“As published in the Wallowa County Chieftain:July 18, 2007
Business Facilitation: Local support for local business…
Wallowa County Business Facilitation (“WCBF”) is a local 501(c)(3) non-profit corpora-
tion. Its objective is to assist individuals wanting to start, expand, improve the performance of or
purchase a for-profit business in Wallowa County. WCBF was formed in 2000 and as its contract
Facilitator, I have been providing free, confidential, locally based business coaching services to
entrepreneurs since January 2001. These services are currently available by appointment on a
half-time basis. Since this column is sponsored by WCBF, I will first explain something about
the program.
Business Facilitation (known elsewhere as “Enterprise Facilitation”) is a bottom-up, grass
roots approach to business development. The concept was conceived over 20 years ago by Dr.
Ernesto Sirolli, working in rural southwestern Australia. It is widely practiced in Australia and
New Zealand and is gradually spreading through the United States, Canada and western Europe.
Although each project has its roots in the Sirolli Foundation (now based in Sacramento), each is
administered by a local Board of Directors and is fully autonomous after two years of operation.
The WCBF Board consists of approximately 15 active volunteer members. Peter Donovan (En-
terprise) is the current Chair. Past Chairpersons have included Gail Hammack (Lostine), Cathe-
rine Matthias (Joseph) and Bill Finney (Joseph).
As indicated, WCBF is a non-profit and does not charge for its services. One of the
Board’s most important functions is therefore to continually search for the funding with which to
pay the Facilitator, his expenses and basic administrative costs. The local community, including
the County, the cities of Enterprise, Joseph and Wallowa and a number of local residents and
businesses, provide a portion of the funding. Other sources have included the U.S. Department of
Commerce, the Oregon Department of Economic & Community Development, the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture and a number of private foundations and regional corporations. Strong fi-
nancial support from the local community significantly increases the likelihood of grant funding
from outside agencies and organizations.
There are many unique aspects to the WCBF program. Most importantly, the coaching
service is provided by a local resident and is free, confidential and essentially unlimited. As long
as the proposed activity is legal, is either for profit or offers the potential for significant economic
benefit and is not in conflict with general community values, it is eligible for assistance. If I be-
lieve there is a question on any of these factors, I require the prospective client to obtain the
Board’s approval before I begin working with them. Over the years, I have worked with a num-
ber of people who live elsewhere but are looking to relocate to Wallowa County and with a few
non-profits that were considering projects with potentially significant economic benefit.
In my next column, I will talk a bit about where Facilitators come from and what they do
(and don’t) do.
Myron Kirkpatrick has been providing free, confidential, locally based business coaching servic-
es for Wallowa County Business Facilitation, Inc. since January 2001. He may be reached at
(541) 426-5858 or by e-mail at myronk@uci.net. All columns in this series will be archived at
www.wallowacountybusiness.org.