Editor’s note: Today’s Skinny is written by Jim Roberts, a frequent contributor to LTW. Roberts is the former Founding Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and the Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – North Carolina is blessed with several entrepreneur councils that are a great source of job creation to help make a healthier statewide economy. There are councils in Asheville, RTP, Charlotte, Boone, Greenville, Triad and Wilmington. At the base of these entrepreneur councils, we basically follow the Council for Entrepreneurial Development model of educating entrepreneurs, creating mentoring and networking events, communications/ calendar of helpful regional events and capital formation/preparation.

I get the feeling America has forgotten about entrepreneurship as the basis of the American economy. Even Bank of America is not an institution or some multinational conglomerate of random faceless people. Commercial National Bank, the original name, started with people in the Charlotte region in 1874 who saw a growing economy. They started a small bank that grew to acquire Bank of America in California, especially under the leadership of the great Hugh McColl. Now Bank of America has over 200,000 employees.

I have started two entrepreneur councils and an angel network and have advised on several others. For those regions looking to create the next generation of entrepreneurs let me give you several helpful but less obvious tips:

1.The council leaders and entrepreneurs must earn a seat at the table of statewide events

By no fault of anyone at CED, no company west of Charlotte had ever presented at CED sponsored Tech or Venture Conference in over 20 years. Through several years of networking and hard work earning the respect and trust of people, I began serving on committees and volunteering to help these kinds of conferences. So when I began to push the western entrepreneurs to submit their plans, companies like BUIIDERadius, LabEscape, Navigational Sciences and Sylvan Sport were chosen to present at these conferences. This is important because the companies who want to succeed at a bigger scale need to be known outside of the city limits to be able to sell and seek capital in bigger markets.

2.Events Must Be Edgy AND Educational AND Flexible

Entrepreneurs have a lot of options at the end of the business day:

They could stay at work and continue to build the company with their blinders on to stay the course.

They can go home to their families if that is their priority in their beliefs and that is a worthy goal in life.

They can go out and have a cold beverage with their colleagues and watch the big game.

Or they can come to your entrepreneur council event.

The only way they are coming to your event is if your event has some real value. They don’t want to go to a lecture in a whitewall building inside a chamber of commerce or a stale environment. Give them a valuable speaker, a good meal with the option of a cold adult beverage and have the event where there is some energy. Find a locally owned restaurant with a private dining facility or may have a slow night of the week where you can have the facility for a few hours.

(Hint- I found Tuesday night is the best night for events. Monday – worst as you compete with the Monday blues and Monday Night Football. Wednesday is a big church going night in the in the Southeast. Thursday night is the best night on television and the beat night to go out. Friday? Well who would hold an event on a Friday?)

3.Keep focus on entrepreneurs not the bureaucracy.

So many new entrepreneur councils get stuck in the mud as they do analysis through paralysis. Should we do this? Will we upset this organization? But this is how so and so did it….

Get it started. Fight for the entrepreneurs to break through all of the regional red tape and politics. Look at the assets of the region and exploit them. Find a niche but be willing to make mistakes.

The form of the organization does not matter as much as the energy of the organization. A successful entrepreneur council feels like a startup itself. There has to be excitement and energy or the entrepreneurs will choose one of the other options at the end of the day.

4.Companies do not come out of the womb “tall, dark and handsome”. Most have warts, scabs and baggage.

Not every company is going to look like Dell Computer when it starts out. In fact, they never look like a polished company at the start. Realize that these companies are going to require a ton of work to succeed no matter what level of experience is on the management team.

If there is an angel network, they are going to see some “ugly babies” that they will reject. Some of the entrepreneurs will become bitter and stop participating in the regional events because they were rejected. The council must reengage these entrepreneurs and bring them back on track. I allowed the rejected entrepreneurs to attend the angel investor event to see why the other companies were chosen and used the entrepreneur like a staff person to help with technology and logistical issues.

5.Requires a blue collar approach:

I see this all the time. The leader of the entrepreneur council gets caught up in the sexiness of hanging out with venture capitalists, angel investors and the white collar side of the business of helping entrepreneurs. The no collar entrepreneurs need the help.

It may seem like such a small idea. But I am infamous for walking an entrepreneur across the room and interrupting a conversation to introduce that entrepreneur to the person they need to know across the room. To that person who could get their cash flow problem corrected, the person who could make an angel investment or to the marketing genius who could raise the profile of this company above the competition. To tell the entrepreneur to go meet this person does not cut it as there are many distractions crossing a room such as the other people in the room, the bar, or just a bit of shyness on the part of the entrepreneurs.

6.Will need to put your name on line for people you don’t know very well

This is one of the most difficult things for a new leader of an entrepreneur council. Who do I make a personal political capital investment into to put my name on the line to help? When and at what stage do I make the introduction of a company to one of my best investors. A leader must have a good sense of authenticity in other people.

My best advice: Choose some milestones for your entrepreneur to accomplish soon after meeting with them one on one. Ask them to see their business plan. Make some recommendations and give them a short timeline to add these suggestions. If they don’t follow up, these entrepreneurs may not be focused enough for you to put your name on the line.

7.Most startup entrepreneurs are cash poor.

This is one of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneur councils make. They try to make the majority of their revenue from the entrepreneurs. Granted the councils need to make some money to stay open for business. But make every effort to raise sponsorship money to lower the costs of events. Warning: You MUST, MUST give value to these sponsors or they will stop writing checks to support your organization. They are participating to find a new client base. They want access to the promising companies in case the next big success story is among your entrepreneur council members.

Jim Roberts is the former Founding Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and the Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network. Jim, a new resident of the Triangle, recently started a new blog about Leadership and Entrepreneurship at http://biznsalez.blogspot.com/. Jim can be reached at jimRroberts@yahoo.com