TIFTON — The Georgia Chamber of Commerce hosted a workshop on Aug. 30 to help rural areas become more small business and entrepreneur friendly.

Mary Ellen McClanahan, director of Entrepreneur And Small Business Development for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Ryan Waldrep, assistant director for Entrepreneur and Small Business Development and Myrna Ballard, president of the Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce, were the featured speakers.

Waldrep said that there has been a lot of growth in the areas of legislation and financing benefiting small businesses, especially in rural areas.“In Georgia the numbers of women-owned businesses are growing 2.5 times faster than the national average,” he said. “We’re also seeing a lot of minority business interest. We have 371,000 plus minority owned businesses across the state.”

43 percent of the workforce in the state of Georgia is employed by a small business, according to Waldrep, and 99.7 percent of the businesses in Georgia are considered small businesses.

“Point three percent of the businesses within the State of Georgia have more than 500 employees,” he said. “Why is that important? The federal government says that if you have less than 500 employees, you are a small business.”

Waldrep said that the percentage of businesses that employ 100 to 500 employees is 2.4 percent, with 3.2 percent of the businesses employing 50 to 99 employees, 18.7 percent have between 10 and 49 employees.

“That means that we’ve got 75 percent of the businesses within the State of Georgia right now have less than 10 employees,” he said. “Think about your community. Think about the communities you work with, the communities you work in. Is supporting small business important within your community? You bet it is, because chances are that’s where most of your employees are working.”

McClanahan said that local communities and chambers need to create a small business friendly environment but that they also need to support budding entrepreneurs.

She encouraged attendees to think outside the box and sponsor cooperative events where entrepreneurs can meet with and learn from each other, look at new and different industries for innovation, and invite non-traditional prospects into the business leader community.

“Most chambers have A-student leadership programs,” she said. “That’s good, you love your A students,  but your C students will never get into something like that. Your at-risk kids, maybe they’re gone stray, but they are your creatives.”

McClanahan also said that being prepared to answer questions from entrepreneurs and treating a potential new small business with the same level of preparedness as large-scale industrial prospects.

Ballard spoke to the attendees about what the Valdosta-Lowndes chamber has done to promote small businesses over the years.

“I don’t think there’s anything a chamber can do that’s more important than looking after your small business community,” she said.

Ballard said that the Seeds Business Resource Center, which helps nurture young businesses and grow existing businesses, has been a large part of how they became designated an entrepreneur friendly area.

They provide a “how to start a business” guide, generate customized market research  and demographic reports, targeted sales leads and help businesses with marketing.

Ballard said that partnering with other organizations and entities is important, as is listening to the local business community and finding out what they need and are looking for.

Follow Eve Copeland on Twitter @EveCopelandTTG.