May 17, 2009 — Claremore Chamber of Commerce entrepreneur nominee, Bruce Parks of Parks Custom Cabinets was honored as Entrepreneur of the Year Thursday evening at a banquet put on by Rogers County Industrial Development Authority and Northeast Technology Center.

“This year was especially hard for the judges to decide who to pick,” said RCIDA Executive Director Don Cochran. “We had a lot of good nominations.”

Entrepreneurs are nominated by Rogers County Chambers of Commerce.

Parks received the Jim Summerlin Spirit Award in the form of a statue of Will Rogers, and a check for $1,000.

“We talk to a lot of people who want to start their own business and the first thing we ask them for is a business plan,” said Cochran.

Though some new business owners say luck plays a role, Cochran disagrees.

“I don’t believe in luck. You work hard to get we’re you’re going,” he said of this year’s entrepreneur nominations.

Keynote speaker, Rob Gragg, Rural Development Coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce said local entrepreneurs are an important resource because they are invested in the community.

“Home-grown entrepreneurs are one of the strongest pieces of a good economy you can have,” said Gragg.

They don’t need incentives, they’re already in the communities. We don’t have to compete to get them. We just have to support our local business people, said Gragg.

“We want to retain entrepreneurs. We want to help them,” he said. Partnerships such as the RCIDA incubator programs are one important way to help.

Gragg said things are looking good for Oklahoma’s future, in part due to our many natural resources.

“We have experienced a lot of downturns in the economy but we have experienced some upturns as well,” said Gragg.

Oklahomans faced with a crisis respond in a positive way, said Gragg. He spoke of the importance of regional partnerships in bringing out of state “site locators” to communities.

Examples of that include the Oklahoma Southeast Alliance including 22 counties. That Alliance hosts some major events such as a striper golf weekend including fishing for striper and playing golf. The Alliance also sponsors the Lt. Governors turkey night.

Those events bring site locators to Oklahoma from around the nation and internationally to allow various community leaders to meet and speak with them. Other groups have different approaches to recruiting outside business.

The Northwest Oklahoma Alliance takes a unique approach, organizing a tour bus to take site locators to communities. The touir bus stops to allow those folks to experience first-hand the local culture and cuisine of the various communities they visit. At one town school children lined the streets holding up signs with their grade points on them. Everyone was moved.

“It was a phenomenal experience,” said Gragg.

A problem Oklahoma faces is raising and educating good children then losing those talents to other states after kids grow up. Gragg said many do return to Oklahoma after having children of their own, however. He said the Department of Commerce is dedicated to finding ways to retain our talented youth after they complete their college educations.

“Rural Oklahoma has a quality of life that is like no other,” said Gragg. “We need to provide avenues of opportunities for our youth.”

One of the positives for Oklahoma are local resources. Right now the state is pursuing “value-added economic development in rural Oklahoma,” said Gragg. Some of those opportunities could come in the form of red cedar.

“Red cedar is going to be a natural resource that is going to produce a lot of jobs,” said Gragg. He said the cedar can be gassified and is also a valuable source of oils.

Iodine is another valuable resource. International companies currently profit off this Oklahoma resource but the state will send out mobile iodine detection units to find and develop furture iodine resources for the state.

“We’re going to stop exporting our resources to someone else,” said Gragg. Importing resources for outsiders to develop and sell back to us is a “colonial economy,” said Gragg. Oklahoma needs to progress away from that mentality. Through extracting then developing those resources in-state, we create jobs and a boost to the economy.

Tourism is another avenue that is being developed.

“Oklahoma is a great destination for agra-tourism,” said Gragg.

Tourists from around the world travel here to work on ranches and experience Oklahoma culture.

“People cannot wait to come to Oklahoma to be cowboys and Indians,” he said. He commended the Cherokee Cultural Heritage Center in Tahlequah as an valuable cultural commodity for the state.

“Our rural and our urban cannot survive without each other,” said Gragg. With 3.5 million people in Oklahoma, we’re small enough that we must still pull together, he said. Oklahoma’s population is equal to the population of the Houston, Tex. metropolitan area. We are still predominately rural. Texans see Oklahoma as clean and unspoiled according to surveys.

Gragg also encourages Oklahoma communities to become “work ready” for businesses by certifying high school graduates with career-ready certifications to provide a solid work force.

“It’s all about your high school graduates,” he said.