Entrepreneurship: The Foundation for Economic Renewal 

in the Gulf Coast Region

Proceedings of the April 11, 2006, Conference

Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration

2006. [128] pages.

The opinions and recommendations of the authors of this study do not necessarily reflect official policies of the U.S. Small Business 

Administration or other agencies of the U.S. government.

Background

As government and industry respond to the devastation of New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina 

and Rita, it is important that rebuilding the small 

business economy receive special attention. Small 

business owners can play a large role in the urban 

renewal that takes place in New Orleans and the 

Gulf Coast region. 

On April 11, 2006, a policy conference was held 

in New Orleans. Various speakers discussed the 

effects of the disaster, as well as rebuilding efforts 

and business opportunities. All agreed that entrepreneurial small businesses will play a critical role in 

the rebuilding.

Conference participants came from small and 

large businesses; think tanks and universities; business organizations and trade associations; financial 

institutions; nonprofits; and federal, state, and local 

governments. A creative mix of ideas and views 

emerges from the pages of the proceedings. 

Cosponsors

• U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of 

Advocacy (www.sba.gov/advo) 

• Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (www.

kauffman.org) 

• Public Forum Institute (www.publicforuminstitute.org) 

• Gulf Coast Urban Entrepreneur Partnership 

(www.uep.gov) 

Highlights of the Conference and 

Proceedings Document

• Various speakers discussed the devastation in 

terms of the economic costs to various communities. Loren Scott, a professor emeritus at Louisiana 

State University, spoke about the number of displaced people. Some 473,000 Louisiana homes 

were affected and of more than 200,000 that were 

destroyed or made uninhabitable, 92 percent were in 

the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area (MSA). 

In Mississippi, just under two-thirds of the destroyed 

homes—over 40,000—were in the Biloxi-Gulfport 

MSA. Nancy Montoya, a regional community 

manager for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 

New Orleans branch, noted that 80,000 businesses 

across the Gulf Coast region had been touched by 

Hurricane Katrina, and that 60 percent of them are 

not coming back.

• Despite the dire statistics, though, an overriding theme of the conference was the enormous 

opportunity that awaits those entrepreneurs willing 

to invest their ideas and resources in new enterprises. 

Doug Gurley, state director of the Mississippi Small 

Business Development Center said, “We have an 

opportunity to attract businesses that are high tech, to 

bring higher paying jobs. This won’t happen fast. It 

is going to take us five to 10 years to do this.... We 

have this opportunity. We can be proactive.” Federal 

Coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding Donald 

Powell echoed those sentiments. “This is going to be 

a unique opportunity that only comes along not in a 

September 2006 No. 282
lifetime, not in a generation, but maybe once every 

hundred years.”

• National Economic Council Associate Director 

Daniel Heath noted that President Bush feels strongly about the role of small business in the recovery. 

Congress was supportive in passing legislation for 

the Gulf Opportunity (GO) Zone, which includes 

doubling business expensing and the bonus depreciation. Beyond that, President Bush promoted the 

Urban Entrepreneur Partnership (UEP), surety bonds 

up to $5 million, Small Business Administration 

financing for disaster mitigation and preparedness, a 

grace period in SBA financing, and raising the maximum size of SBA loans to $10 million. 

• Louisiana Economic Development Secretary 

Michael Olivier noted that the process of promoting existing businesses and attracting new ones will 

require focusing resources on three areas: housing, 

workforce training, and economic development. He 

outlined various programs established in his state to 

help facilitate businesses startups or re-openings. In 

terms of economic development, one of the largest 

obstacles is the need for affordable housing. This 

was echoed by Mississippi Economic Development 

Authority Executive Director Leland Speed. 

• UEP National Director Daryl Williams, who 

is also director of minority entrepreneurship for 

the Kauffman Foundation, spoke of opening three 

UEP offices in the Gulf Coast region. The long-term 

strategy is to provide fast-track training to those in 

the region who want to look at entrepreneurship as 

a career choice or an alternative to what they were 

doing before Katrina. While government has a key 

role, Williams said, “I really believe that the final 

version, the final chapter of the story is going to be 

told by entrepreneurs.” 

• A successful example of entrepreneurial collaboration is that between Idea Village and Tulane 

University. John Elstrott, a clinical professor of 

entrepreneurship at Tulane, is currently teaching a 

Rebuild New Orleans class to engage students and 

Masters of Business Administration in providing 

expertise, advice, and strategy for the recovery phase 

for Idea Village clients. In this class, students can 

gain practical experience while helping small businesses and not-for-profits get back on their feet.

• The conference proceedings include a summary of remarks, a list of participants, copies of 

PowerPoint slides used by presenters, and an edited 

transcript featuring website citations for more than 

100 organizations with initiatives relevant to the Gulf 

Coast business community and rebuilding efforts 

hotlinked at www.sba.gov/advo/research/

proceedings06.pdf. 

Ordering Information

The full text of this report and summaries of other 

studies performed under contract with the U.S. Small 

Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy are 

available on the Internet at www.sba.gov/advo/research. 

Copies are available for purchase from:

National Technical Information Service

5285 Port Royal Road

Springfield, VA 22161

(800) 553-6847 or (703) 605-6000

TDD: (703) 487-4639

www.ntis.gov

Order number: PB2007-100001.

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