Press Release
Contact: Robert Albright |
Phone: 919-549-7500 ext.123 |
CED Releases 2004 Entrepreneurial Satisfaction Survey Report
Respondents Cite Qualified Workforce as Most Important Factor in Growing a Business;
Access to Venture Capital and Qualified Management Are Keys for Triangle Improvement
August 12, 2004, Research Triangle Park, NC – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) today announced results from its 2004 Entrepreneurial Satisfaction Survey Report, which asked about critical factors in creating and growing an entrepreneurial business. Respondents included founders and CEOs of innovation-based entrepreneurial companies in the area who rated not only the relative importance of specific factors, but also weighed in on how the Triangle performs in each category.
The complete survey is available online at www.cednc.org/publications/entrepreneurial_satisfaction_survey/survey_2004.pdf. Among the survey's most significant findings:
- The availability and retention of top technical and management talent registered as the most significant concern for high-growth entrepreneurs (which mirrors findings from CED's 2001 survey).
- The proximity of research universities (#1), quality of entrepreneurial support organizations (#2) and availability of qualified technical and non-technical workforce (#3) ranked as the Triangle's greatest strengths.
- Key areas for Triangle improvement include access to venture capital, the availability of qualified management personnel and the quality of K-12 schools.
“With the economy looking more favorable, we're seeing a significant increase in the number of people interested in starting businesses,” said CED President Monica Doss. “The Satisfaction Survey is a great tool to understand what resources the Triangle, and CED specifically, need to provide to make this region the best place in the country for entrepreneurs to start and grow their business.”
Note about survey methodology. CED distributed the survey via email to 500 Research Triangle area high-growth entrepreneurs across a full range of growth industries. The survey included a menu of factors to numerically rank (with 1 being the least important and 5 being the most important), as well as an opportunity for respondents to add comments.
About CED: The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, located in Research Triangle Park, NC, is a private, non-profit organization formed in 1984 to stimulate the creation and growth of high-impact companies in the greater Research Triangle region. CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, seminars, workshops and monthly programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. CED, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2004, is the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 3,500 members representing 1,000 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms. www.cednc.org
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