Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneurship’

Symbols of Entrepreneurial Spirit

February 26th, 2010

I believe in the power of symbols.  The wind turbines we put up in Miner County back in 2001 served as a symbol of inspiration as we “reimagined” the future of our rural community.  They became a powerful visible reminder of the work we were trying to accomplish.

I was reminded of the power of symbols yesterday during two presentations at the Launch10, an entrepreneurship conference by Dakota Wesleyan University.  The first reminder came from keynote speaker Sheena Lindahl, and the second came from three young South Dakota entrepreneurs, Matt Douglas, Matt Smart, and Lezlie Kaitfors.  Both presentation offered symbols of entrepreneurship and success for the largely college-aged crowd in attendance — but in very different ways.

Sheena’s presentation revolved around taking limited resources and turning them into something big.  To make her point, she drew on her personal story of growing up in poverty in rural New Hampshire (or Vermont, I forget which). 

Sheena described herself as an average high school student who always wanted to go to New York City, despite being afraid of it.  Facing her fears (a common theme throughout the day), Sheena enrolled at New York University and hopped on the bus for NYC - even though she didn’t have the money to pay for the semester.  Through determination and hard work, she consistently overcame every obstacle put in her path.  Today she’s a Gen Y entrepreneur rock star. She’s definitely someone every young person in the audience can aspire to become.

While a symbol herself, what struck me most about her presentation was how NYC served as the symbol that inspired her.  She was going to “make it” in New York City, and that thought drove her.  

Although unintentional, I’m afraid that young people in the audience may also interpreted NYC as a symbol for success.  In other words, they have to go off to the big city to achieve their dreams of entrepreneurial success.  Maybe that’s just my interpretation, and I know Sheena didn’t intend it.  But as a rural community fanatic, I worry about the constant messaging that preaches this idea.

Personally, I was more inspired by the round table involving the young South Dakota entrepreneurs.  After briefly highlighting their personal stories, the session turned into a question and answer period.  In contrast to other speakers during the day, these three entrepreneurs were not polished presenters who made their living telling others how to become entrepreneurs.  They shared an authentic and inspirational message about what it’s like to be young South Dakotan entrepreneurs. 

I was particularly struck by how well they answered a question about what South Dakota high schools should be doing to help develop future entrepreneurs.  I want to share their responses with you:

Through these and other answers, the three reminded the audience that young people don’t have to go out of state to be successful entrepreneurs.  That’s a message that excited me!

But what’s more powerful?  Images of NYC or stories of young people?  I’m afraid that NYC’s visibility is naturally more powerful.  I guess that’s where Sheena’s message of overcoming adversity comes back into play.  Those of us with a passion for South Dakota have a responsibility to share stories of successful South Dakota entrepreneurs. 

In the future, we’ll try to do a better job of that here at ReImagine Rural.

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Posted in Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural | Comments (1)

Still wondering “what if…?”

February 25th, 2010

How do entrepreneurs find the inspiration to start their ventures?  And where do entrepreneurs turn to find the resources necessary to grow their businesses.  Those are poignant questions for rural community leaders. Obviously there are no simple answers, but I’m hoping to better understand the opportunities surrounding them at the Launch10 Conference at Dakota Wesleyan University today.  It’s a conference that brings entrepreneurs, college students, educators, and community members together to talk about their futures. 

While talking to Jim Beddow about the Launch10 Conference a couple weeks ago, I learned that fellow Wesleyan alumnus, Eric Pulse is part of new business venture in Kimball, SD (pop. 745). Thinking that he might have an interesting perspective on these questions, I gave Eric a call, and we chatted about his venture, The Original Kimball Popcorn Ball. It turns out he had a lot to share.

I’d really hoped to share the story about the startup of this rural business in greater detail today, but time just hasn’t cooperated.  I do, however, want to share one piece of advice Eric had to offer. 

Before ending our call, I asked Eric what advice he had for entrepreneurs.  He responded, “Don’t be the person who sits back and wonders in ten years, what if…?”

Sage advice.  I think it speaks to rural communities as well, which brings us back to why I’m attending the Launch10 conference.

There are lots of models for supporting entrepreneurs.  Littleton, CO’s Economic Gardening process and the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s E2 model come to mind.  But communities leaders, like business leaders, can’t sit back and wait for entrepreneurs to appear and then expect them to be successful on their own.  Instead we’ve got to be intention and be prepared to support them.  Or else in ten years, we’re going to be the one’s wondering “what if…?”

