listed other ways that the department, soon to be part of the newly created Governor's Office of Economic Development, will help create companies, grow existing companies and recruit new ones to the state.

One is the establishment of economic "clusters," which Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will unveil next week. They will be industry sectors where Utah has an identified edge or niche.

"The goal with these clusters is to really ensure that we are promoting and accelerating a fertile environment for these companies and these business areas to be successful. It builds on the strengths of Utah. It builds on both the strengths within the Wasatch Front and in rural Utah. Many of the clusters are indeed rural-based," Frey said.