The primary goal of the Perquimans County Entrepreneur Network is to assist small businesses to be the major source of new jobs for the County in the future.  Currently, most of these efforts are focused on helping existing small businesses grow and/or survive during these tough economic times.  Where applicable, the Network also assists people who are interested in starting new businesses.

The Entrepreneur Network consists of the following partnership organizations:

• Perquimans County
• Town of Hertford
• Perquimans County Chamber of Commerce
• The Albemarle Commission
• Historic Hertford, Inc.
• College of the Albemarle [COA] Small Business Center
• Elizabeth City State University’s Small Business Technology & Development Center [SBTDC]
• River City Community Development Association/Northeast North Carolina Regional Entrepreneurship Coordinator [Erika Ramjohn]

To date, the majority of activities of the network have been focused on training/development activities supported by COA and SBTDC and assisting small businesses in accessing applicable federal and state loan/grant funds.

A new initiative of the Network is to provide support for existing and new downtown Hertford businesses and to assist the Town of Hertford in establishing an entrepreneurial environment as part of the Hertford’s waterfront redevelopment initiative.