Young entrepreneurs often consider a wide range of factors – from the availability of startup capital to quality-of-life issues – when selecting the location for a new venture.

On Wednesday morning, area business leaders gathered to discuss ways of attracting those individuals to the Johnstown region and cultivating good ideas already here.

More than a half-dozen speakers addressed the theme of “Focus on Entrepreneurship” during the Greater Johnstown/Cambria County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Economic Summit inside the Pasquerilla Conference Center.

And the message was clear: Many young entrepreneurs and workers have different expectations than people did years ago when manufacturing ruled western Pennsylvania.

“Places are important,” Dennis Yablonsky, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said.

“When I came out of school, I was going to go geographically wherever I could get a job. I didn’t really think about the place and what the place was going to be like. My two daughters graduated from college, went to a city without a job.

“I was just flabbergasted by this, completely flabbergasted. They picked a place and they said, ‘Don’t worry, Dad, we’ll find work. We’re going to a place we think is vibrant.’ In both cases, it worked out. The message there is, the place counts for young entrepreneurs.”

Together, numerous local organizations, including the chamber and Johnstown Area Regional Industries, are working to attract those new businesses.

“What we’re talking about today is interconnection between a lot of organizations, a lot of agencies – Pitt-Johnstown, the Community Foundation (for the Alleghenies), Lift Johnstown, JARI – really in the effort to build a new system that’s supportive of entrepreneurs and new venture startups and transitioning the Johnstown economy,” said Ray Wrabley, a University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown professor.

A key part of growing the economy could be developing businesses that fit into the region’s demographics.

“There is opportunity, I think, for shifting services and targeting an aging population with new services,” U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Sewickley, said. “If entrepreneurs can be nimble and reposition themselves to serve that growing market, they’d be well-served to do so.”

‘Startup funding’

This year’s Economic Climate Survey showed that 15 percent of respondents thought the region had “good” or “excellent” availability of startup funds.

“I don’t know who answered that question, but I talked to several entrepreneurs myself and they are very, very concerned about startup funding,” said UPJ associate professor emeritus Ron Vickroy, who presented the findings with his Pitt-Johnstown colleague, associate professor John McGrath. “I think ‘somewhat weak’ and ‘average’ is more typical of what you’re going to hear and the type of feedback that you’ll get with respect to startup funds.”

“Average” and “somewhat weak” ranked first and second with 44 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

Also, among 110 businesses that responded to the survey, 41 percent listed declining or aging population as the greatest barrier to starting a new business.

A lack of qualified workers followed at 34 percent.

“I feel, personally, it’s lack of funding,” Vickroy said.

That would need to be addressed, presenters agreed.

“One of the reasons Pittsburgh has flourished is that it figured out ways to get capital to these early-stage businesses,” Yablonsky said.

Yablonsky said startup capital is a “critical and shrinking” asset.

“If you don’t do that here, companies will start here, but the good ones will get scooped up and leave,” he said.

‘Encouraging’ news

Linda Thomson, JARI’s executive director, said her organization has been working to connect would-be entrepreneurs with funding sources.

She said JARI has provided 14 loans in the past 18 months “to help companies with startup capital.”

Only 2 percent of chamber survey respondents said the environment for aspiring entrepreneurs was “very encouraging.” Twenty-one percent said it is “somewhat encouraging.”

“Even though the numbers are low, they’re better than they were last year,” McGrath said.

Overall, the survey asked businesses about a variety of subjects, including revenue forecasts, profit forecasts and wage forecasts.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they were “optimistic” or “moderately optimistic” about the Cambria County business climate, a total equal to the national rate, but lower than the state’s percentage of 68.

Thirty-three percent expect to see real revenue growth of 3 percent or more in 2015, a higher rate than the 30 percent from last year.

In both years, 23 percent of survey takers projected profit growth of 3 percent or more in the ensuing year.

However, since only 16 percent of those who received the survey actually responded – a total down from 23 percent last year – the results have a large margin of error at 9.2 percent for all businesses and 8.6 percent for the sample of chamber members.

“The real intent is to kind of take a look ahead at what the next year’s going to bring,” chamber President and CEO Robert Layo said.

‘The right resources’

The summit included a panel discussion of local efforts to build an “ecosystem” for entrepreneurial activity. Panelists noted several recent endeavors, including an idea-sharing session called “PitchFest” at this year’s Showcase for Commerce event.

Mike Hruska, president and CEO of Problem Solutions, said much is happening in the Johnstown market to link the talent pipeline with funding and technology.

“A virtuous mixing of those three things is what creates this ecosystem,” Hruska said.

That has happened in Pittsburgh, Yablonsky said, and can happen in Johnstown.

He said while western Pennsylvania has seen a surge in jobs from “eds and meds” – universities and hospital systems – the economy is still built on the foundation of manufacturing, energy and financial institutions, just as it was when steel ruled the region.

He urged Johnstown’s business leaders to consider changing demographics (“this country is becoming a minority-majority country”), shifts in educational needs for businesses (“two-thirds of new jobs don’t require a four-year college degree”) and infrastructure (“this is a competitiveness issue”).

Hruska said capital is the key.

“Without that, they will leave and go somewhere else,” he said. “It’s about the right resources at the right time.”