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Pumping Sunshine: the Ord, NE way

February 23rd, 2010

Have you been thinking about developing a blog as a part of your community development strategy?  If so, I highly encourage you to check out Ord Pumping Sunshine, a blog published by Caleb Pollard, Executive Director of Valley County Economic Development & the Ord Area Chamber of Commerce.

I’ve never met Caleb in person, but I’ve been familiar with Ord, Nebraska since the late 1990s when both Ord and Howard were active with the Rural School and Community Trust.  Since that time, I’ve been impressed with the community’s entrepreneur support system and continued investment in young people.   There’s no doubt they are one of the rock stars in rural community development. 

Caleb has been the executive director of the chamber and development group for about a year and one-half.  He brings with him experience with sales and marketing in the technology and health care fields, which might explain his zeal for blogging.  Caleb recently answered the following questions for me, which I hope will inspire more rural communities to recognize the value that blogging offers. 

 

What’ the purpose of Ord Sunshine Pumping, and why use a blogging platform?

First, I love to write, especially about issues involving rural development.  It’s my passion and I find blogging is a great way to share a story about rural issues.  I feel we have a great story to share in Ord, because of the tremendous success we’ve had in the last 10 years and blogging is such a great social tool to share it with, like communities facing the same issues we’ve had.  Since we’ve had this great success, blogging makes it easy to take those models, ideas, examples and overall rural economic philosophy and share it with the world.

More importantly, however, is the that the blog allows me a direct conversation with my community, in a dynamic and social way, to weave the “what” of what we are doing with the “why” of its importance.  There is no filter, and with social media like a blog, you can connect it to a greater whole and then you begin to see why the work we accomplish in Ord is so important to all rural communities.

We often hear from community leaders who say they don’t have time for writing on a blog. How do you deal with time issues?

Everyone has time.  Saying they don’t have time is a total cop-out.  Many people don’t like to write, and that’s totally okay.  But using the “I don’t have time” routine is just an easy way out.  As for blogging, I find it is a great outlet for me to tell our story.  But making time is about prioritizing my schedule to make it work.  Plus, blogging cuts down on a ton of extra time I spend with press releases to local and statewide media, along with our monthly, quarterly and annual reporting.  Blogging actually saves me time.  Prioritizing my schedule means something has to lose or it’s delegated to one of my staff.  I’m blessed to have great staff that gives me the ability to dedicate my time to blogging.  Plus, I find when you’re passionate about something, getting it done isn’t too tough.

When did you start the blog and what have you learned about the process of operating a community blog since then?

I’ve been blogging on and off for about 6-7 years now, and our current blog has been in operation for a little over a year.  What have I learned?  First, building a robust conversation about *positive* things is much harder than talking about the negative.  Second, finding local contributors that are willing to take on the workload of actually doing the writing is difficult.  I’d love to have more contributors on our blog and we’re just starting to expand our efforts this year.  I anticipate having 2 additional contributors by year’s end, but like you said above, it’s a time sink.

Finally, I think honesty is appreciated.  While I’m the Chamber dude, and pumping sunshine is part of my modus operandi, being honest about my love for rural communities, especially in Nebraska, has won our blog a lot of fans.  Authenticity counts BIG TIME.

Do you have any stories that exemplify the impact the blog has had on your work?

Yes, two specifically.  First, in Spring of 2009 I wrote an innocuous post about wine tasting in Central Nebraska.  While some of the wine aficionados may bat an eye at this, we really do have some fab wineries in Central Nebraska and their wine is pretty darn competitive to what I’ve had out of Chile or Napa.  Seriously.  This one post here earned us a lot of publicity.  A writer from NPR happened to be driving through the Great Plains and picked up on the blog post and bam!  We had national coverage.  The piece ran on NPR here: 

The other post I would say exemplifies our “what” and “why” would be this post on our 100 new business in Valley County (and Ord) since 2000.  Of those 100, 78 are still in business, lending to the power of dedicated economic gardening.  We spend a lot of time and effort grooming entrepreneurs and building supportive programs to keep their businesses in operation.  To say we’ve seen 100 new businesses in a county of 4500 and a community of 2200 is straight amazing.  That post can be found here.

Photo Description:  The above photo show FFA students from Ord H.S. who participated in a project with the local economic development group and an ethanol plant.  It’s an example of Ord’s continued commitment to engage the youth in their community.

