As part of the Town of Hempstead’s (NY) federally-funded Regional Innovation Grant, CGR produced a comprehensive review of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in Long Island’s entrepreneurial development and support network.  The analysis identified economic clusters with the greatest business startup potential; assessed the degree to which entrepreneurs are tapping federal, state and local assistance (both financial and operational); and inventoried the network of available business resources in the region.

Building on the previous SWOT analysis, CGR then formulated a series of policy recommendations for enhancing entrepreneurial success rates on Long Island.  Strategies included more strategic and proactive use of workforce data; a framework for more aggressively informing budding entrepreneurs about existing financial and operational resources; and an up-front evaluation mechanism that helps target assistance to business startups with the greatest chance of success.