One year ago, Gov. Mike Braun created the Indiana Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation with the belief that entrepreneurship is the heartbeat of  the Hoosier economy, the primary source of job creation and the most durable and sustainable way for Indiana to thrive. 

The governor knows that OEI must operate differently, to act entrepreneurially to serve entrepreneurs. We need to listen before building, test ideas, learn from what works and be willing to adjust. 

We also need to be a support organization for support organizations.  Across Indiana, local groups and leaders are already doing the hard work of assisting entrepreneurs. The state does not need to replace those relationships. We need to help strengthen them. 

A good strategy recognizes you cannot do everything at once. For us, that directed our focus toward one of the most overlooked phases of the entrepreneurial ecosystem: exit. 

Our research showed us that more than half of Indiana’s Main Street businesses are owned by people aged 55 or older. These businesses produce more than $200 billion a year for the state economy, representing about a fifth of Indiana’s GDP. 

We also learned something much more concerning: national data suggests that nine out of 10 of these businesses will close and not transfer to the next generation. 

Behind those numbers are businesses that employ Hoosiers, serve customers, support families and anchor communities. What happens to them as their owners approach retirement will have consequences across Indiana. 

This is an extraordinary entrepreneurial opportunity. Tens of thousands of aging Indiana business owners are approaching potential retirement, and they can transition their businesses to new owners. For the next generation of entrepreneurs, buying and growing an existing business can be another path into entrepreneurship. 

That is why, in May, Gov. Braun launched Keep IN. Led by OEI, Keep IN is the first initiative of its kind in the country, coordinating multiple pilot projects across the state to help preserve Indiana businesses and create more pathways to their next generation of ownership. 

Keep IN reflects the way we believe this office should work: identify a consequential challenge, use data to understand it, bring together the people closest to the problem, test ideas and help successful solutions spread. 

As we go into year two, we hope to expand that vision across the full entrepreneurial journey. 

We want to expand opportunities from some of the best youth entrepreneurship programs in the country, including STARTedUP Foundation, High School Hustle and RISE South Bend, to name a few, so that more young Hoosiers see the entrepreneurship path available to them. 

We will better connect new businesses with local support organizations. And we will create systems to connect those local organizations with best practices and relationships so they can foster more growth within their communities. 

We will also engage successful entrepreneurs as champions within their communities. Entrepreneurial ecosystems require intrinsic energy to thrive, and often past successes become the stories that motivate the next successes. 

Imagine an Indiana where a young person encounters entrepreneurship early, where a new founder can find the right support close to home, where local organizations are connected to the best ideas across the state, where an aging owner can find a path to transition a business to the next generation, and where successful entrepreneurs return to invest their experience and energy in those coming behind them. 

OEI will continue to be a catalyst to achieve Gov. Braun’s vision of making Indiana the best place in America to start, grow and transition a business. 

Indiana’s entrepreneurs are the heartbeat of that vision. Our job is to help that heartbeat grow stronger.

The State of Indiana’s Office of Commerce was created by Gov. Mike Braun to align and accelerate the state’s economic development efforts and is led by Indiana Secretary of Commerce Chuck Goodrich.