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Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (1)

Is your community ready for social media?

February 2nd, 2010

Last night Lindsey and I engaged in a little social media training for residents in Miner County, SD.  During our session, we noted the changing landscape of advertising, and cited Pepsi’s withdrawal from its traditional advertising during the Super Bowl in favor of sponsoring a community grant program called the Pepsi Refresh Project as an example.  Marketing and advertising is definitely going “social.”

This morning, I hopped onto Facebook to find an update from Mark Rembert at Energize Clinton County who recommended people support a project in the Pepsi Refresh grant contest called Studio H. Learning of the project has inspired me to include the video explaining the project below.  

 

Combine design thinking, vocational trade training, and community citizenship in a youth engagement project — all within a high school setting.  The image of design:SD on steroids comes to mind.  If you agree, I hope you will vote for the project on the Pepsi Refresh page.

Reflecting on this project has created a couple thoughts that I’d like to share.

First, I hope rural communities are inspired by the Studio H project to develop their own youth engagement projects.  I love the idea of combining design and construction training in a community project.  But each community is different, and youth engagement projects need to meet the needs of both young people and the community.     

Second, I hope the Pepsi Refresh Project helps people see how marketing is becoming “social.”  The idea of taking money that previously directed at advertising and using it to engage your customer base is a great way to build a stronger brand.  It’s caused me to think more about how small, rural communities might use online contests as a part of their branding efforts.  (Note:  There are issues with “crowdsourced” contests of this nature, as is highlighted here.) 

And finally, I hope that the Pepsi Refresh Project helps rural residents and community development practitioners understand the importance of delivering social media training to people in rural communities.  I loved the idea advance by David Becker at the Friend of the Farmer blog to develop a social media training program for rural farmers.  (I shared my thoughts in greater detail in this post.)  The idea, along with support from local extension educator Jim Krantz, caused Lindsey and I share the presentation (which I’ve embedded below) with Miner County residents last night.      

Social Media 101
View more presentations from Rural Learning Center.

Our presentation is intended as an overview of social media.  Beginning February 15th and continuing each Monday through March, we will offer hands on training for specific tools like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.  If you are a Miner County resident and are interested in this training, I’d encourage you to contact the Miner County Extension office. 

If you are a rural community outside Miner County, I’d encourage you to answer the question:  Are people in our rural community interested in using social media?  If the answer is “yes,” I hope you find a way to bring training to your community.

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Nurturing an Entrepreneurial Generation

January 18th, 2010

We know that Gen Y is an entrepreneurial generation.  But what can we do to take advantage of this opportunity in our rural communities?    

While thinking about the above, I felt inspired to compile a list of 5 Thoughts about Entrepreneurship, as it applies to young people.  While not particularly profound, I think the value of the list is that it speaks to the importance of events like Launch ‘10 that connect entrepreneurship, education, and community involvement:

Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, SD created the Launch Conference five years ago with the goals of accomplishing much of what I’ve described in the list above.  This year, their one-day conference features keynote addresses from Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour (EET) co-founder Sheena Lindahl and EET facilitator Arel Moodie (two highly accomplished young entrepreneurs); and Dr. Kay Palan, the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at Iowa State University.

One of the things I like about the conference is that it brings together entrepreneurs, faculty, and community development professionals.  It fits well with the Rural Learning Center’s guiding principle that “It’s all connected.”

I have the date of this year’s conference (Feb 25th) marked on my calendar.  If you’d like to learn more or register for the conference, I’d encourage you to check out the conference website by clicking here or by clicking on the advertisement in the right sidebar.

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School lunch programs gone “local”

January 4th, 2010

While grocery shopping for Christmas, I picked up some delicious looking strawberries.  It’s difficult to grow fresh strawberries during South Dakota’s harsh winter, and I suspected these strawberries had been grown on a hydroponic farm in some distant land. Unfortunately, their flavor fell far short of my already low expectations, and I suspect their nutritional value wasn’t far behind. 

With this disappointment fresh in my mind, I caught a tweet from Deb Brown at DebWorks.  She shared an interesting article describing how the Independence (IA) School District has embraced the local foods movement in an effort to both improve the nutritional value of their school lunches and to education young people about healthy living.    (Source:  “School lunch goes local,” Iowa Farmer Today, 12-23-09)

The school district is a part of the Iowa Farm to School Initiative.  They purchase locally grown produce, and prepare it at their kitchen.  In an effort to help young people understand what healthy eating is all about and where their food comes from, the school has also developed an educational component. 

