Uneasy Rhetoric

After some spirited discussion on Heckasac, and after some comments from Livinginurbansac about the preponderance of Paragary-owned restaurants, I have come to the conclusion that Sacramento needs a small-business incubator.

I’m not talking about a venture capitalist firm that churns out the eighteenth copy of the “next big techno thing.” I’m talking about some kind of group — maybe venture capitalists who don’t feel the need for a thousand-percent return on investment — that taps into local talent and gives them a safe space to stretch their entrepreneurial wings. It could, and perhaps should, be supported by the City, by developers, and maybe even by the potential competition; people like Paragary.

Sacramento is a big city. Surely there are plenty of people with ideas for small businesses that could succeed here if given the same kind of leg up that the big boys have? Is there any reason, other than sheer laziness, why the City would court chain after chain, or the same small cadre of local high rollers, to populate the “new” downtown?

Chains have money, experience, and an army of consultants. A city-supported incubator could help with all three. It couldn’t throw down the kind of cash a chain could, it couldn’t completely eliminate the risk (if a Starbucks closes, does anyone notice?), and it couldn’t build a watertight business plan.

What it could do is provide more opportunity for more people by providing direct services to potential entrepreneurs in the form of secured loans or education or help navigating the city bureaucracy, and by providing indirect consulting. A small-business incubator could help with market or location studies, it could provide guidance for starting a payroll or getting a business license. It could partner with area MBA programs to match students with hands-on learning opportunities (which would also help raise the profile of these programs, I gua-ran-tee). And, most importantly, it could provide a reality check for people whose business ideas are, to put it Col. Potterly, horse hockey.

All the continued dependence on the same small group of elites does is circulate potential profits and capital in an incestuous little circle. It allows the powers that be to maintain a small stable of thoroughbred horses to feed instead of a wild herd of carefree mustangs who may or may not always act according to “plan.”

Horse analogies aside, wouldn’t it be better if more people had opportunities to fail or succeed? Wouldn’t that help to give Sacramento its own identity rather than perpetuating the sad stereotype (based in reality) that we are a city who loves our chain stores? In a post on Heckasac, Kevin Seconds, who is in the process of resurrecting the True Love Coffeehouse, commented that his experience with the City has been “mildly entertaining,” and I think he was being sarcastic. A commenter responded:

Maybe you should change the name of the True Love to Chipotle. Then the city will give you thousands of dollars and roll out a red carpet.

Is this the kind of city we want?

If such an organization already exists here, I’d love to hear about it.