Wealth of Resources
Minnesota is an all-around competitive business location with access to a spectrum of resources.
- Minnesota�s financial resources play a vital role in ensuring business growth and economic development
- Technical businesses resources are available to new and existing businesses
- Rural Minnesota is blessed with fertile land and mineral resources
Minnesota�s financial resources play a vital role in ensuring business growth and economic development
Minnesota businesses benefit from wide variety of capital sources including loans, stock offerings and
venture capital. In addition, a variety of federal, state and local programs are available to support business financing.
- In 2005, Minnesota 444 FDIC-insured commercial banks held loans and leases valued at $8.0 billion to commercial and industrial businesses, ranking 18th nationwide, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
- Rain Source Capital builds local capacity to make angel equity investments a reality by organizing RAIN funds in communities throughout Minnesota. RAIN funds are a series of formal investment funds that pool intellectual and financial resources to provide seed and growth equity capital for emerging companies in their communities.
- In 2005, Minnesota companies issued $480.5 million in IPO, ranking 21st nationwide, according to Thomson Financial.
- Minnesota firms received nearly $228 million in venture capital investment in 2005, ranking 16th nationwide and second in the Midwest.
- Minnesota surpassed all other Midwest states in venture capital investments per capita ($44 per capita) in 2005, ranking 17th nationwide.
- Medical devices and equipment industries received nearly $92 million in venture capital investments in 2005, or about 41 cents of every venture capital dollar in Minnesota.
- Medical devices and biotechnology combined attracted $112 million, or 49 percent of venture capital investments in Minnesota in 2005.
- The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides a full range of loans (up to $1 million) to start and expand small businesses. In fiscal year 2005, the SBA Minneapolis District Office ranked 12th in the nation with $512 million in approved loans, up 21 percent since the previous fiscal year. On per capita basis, Minnesota ranked seventh with $100.
- DEED offers a variety of financial assistance programs to support business financing, such as the Enterprise Zone Program, Minnesota Investment Fund and Minnesota Job Skills Partnership. DEED also offers tax incentives through Minnesota�s Job Opportunity Building Zones (JOBZ) and Bioscience Zones.
Technical businesses resources are available to new and existing businesses
Business incubators encompass a variety of methods that are used in economic development to nurture new, small businesses and are key to business start-ups� success. Incubators offer shared equipment (e.g. telephone answering system) and services (e.g. Internet access, marketing assistance) to help businesses cut costs; experienced management advice and access to professional expertise; and access to capital.
- Minnesota business incubators are about split between non-profit and for-profit incubators, and are located throughout the state, according to a 2001 DEED survey (Hatching Good Ideas).
- University Enterprise Laboratories, Inc., located in the heart of the Saint Paul Bioscience Zone, is a new business incubator that opened in 2005. Covering 125,000 square feet, UEL promotes itself as a collaborative research center that leases lab and office space, as well as equipment, to early-stage bioscience companies. UEL was created through a private-public partnership among the University, the city of Saint Paul, and several corporate partners-led by Xcel Energy and 3M.
- Local Chambers of Commerce, as well as industry associations, offer a wealth of information on business resources, events and other networking and training opportunities.
Rural Minnesota is blessed with fertile land and mineral resources
- Minnesota�s 79,800 farms (2004) covered 27.6 million acres of farmland (2004) and received $9.2 billion from agricultural sales (2003), according to the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- In 2004, Minnesota was among the top producers of agricultural goods. Among all states, Minnesota was:
- The sixth largest producer of crops, the eighth largest producer of livestock and related products, and sixth overall agricultural goods.
- The nation's largest producer of sugar beets, sweet corn and green peas for processing and farm-raised turkeys.
- The second largest producer of spring wheat, canola, and cultivated wild rice.
- One of the top five producers of corn, soybeans, oats, barley, sunflowers, dry edible beans, milk cows, all cheese, honey, flaxseed, milk pelts produced, hogs, pig crop and hogs marketed.
- In 2004, Minnesota shipped more than 75 percent of usable iron ore in the country with an estimated value of $1.6 billion.
- The tremendous increase in iron ore consumption in China during the past decade had little effect on U.S. iron ore production until 2004 when United Taconite � a joint venture of Laiwu Steel Group of China and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. based in Ohio � reopened the operations of the former Eveleth Mines LLC, or EVTAC in northeastern Minnesota.
- Mesabi Nugget plans to use the Kobe Steel ITmk3 Process to turn Mesabi iron ore concentrate into iron nuggets at the world's first commercial iron nugget plant at a site four miles north of Aurora, Minnesota.