What does it take to build a business in Kentucky?

Those with personal experience are sharing their perspectives with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

The latest community engagement session was held Tuesday in Bowling Green.

Laura Rogers brings us more from Warren County.

Every single community county in the state of Kentucky have some great things going on, and.

Many of those great things start with entrepreneurial spirit.

I think there is always opportunity for entrepreneurial expansion in the state.

Peg Hayes is founder of Casey Jones Distillery, and Christian County is one of dozens of Western Kentucky entrepreneurs sharing the challenges and opportunities for business growth with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

How to make that happen?

How to get people involved.

Keep them involved.

Stay involved.

We are having a lot of these conversations here locally in Bowling Green in Warren County about how to grow and nurture our entrepreneurial ecosystem.

And so it was interesting to hear that other parts of the Commonwealth are having the same discussions.

They experience some of the same challenges.

Access to capital is one of those challenges.

Struggling a lot with finding folks who are based in Kentucky who are willing to invest in their companies, and so they're having to go out of state to attract a lot of investment.

The chamber plans to use what they learn at these community engagement sessions for a research report, much like they've done on tax reform, housing and childcare.

Those reports that formed the foundations for major policy change in the state.

Business leaders also say hiring can be a challenge.

Nearly half of them pointed to access to talented and skilled labor as a barrier to their growth.

Where does it all start?

Where do these important leaders within our community, within our country?

Where do they begin?

Young people.

James Anna Soto is a high school senior in Glasgow with her own photography business.

My father passed away when I was young, and today some of the only things I have left of him are photographs.

She's also an ambassador for the Governor's School for entrepreneurs.

The youth of Kentucky is the future.

It can be scary investing in young people.

You may hire some people who may not take the job seriously, but then you may hire some people who absolutely take everything you give them.

Grasp it, and run with it.

Upon completing her college education, Soto wants to bring her passion and talents back home to Barron County.

I've seen the growth in my community and I want to be a part of this community.

One day I want to help my town become something bigger.

The room included a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and businesses.

A founder and CEO of Sunnyside Egg Company.

Patrick Samuels raises regenerative pasteurized eggs and Christian County.

We use mobile chicken coops that we rotate around fresh pastures.

And so rather than destroying the land, were actually improving the land, sequestering carbon from the environment.

He has scaled that business in a relatively short amount of time.

We started with 300 chickens in my backyard about a year and a half ago.

We have 25,000 across 12 partner farms now.

We think it's important that we get the perspective of both urban entrepreneurs, but also rural entrepreneurs in different parts of the state.

So that way when we're thinking about solutions and how to make the state stronger for entrepreneurism, we can capture as many of those perspectives as possible.

These community engagement sessions are being held all across the state.

The next one planned for Eastern Kentucky.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

These sessions are part of the Kentucky Chamber's initiative called Start Here, Grow Here.

Strengthening Kentucky's entrepreneurial economy.