The Chamber supports entrepreneurship and the success of emerging business.

• The Chamber continued to coordinate activities that support the special needs of the Chamber’s expansive number of members who are classified as small. Activities included Business After Business events and the semi-annual Exchange (mini trade show) that provide members with opportunities to network and develop sales leads.
• The Chamber continued to expand the programs and services of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC). The CEC’s mission is to help entrepreneurs and high-growth businesses build viable, sustainable and profitable enterprises. The CEC helps entrepreneurs help themselves by:
  
  
  • Offering advisory services and face-to-face introductions to help with their financing and sales needs;
  • Providing guidance through an extensive network of experienced entrepreneurs and business leaders;
  • Hosting events at which entrepreneurs can learn strategies necessary to succeed in a competitive marketplace.

  In the past year, the CEC worked with more than 1,100 Chicagoland businesses through its one-to-one services, programs and workshops and achieved the following successes:

  • CEC made 1,600 introductions and helped land new contracts totaling $40 million
  • 63 businesses received financing services. CEC helped raise debt and equity financing totaling $33 million
  • 350 new jobs were created through CEC efforts
  • 921 jobs were retained through CEC efforts
  • 50 percent of the CEC’s clients were women or minority-owned businesses
  
  Annual economic impact: the above accomplishments were instrumental in helping CEC clients realize, on average, a 56 percent increase in revenue and a 63 percent increase in staff size in a 12-month period.
  
  Five-year economic impact: the above accomplishments, added to the previous four years, were instrumental in helping CEC clients realize $120 million in revenue secured, $72.5 million in financing secured, 826 jobs created and 2,276 jobs retained.
  
  Some of the key programs offered by the CEC during the past year include:
  
  

  Sales and Client Development

  One-on-One Services allowed the CEC to provide guidance to entrepreneurs looking to grow their revenues and secure new clients.
  
  One-on-one services include:
  
  
  • Targeted introductions to prospective clients
  • Sales diagnostics
  • Lead generation and prospecting techniques
  • Development of a pipeline tracking system
  • Channel and market analysis
  • Corporate positioning and messaging
  • Sales pitch and presentation coaching
  • Assistance in identifying appropriate outside resources.
  
  Business Bridge facilitates interaction between Chicago’s leading corporations and high-growth entrepreneurs, including giving entrepreneurs access to mature markets and resources vital to growth. It also helps corporations to access the innovations these suppliers offer.
  
  In the past year, the CEC assisted 148 entrepreneurs with sales and client development.
  
  

  Financing

  One-on-One Services allow the CEC to work closely with entrepreneurs to ensure they attract capital through introductions to the right people at the right time. The CEC also offers a wide variety of customized counsel to entrepreneurs so that these introductions prove useful. One-on-one services include:
  
  
  • Syndication to angel investors and venture capitalists
  • Investor presentation coaching
  • Loan packaging and syndication
  • Development of private placement memorandums
  • Debt structure
  • Capitalization strategies
  • Review of financial statements
  • Financial modeling
  • Assistance in identifying appropriate outside resources.
  
  The Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund (i˛A) was launched to fill a void in early-stage investing in the region by providing an innovative for-profit, early-stage investment fund.
  
  The $10 million fund is administered by the CEC and is structured as an LLC, with both individual and institutional investors as members – including J.B. Pritzker of The Pritzker Group and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO.)
  
  In its first year, i˛A evaluated more than 100 investment opportunities in technology, new media, clean technology, consumer products, and retail. Three promising companies received funds: One Llama, Viewpoints Network, and ifbyphone.
  
  Venture Forum is a series of quarterly forums to ensure that entrepreneurs raising equity financing ($1 million or more) have the opportunity to present their companies to venture capital firms and angel investors. The CEC works with entrepreneurs before and after the forums to help them close their rounds of financing. In the past year, CEC featured seven high-growth entrepreneurs and attracted more than 30 of the Chicago region’s top venture capitalists and angels at these private events.
  
  Early-stage Marketplace helps entrepreneurs raise early-stage and angel financing under $1 million. In its first year, the half-day venture conference featured 14 companies across multiple industries with over 200 people in attendance.
  
  Bank Academy simplifies the debt-financing process for entrepreneurs and ensures that they secure the funding they need by providing one-on-one services, preparation of financing packages, personal introductions, and specialized banking seminars co-hosted with Chicago region banks. Twenty-eight businesses participated in the past year.
  
  

  Accelerating New Ventures

  Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), a new in the past year from the CEC and DCEO, takes a 360-degree approach to entrepreneurial development by pairing participants with experienced entrepreneurs and resources in order to commercialize promising technologies and develop new companies. EIRs are selected based on past performance, and each EIR has a proven track record of raising top-tier venture capital, financially successful exits and significant management experience in technology-related ventures.
  
  ATHENAPowerLink® is a mentoring program that connects a woman-owned business with an advisory panel for a 12-month period. The panel is comprised of volunteer business professionals who are recruited to meet the specific needs of the business. Twelve women-owned businesses received assistance.
  
  Future Founders helps build the next generation of entrepreneurs by bringing together CEC’s client entrepreneurs with Chicago high school students and exposing the students to careers in entrepreneurship. Students develop business plans and receive mentoring. In the past year, 75 high school students from selected Chicago public schools participated in the program.
  
  Stitches provides specialized one-on-one services to help the growing number of Midwest fashion entrepreneurs develop actionable business plans, raise capital, and prepare for growth. In the past year, the program offered one-on-one guidance to more than 50 entrepreneurs.
  
  Innovate Illinois is a statewide program sponsored by the DCEO and managed by the CEC that recognizes and supports innovative businesses. The program includes a highly selective business plan competition and supplies competing companies with coaching sessions and resources, networking opportunities, access to mentors, and cash prizes.
  
  Entrepreneurship Center Grant Award Program, a partnership between CEC and DCEO, provides cash grants to offset costs for projects that relate to the acquisition of professional services that will lead to a significant positive business outcome. Grants have helped companies complete a variety of projects related to sales diagnostics, lead generation and prospecting strategies, channel and market sales analysis strategies, overall business strategy, capitalization strategies and financing modeling. Twenty-five companies received a grant of up to $5,000 in the past year.
  
  Accelerator Seminar Series enhances knowledge and skill sets of entrepreneurs through intensive two-hour seminars every month on a variety of pressing topics. The seminars are conducted by successful entrepreneurs and other business professionals who share their experiences and offer practical, hands-on advice, such as “How to Sell into a Fortune 500 Company.”
  
  

  Awards

  Momentum Awards were created this past year to honor entrepreneurs on the long road between launching a successful start-up and progressing to be a well-established enterprise. Specifically, the awards recognize early-growth-stage entrepreneurial companies that have demonstrated a path to profitability, sustainability and growth. SAVO won the Merrick Momentum Award. The additional finalists were Argo Tea, BrightStar Healthcare and ClaimForce.
  
  An Entrepreneurial Champion Award also recognized an outstanding advocate of entrepreneurs throughout Chicagoland. In 2008, the award was presented to J.B. Pritzker of The Pritzker Group – a founding member of the CEC Board of Directors and a driving force behind the formation of the Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund (i˛A).
  
  The Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center is a non-profit affiliate of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.