Not only am I impressed with the efforts because it should lead to healthier eating for young people, but also because it stimulates the local economy.  Granted it must take a little extra effort to prepare the fruits and vegetables, but I’m sure the school’s kitchen workers appreciate the extra hours and accompanying wages.

There’s been a growing movement lately to discredit local foods initiatives.  The theory goes that mass producing foods and shipping them across the country leads to greater economic efficiencies.  But as a recent Business Week article titled “Entrepreneurs Keep the Local Food Movement Hot” reports, local foods initiatives play a more critical role in economic development than most people realize. 

After conducting a quick internet search for the Farm to School Initiative, I’ve concluded there’s not much happening in South Dakota’s schools.  If true, that’s disappointing. 

Good nutrition and a little economic development.  That’s something that could benefit all of our rural communities. 

Photo credit:  back_garage - Flickr

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What do your local businesses think?

December 18th, 2009

You probably know from previous posts, that I believe it’s important to support both “buy local” efforts and local entrepreneurship. The Miner County Cash Flow Study has been the most successful effort to support local buying in Miner County, SD to date.  The study involved high school students surveying county residents about their spending habits and then sharing the results with the public in an effort to help community members understand their impact on the local economy.  While reading this article in the Ames Tribune, I began to wonder if the tables couldn’t have been turned, with students surveying local entrepreneurs concerning how the community could support their businesses.

Titled “Chamber, AEDC, Young Professionals gear up for retail business survey,” the article describes a joint effort by the Ames Chamber of Commerce, Ames Economic Development Commission, and the Young Professionals of Ames to survey local entrepreneurs and business owners.

I like two aspects of the survey.  First, it appears that the community organizations really care about what small businesses think about their community.  Second, they are engaging the Young Professional Group in the effort. 

Whether it’s surveying local residents concerning spending habits or surveying local entrepreneurs for their thoughts on community issues, I’d advocate that small, rural communities should engage their high school students rather than hiring outside firms to do everything for them. In the long run, it will be more meaningful to everyone involved.

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5 Ways Rural Communities can get ready for Gen Y

December 11th, 2009

This is the 3rd in a series of posts offering my thoughts about an article Gwendolyn Bounds wrote for the Wall Street Journal titled “Green Acres is the Place to be.” Her article highlights a small but hopefully growing trend of young people moving to rural places.  When I started writing, I only intended one article.  But the story continues to garnish my attention. (You can read previous post here and here.)           

The people highlighted in the Bounds’ article all purchased small tracts of land in Rural America. They are raising animals, growing crops, and hunting animals for food. It’s interesting to me that none decided to live in a town or hamlet. 

I think I understand why these young people, called Gen Y, are attracted to purchasing a house and land in the countryside, and I think it’s a good thing - at least in the Midwest, where the countryside has been depopulated.  I do recognize the potential problems around urban sprawl and the conflict between hobby farms and production agriculture.  But in general, I think the positives outweigh the negatives in my part of the country. 

I also think there’s an opportunity for small, rural towns to position themselves as places where Gen Y wants to move. Previously, I’ve written about that subject in a series of posts tagged “attracting college educated.” Regardless of whether they live in town or outside, however, I think there are things that rural communities can do to prepare for and maximize the movement of younger people to Rural America.   And I’d like to share my thoughts on that subject below.

 

5 tips for preparing your community for a Gen Y

Following the theme of understanding the characteristics of Gen Y, I’d recommend rural communities consider the following activities:

1) Help create economic opportunities. Yesterday, I highlighted that individuals moving to rural places were seeking a variety of opportunities. The subject is mute if economic opportunities for the rural transplants don’t exist. To some people that means rural communities need to recruit businesses for new job growth. And that’s good strategy for some communities. But I’ve long been a fan of entrepreneurship training programs, like economic gardening. Developing and marketing a good entrepreneurship program could be a boon for attracting Gen Y. After all, Gen Y is known to be very entrepreneurial. (Read more about Gen Y’s entrepreneurial tendencies here and here.) 

2) Make sure your community has third places that help introduce newcomers. We’ve talked previously about the importance of pubs, coffee shops, cafes, and community centers that function as “informal meeting places where community is built.” (Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place) If you don’t believe me, check out this blog produced by Gwendolyn Bounds about a little pub in Garrison, NY. Bounds credits the sense of community she experienced while visiting the pub as part of the reason she moved to the region from NYC. 

