Trent Armbrust, Director of Business Development and Strategic Initiatives for the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce, showed up to Thursday morning’s Riley County Commission meeting in different garb than his usual suit and tie.
Armbrust was in more athletic gear, including a harness around his waist. He’d just finished zip-lining at Wildwood Outdoor Adventure Park, one of Manhattan’s newest entrepreneurial start-ups that opened earlier that morning in the wooded hills southeast of the Little Apple near K-177.
“I had a chance to help do a little promotional video and did some zip-lining this morning,” Armbrust said. “I also did a video of what not to do a few times, but hey, that’s the way it goes.
“But it’s really exciting that they’ve been able to see that vision and the support of the commission to make that happen, and they had to work with the county to get that property straightened out, but that type of support is important.”
Armbrust said businesses in Manhattan, like Wildwood Outdoor Adventure Park, are shifting towards entertainment.
“What we’re really seeing in the region — you saw the article last night about the IMAX movie theater coming to Manhattan — is that we’re starting to see some entertainment coming into the market now,” he said. “We saw that surge of restaurants and retail, but now we’re starting to see some of these entertainment pieces, and that really just makes the whole picture complete for us.
“We need to continue to celebrate the entrepreneurs in our community that step up and create new businesses that provide new opportunities.”
Commissioner Robert Boyd asked Armbrust about the state of entrepreneurship.
“Did you see the recent report on entrepreneurship in America?” Boyd asked. “The one that showed entrepreneurship is decreasing? Can you talk to us a little bit about that?”
Armbrust agreed with the findings.
“We have a culture that failure is viewed upon so poorly and that having that second chance isn’t there and therefore we’re seeing a lot of data showing that people are risk-averse and scared to fail, instead of looking at failure as a learning opportunity,” he responded. “If you look at some our entrepreneurs in this community that have been very successful, they’ve have had business failures before, or didn’t do so hot, but it’s been their second or third time around that they’ve been very successful.
“That’s something we as a community need to help everyone understand.”
Boyd agreed.
“That goes back to my position, that we need to foster entrepreneurship,” he said. “And that is one of the primary ways, is to overcome that inertia and risk-aversion, and that we tolerate that and encourage people to make those investments.”
Armbrust said financial institutions are key, too, while Boyd added people should do their homework, too.
“I hope the public understands we’re not saying, ‘Just start,” he said. “Do your due diligence. But we need to encourage this across America, so why not start with Manhattan and in Riley County?”
In other items, county treasurer Shilo Heger reported a county general fund balance of $13.5 million, which she said is up $2.3 million from where the county was at this time last year.
