
Tarrant small-business resource at risk of shutting down without local champion
An organization supporting entrepreneurship in Tarrant County raised concerns about its future as it delivered a report on jobs created by new firms. Sparkyard is a business website for the region that includes resources for entrepreneurs and small businesses. It also assembles and analyzes data about Fort Worth’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The organization was previously hosted and supported by the University of North Texas Health Science Center and also received funding from Fort Worth’s economic development department. The Health Science Center discontinued that support in late 2023. “The funding needs to be there in order to continue to do this report,” said Cameron Cushman, assistant vice president for innovation ecosystems at the Health Science Center. “We have no funding as of right now from any of the previous partners whatsoever.” An assessment is underway on whether Sparkyard will continue after the next few months, Cushman said during a Feb. 4 presentation on the 2024 jobs report to the city’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee. He told the committee, made up of Fort Worth City Council members, that several other cities have civic champions of entrepreneurship, citing the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City and the George Kaiser Family Foundation in Tulsa, that support organizations like Sparkyard. “That’s not really the case here,” Cushman said.Ensemble Coworking, a longtime coworking and entrepreneur supporter, has been funding Sparkyard with assistance in 2024 from the Better Business Bureau Serving the Heart of Texas. Council member Michael Crain, who chairs the committee, said Sparkyard’s work is important to the city, particularly for small business and startups looking for a pathway from which to jump-start their ideas. “They’re trying to figure out where to go for whatever those basic things a business needs,” he said. Crain said the organization is probably better suited to being funded by individuals or businesses rather than by the government. “I always believe that the private sector can do it a lot better than the government can,” he said. “And much more efficiently and quickly too. I’m hopeful that the funding piece will be resolved so we can have this as a resource and a tool.”Crain said the mayor and City Council are focused on small business and entrepreneurship, citing several changes the city made to its permitting process to make it easier for small-business owners. 2024 jobs report The report presented by Sparkyard showed new firms in Tarrant County were responsible for creating nearly 47% of new jobs in 2022. “Entrepreneurship equals job creation,” said Tamara Payne, chief ecosystem officer for Sparkyard, in a news release. “Our report illustrates that supporting micro and small businesses is beneficial and essential for the economic health and future of Fort Worth and surrounding cities.”In 2022, new businesses in Tarrant County created 27,021 jobs, or roughly 3% of the total employment. “These new firms also paid an average wage of $43,962, far exceeding the annual minimum wage,” she said. Those job numbers are below 2021’s 28,277, but above the 26,995 jobs created in 2020, during the pandemic. “In 2022, there were still hurdles for businesses to overcome from the pandemic, such as high inflation, continued supply chain disruption and access to capital, but COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions were lifted,” according to the report. New firms in Tarrant County create about 12.5 jobs per 1,000 residents, according to the report, well below Travis County’s 21.4 jobs per 1,000 residents and Dallas County’s 17.7 jobs per 1,000 residents. Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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