3) Develop good broadband internet capacities and wi-fi hot spots. No doubt about it; Gen Y is very techy. In fact, some experts say young people look at technology like cell phones and other wireless devices as extensions of themselves. That’s hard concept for many older people to grasp, but not having good Internet access in your rural community will drive young people crazy - and possibly somewhere else.

4) Help young people figure out “What am I going to do in this town?” In case you haven’t noticed, Gen Y is very social. Granted, some of that social activity is on-line, but they love to get together for a good time as well. That’s what led college student Morgan Andenas to write a blog post last summer titled “What am I suppose to do in this town?” in which she recommends inviting young people to be a part of community projects that include social opportunities. Another idea for helping young people fit in can be accomplished by creating Young Professional Groups.

5) Rethink how you “engage” Gen Y in your community. Too often, older generations treat young adults like kids, which is a real turn-off to them. They firmly believe they have something valuable to contribute, and are sometimes offended when you don’t ask them to do so. I still think this post titled “How to Engage Gen Y in Rural Communities” is an excellent guide for any person or organization that wants to make younger people feel a part of their organization or community. Younger people today want to feel valuable.

 

Before wrapping up this post, I’d like to make one more point.  I realize that most small town residents in the Midwest and Great Plains probably don’t believe there’s a significant opportunity to attract Gen Y to rural communities through entrepreneurship, third places, technology and engagement.  I too have some doubts about it growing into a full-fledged movement.  But I do believe we can make our rural communities more attractive to younger people if we are intentional in our efforts.  In fact, I believe that’s something we have to do in order to have a future at all. 

And if you want a proof that intentional efforts of this nature can be successful, take a look at what they are doing at Energize Clinton County in Wilmington, Ohio.  Their efforts are already starting to attract Gen Y.

Photo Credit: Daquella manera - Flickr 

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Posted in Agriculture, Economic Development, In the News, Rural, Rural Life | Comments (2)

Will Rural America be left behind?

December 3rd, 2009

It’s common for bloggers to capture provocative quotes from newspapers and use them to start a little controversy.  At ReImagine Rural, we’re not about controversy, but I couldn’t let the following quote from Dr. Frank Fear go by without comment:

“Will rural America be left behind?” he asked. “Will small towns, farms and places that have spawned so many things that have made this country great be left behind?” (source:  “Michigan State University prepares to dismantle extension,” Capital Press.)

Dr. Fear, senior associate dean of agriculture and natural resources at Michigan State, made this statement at the National Grange Annual Convention in response to budgetary cuts that could cause the termination of Michigan’s Extension program. 

The article, from which the above quote appears, goes on to note that agriculture in Michigan is currently doing pretty well while the rest of the state’s economy is in shambles.  In doing so, it raises the question, “Does Michigan need to divert the resources from supporting agriculture to other economic development activities?”

I obviously don’t know the intimate details about Michigan, so I can’t offer definitive answers on what they should be doing. 

I hope that we never see the end of Michigan’s extension program, or any states’ for that matter.  From what I know about the goings on in Van Buren County, MI, Extension is a key player in their entrepreneurship initiative.  Removing the funding from Extension to recreate it someplace else would seem a senseless waste of resources.   

As for Fear’s question?  In my opinion, Rural America has been left behind for a long time - at least in our part of the country. 

 

 Other resources
“Dismantling Extension in Michigan” Timothy J. Shaffer (blog) -
Press Release: “Sustain the Legacy. Keep Agriculture and Rural America Vital,” The National Grange 

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Rachel responds from South Haven

November 24th, 2009

We’ve placed a little focus on Michigan lately.  Last week, Randy offered some thoughts about his work at the Summit:09 conference  in South Haven, Michigan.  This week Rachel Vochaska, Executive Director of the South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce shares some of her thoughts the event as well as the community’s plans to spur entrepreneurship. 

 

Interview with Rachel Vochaska

We’ve been hearing a lot about Michigan in the news over the last year, but most of the news focuses on Detroit and the collapse of the automobile industry.  What is happening in South Haven and other rural communities in Michigan? 

While the South Haven area has a well diversified manufacturing base, it has been impacted by the collapse of the auto industry and the community has suffered a significant loss of jobs.  Over a period of close to 24 months, Nobel International closed two local plants with 250 employees each.  To our favor though, the diverse nature of manufacturing in the area coupled with a number of companies who are engineering innovative solutions provides us relative stability even in this downturned economy. 

