Press Releases

This week, U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, MI-02, met with more than 70 local inventors, small businesses, and groups that support new companies, on a tour highlighting the job creation and product innovation happening right here in Western Michigan.

“Hearing from these innovators and companies underlined that all they need from their government is more certainty and freedom to grow their ideas and expand their businesses, and less government and its regulations holding them back, the more successful and rooted they will be, and I will pass that message along in Washington.
It showed that adversity forges innovation, and after 10-plus years, Michigan is truly an incubator of good ideas and great resources for companies and inventors to support each other and get off the ground. Our turnaround is starting right here in West Michigan where entrepreneurs with a good idea or two, a little elbow grease, and guts are creating jobs, boosting the local economy, and changing mindsets, that yes, our families down on to our grandchildren will be able take jobs in the area instead of out of state. This week highlighted the innovators’ optimism, guts, and love for our state, and it was very encouraging to meet with them firsthand.”

Huizenga met with individuals, companies, and groups, some of whom are just starting to see their ideas realized as products, and some who have been innovating and selling new products out of West Michigan for decades. Some of these included: SBA Small Business Outreach Tour featuring West Michigan companies; Klever Innovations, Grand Haven; FastTrac New Venture graduates, Grand Haven; Muskegon Inventors Network; Grand Rapids Inventors Network; Noble Company, Grand Haven; The Starting Block Kitchen Incubator, Hart.

More than 50 area inventors and business representatives attended Thursday’s Entrepreneur Resources Workshop hosted by Rep. Huizenga at the Michigan Alternative Resource and Energy Center, featuring tips and a q&a with representatives from GVSU’s Entrepreneur and Innovation program, Grand Angels, Small Business & Technology Development Center, and e-merge West Michigan. Click the links for more on each program.

According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses employ more than half of all private sector employees and have generated nearly three-quarters of the new jobs in the last 15 years. More than 50 percent of these are home-based. Two percent are franchises. 

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