Ingenuity among small businesses and entrepreneurs is slowly overcoming the loss of corporate manufacturing jobs in North Carolina, N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall said while on the campaign trail in Waynesville last week.

Marshall is running for her third term as Secretary of State, an office that manages business filings and regulates securities and stock exchanges in the state. During her watch, which spanned the late-1990 boom and the 2000 business slowdown, she has seen a “proliferation” of laid-off workers starting their own companies.

“They have decided to do what they had been doing, but as a consultant and contractor, or turning what used to be their hobby into a business,” Marshall said. “We’re not sitting by taking the blows. People are doing something creative to support themselves.”

The state needs to pave the way for this small-business sector, just as it courts large industry with tax incentives.

“Entrepreneurship isn’t something that’s a birthright. It’s got to be trained and stimulated,” Marshall said. Marshall said the same international competition that is taking away U.S. jobs can be developed into new international markets if small businesses are equipped with the right support resources from the state.

Marshall, a Democrat, ran for U.S. Senate in 2002 but lost in the Democratic primary to Erskine Bowles, who ultimately lost to Republican Elizabeth Dole in the general election. Marshall said Republicans do not have the corner on the business vote or party claims on business-friendly issues.

“I’m tearing down barriers to doing business every day,” Marshall said. Marshall cited her accomplishments in streamlining business filings and eliminating the “geographic barrier” for western counties by enabling them to file all transactions electronically.