SmartStart™ Communities
Smart Businesses Start Here
SmartStart™ Communities is part of making Tennessee the easiest place in the nation to open and run a business, and a way you can make your community a welcoming place for it to happen.
The TN SmartStart™ Community initiative is designed to train and equip Community Partners with the resources and tools to address the needs of new and existing small businesses and entrepreneurs within their own communities—to help get someone
to the right resource at the right time.
A SmartStart™ Community uses a “no wrong door” approach for starting or growing businesses in a community. “No wrong door” means that those businesses get to the right resources at the right time, no matter which “door” they try.
A SmartStart™ Community increases collaboration within a community. Greater collaboration helps the community deliver up-to-date resources and tools to its small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Community Partners provide resources to aspiring and existing small business and entrepreneurs. They are key to the success of a SmartStart™ Community!
Who is a Community Partner?
Any organization in the community that is willing to provide resources for their aspiring and existing small businesses and entrepreneurs. A Community Partner often has a “storefront,” but it is not necessary.
Here are some examples of Community Partners:
- Elected officials and staff
- Chamber or Main Street Director
- Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESO)
- Utility providers
- Small business leaders and entrepreneurs
- Educational institutions, librarians,
- County and municipal clerks
- Artists, maker spaces, inventors
- And more!
A combination of Community Partners works because each community is different – there is no specific formula
Enrollment Deadline
Onboarding for new communities is on a rolling basis—become a SmartStart™ Community now!
There is no deadline. Training sessions are being coordinated now.
Directions
It easy to do! Be sure you have all the Community Partners’ contact information handy.
To sign-up as a SmartStart™ Community, complete the form below:
Questions? Please email us at ecd.SmartStart@tn.gov.
In this section, Community Partners can add and remove members, request additional resources like SmartStart™ guides, stickers and decals, and make changes to the Tennessee SmartStart™ Guide entries for their community.
What do you want to do?
Make a change to your Community Partners
West Tennessee
- Adamsville
- Alamo
- Arlington
- Bartlett
- Brownsville
- Collierville
- Covington
- Dyer
- Dyersburg
- Humboldt
- Huntingdon
- Jackson
- McKenzie
- Newbern
- Paris
- Ripley
- Saltillo
- Savannah
- Selmer
- Somerville
- Tiptonville
- Trenton
- Union City
- Whiteville
Middle Tennessee
- Alexandria
- Centerville
- Clifton
- Collinwood
- Columbia
- Cookeville
- Decherd
- Fayetteville
- Franklin
- Gallatin
- Hohenwald
- Lawrenceburg
- Lebanon
- Lewisburg
- Livingston
- Loretto
- McMinnville
- Mount Pleasant
- Murfreesboro
- Perry Co.
- Pulaski
- Shelbyville
- Tullahoma
- Waynesboro
- Winchester
East Tennessee
- Athens
- Bristol
- Chattanooga
- Cleveland
- Cocke Co./Newport
- Copperhill
- Cumberland Gap
- Dayton
- Elizabethton
- Erwin
- Etowah
- Greeneville
- Johnson City
- Jonesborough
- Kingsport
- Madisonville
- Maryville
- Morristown
- Oneida
- Rogersville
- Sevierville
- Sweetwater
- Wartburg