IRMO, S.C. — In Irmo, town leaders are looking to join a program dedicated to helping entrepreneurs.
So what does this mean for the town?
It's working to become better.
So it's starting the process through the City Inclusive Entrepreneurship program within the National League of Cities.
Irmo has the opportunity to work with government and tech startups and entrepreneurs through a group called CivStart.
"These gov tech startups range from making it easy for residents to pay a tax bill, to reserve a park, the process of signing up to volunteer for something, all the way down to document management or doing your website," Erik Sickinger, Irmo councilman said.
So over the course of the next few months, city staff in Irmo will be identifying their challenges and instead of bidding the work out to a large expensive company, they'll be giving entrepreneurs a chance to tailor a specific solution, possibly even for free just for the startup to get the experience.
Nicholas Corley, Irmo entrepreneur and owner of Corley Compound tells News 19 entrepreneurship is an essential piece of a community.
"That one entrepreneur, they could be that 13th or 14th piece of the puzzle that might also be needed to help the whole city or the whole town," Corley said.
This inclusive program allows more problem solvers to enter the pool so to speak.
"The whole point of this is that we can solve a problem or a frustration or a challenge and give staff time back, reduce the possibility for errors, make it easier for a resident to do something, maybe be more transparent, more accessible," Sickinger said. "We only have 5-10 staff people, so if we can save a couple of hours a week over the course of a year, that's well worth it."