Merrill Rural Entrepreneurial Venture (REV)

Communities across the country have shown great success and economic growth by using a “grow your own” approach to entrepreneur development.

A leadership group from the City of Merrill is partnering up with UW–Madison Extension on a new effort to engage entrepreneurs and strengthen community connection through the Rural Entrepreneurial Venture (REV) program. REV is an established program designed to advance small-town economies through a focus on businesses, nonprofits, and government. Wisconsin REV will use this same approach to help Merrill flourish.

By fully engaging in REV, Merrill will see the following impacts:

• Increased opportunity and support for Merrill entrepreneurs, measured through new businesses, improved business support systems, and business growth.
• Increased community prosperity, measured through tax revenue and school enrollment.
• Increased diversity in leadership and strategic partnerships.
• Increased community resilience, and long-term economic prosperity through homegrown enterprise development.

This effort is being funded by Compeer Financial and UW-Madison Extension at no cost to Merrill.

Launched in 2024, Wisconsin REV provides coaching, resources and connections throughout the visioning and implementation process as each community explores what economic development means for their communities.

As part of REV, Merrill will be provided:

• A trained coach to work one-on-one with the community leadership team for up to 3 years.
• The tools to identify and expand the local leadership base to support entrepreneurial activity now and into the future.
• A greater understanding of new business opportunities.
• Long-lasting processes and resources that support the needs of growing small businesses.

Merrill was selected to participate in REV by meeting the following requirements:

• A rural community of 1,500 to 10,000 residents, which may include an incorporated municipality, partnering municipalities, and/or school district boundaries.
• Sufficiently program-ready, with local leadership willing to build the program and support entrepreneurial development.
• Committed to growing a more resilient, sustainable, and diversified economy over time.

A strong partnership.

    

Track our progress.

REV is a proven process. We’ll keep the following graphic up to date as we move through each stage of the development.

Year One: Organizing for impact.

Complete:

• Create core leadership team - see side bar.
• Define success: review data, identify opportunities, 3-year vision. See side bar.
• Stakeholder mapping: Identify stakeholders and create a communications strategy.

In progress:

• Entrepreneur mapping: Entrepreneur targeting (gaps, growth, opportunities).
• Resource mapping: Map existing Resources, identify gaps, create list for quickly connecting entrepreneurs to Resources.
• Conduct entrepreneur interviews to understand history, challenges, opportunities and resource needs.

Future efforts:

• Clarify Merrill REV goals.

Questions or comments?

For general REV questions, email Lisa Taylor at lisa.taylor@wisc.edu.
For Merrill specific questions, email Renea Frederick at renea.frederick@fremarq.com.