Eastern North Carolina is open for business, thanks to a growing generation of entrepreneurs who've chosen to call Rocky Mount home. Helping to foster that independent spirit is the NorthEastern Entrepreneurial Roundtable. Composed of representatives from some of the region's foremost companies, NEER supports and recognizes entrepreneurs who own businesses in Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash and Wilson Counties.

"The purpose of NEER is two-fold in that the business community is exposed to the entrepreneur and vice versa," says B. Mayo Boddie, Sr., founder and chairman of NEER. A successful entrepreneur himself, Boddie and fellow advisory council members provide a range of services from legal and financial advice to marketing and human resources information to help young companies flourish.

NEER also seeks out the most promising start-ups in the region, recognizing them publicly and at their annual banquet. The much-anticipated event includes an awards presentation and a video tribute honoring each of the four nominees. The program has helped boost countless homegrown start-ups like Rocky Mount-based WebPoint IT Solutions.

Named a NEER finalist in 2010, the tech-savvy company has become one of the fastest-growing IT solution providers in the region. What started as the internal IT division of Rawls & Winstead Inc., became a stand-alone company with the creation of WebPoint IT Solutions. Today, the IT provider's Managed Service Division is up more than 500 percent with monthly proactive customer support provided to more than 100 customers, innovative custom software development and continued service as an internal IT department to its sister companies.

Bill Long, III, vice president and chief operating officer of WebPoint IT Solutions, says Eastern North Carolina has been an ideal place to set up shop.

"Because Rocky Mount is still a fairly small town a lot of the business owners know each other, and it's just a fun collaboration to interact with these people," Long says.

Advisory board member Don Williams has been with NEER since the organization's inception, and says the group is constantly searching out the community for entrepreneurs who have worked hard and gone outside the box. Nominees for Entrepreneur of the Year are judged based on creative and visionary approaches taken to building the company, a positive change in the company's finances or employment levels, contributions to the community and the amount of risk taken in pursuing the objectives of his business.

"NEER is very unique in that there's nothing else like it in this part of the state," Williams says. "It serves as an inspiration to the business community as a whole, and encourages people who are thinking about starting a business to go ahead and take that risk."