Oxford Enterprise Center Helps Develop Local Businesses

Located off Highway 7 South, the Oxford Enterprise Center is a part of the North Mississippi Enterprise Initiative, a 501 C-3 non-profit corporation formed as a public/private regional partnership to develop entrepreneurial growth in Oxford, Mississippi

The 37,000 square foot facility contains office space, data centers, dry labs and wet labs to cater to many entrepreneurs’ needs.

Most of the tenants that have occupied the building usually stay there for one to three years, and Executive Director of the Oxford Enterprise Center, Holly Kelly, assists with the start-up companies to help them achieve and sustain financial growth.

“If [a company] is still here after their third year and if they really are still not to that comfort level where they really feel like they are going to be able get out into the commercial real estate area, buy their own building, or continue to strive for success with their business, we definitely try to sit down and have a heart to heart talk and make sure that everything they’re doing as far as marketing, advertising, the structure of the business and employees is evaluated,” Kelly said.

Currently, the Oxford Enterprise Center has 13 tenants that include businesses such as Elliott Logic, Titanium Services, Real Estate Training Institute, and many others. Many of the tenants based at the center specialize in research development, testing and evaluation and other types of technology-based services.

Courtesy of http://www.northmiss.org

Integrated Marketing Communications major, Grace Baird, believes that the Oxford Enterprise Center is a great place for companies starting out to get advice and learn skills to be successful out into the business world.

“The Oxford Enterprise Center would definitely help me if I tried to start out a business. Most entrepreneurs just have an idea and they’re probably more creative and don’t know the business side of things. The Oxford Enterprise Center could help them with that,” Baird said in response to if she wanted to start a company.

The North Mississippi Enterprise Initiative, the corporation that manages the Enterprise Center, provides many services for start-up companies that involve assisting businesses with community networking, identifying and developing competitive advantages for companies, developing a network of business contacts for companies and many more.

As the city of Oxford continues to grow, Kelly credits the growth to the rise of entrepreneurship as more people are looking towards Oxford to start-up businesses.

“It’s absolutely been amazing! I have been here for eight and a half years now, and I will say that over the past three to four years, the entrepreneurship in Oxford has just exploded…Oxford in general is just a great place for entrepreneurs to come,” Kelly said.

For more infromation regarding the Oxford Enterprise Center, go to www.northmiss.org, email Kelly at holly@northmiss.org, or call 662-281-0720.

Logan Frost is a journalism student at Meek School of Journalism and New Media. He can be reached at lcfrost@go.olemiss.edu.

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