At the Chamber we are receiving numerous small business development inquiries and we are providing triage services to best meet the needs of local entrepreneurs.  We have created an inventory of services and resources for those interested in starting a small business and based on the nature of the inquiry we are plugging folks into counseling services through SCORE and the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC).  Enrollment has reached capacity at our local community college and Michigan Works! is providing a heightened level of assistance to those who have been dislocated or who are unemployed.

We are assisting our second stage entrepreneurs in a number of ways.  We have provided leadership retreats through the Edward Lowe Foundation with the goal of encouraging peer learning and mentoring while developing leadership skills.  We continue to engage about 12 companies in this leadership development process to the benefit of the region.  We have connected in with the SBTDC who have deployed services through their Growth Group to help businesses with restructuring and identifying product diversification opportunities.  We are working with our regional Procurement Technical Assistance Center to encourage businesses to consider diversifying their customer orientation by engaging in government contracting.  Our residential companies are sticking in there, staying loyal to the area, and doing what they need to do to ride the storm out.

Being a lake-side resort oriented community well located to Chicago and other metro areas, the downturn in the economy has actually benefited many of our local businesses especially those in the hospitality industry (lodging and restaurants).  South Haven is a cost-effective, fun loving destination for both regional and out-of-state visitors.  We are working diligently in developing shoulder and off-season events and activities that will continue to draw people even during the slower months.  We are gearing up our agri-tourism sector and beginning to package not just the great natural amenities associated with Lake Michigan - the lake, white-sand beaches, our river, and the lighthouse, to name a few - but also the adventure of returning to the farm or even visiting a farm for the first time. 

With manufacturing, agriculture and tourism as the our primary supporters and our economic base, an optimism continues to prevail and entrepreneurs recognize that our abundant natural resources coupled with our ideal mid-west location positions the South Haven area as a great place to live, work, and play!      

As the Director of the South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce, your job entails supporting economic growth and opportunities in the greater South Haven area.  What are some of the initiatives you are working on that will help you achieve this mission? 

The membership of the South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce is truly representative of small business, with 68% employing four or less employees and 85% of Chamber members having 10 or less employees.  Services provided by the Chamber have been geared appropriately with small business development opportunities through programming and networking events being provided through the Chamber’s annual program of work. 

In addition these traditional services provided by the Chamber, in 2007 our Board re-defined our direction into economic development.  We embarked upon a project to identify the resources and tools available to people interested in starting a small business.  What we found out was that we didn’t lack the services or products that entrepreneurs needed to get started and to even grow their business, we lacked an effective system to inform entrepreneurs about what was available and then to deploy the resources they needed.  We found that small business development service providers and entrepreneurial support organizations were acting in isolation, and as a result of these silos the customer (the entrepreneur) wasn’t being well served.  So we set out with a mission “to provide a supportive and systematic approach to small business development that will spur economic revitalization and encourage sustainability in Van Buren County”, marking the birth of BRACE: Business Resources & Counseling for Entrepreneurs!

 

Last week, you held Summit: 09 — How Regional Cooperation Sustains Entrepreneurial Development.  What is Summit:09 and why did you ask Randy to come out and speak at it? 

Summit: 09 was a high caliber learning opportunity for community leaders, business people and citizens who have a desire to engage in making a difference (transforming Michigan!).  With a focus on regional cooperation and entrepreneurship, our goal was to bring folks into the room to hear about what the Rural Learning Center (RLC) is doing and to continue to motivate the shift in working across borders in cultivating our talent - simply said, coming together to grow our own.  At the Chamber, we understand the importance of economic gardening versus the traditional economic model of hunting (recruitment and attraction).  As a result, the Board of Directors has set a vision for our organization that focuses on entrepreneurship.  We have lead the charge to develop a county-wide initiative that provides assistance to entrepreneurs in taking their dream to fruition.  We are working collaboratively in establishing a supportive and systematic approach to small business development.  When we heard about the work of RLC we were intrigued, and we knew that we had much to learn from the Miner County experience.  Randy brought a humility to the topic and to summit, and our shared vision associated with the potential of rural economic development made him a perfect fit with our program and the direction we are heading.

We believe that it is greater than that though.  Given both the similarities and differences between our communities, we are excited about embarking upon a journey to further develop our relationship with the RLC.  We plan to advance our work by sharing intellectual property and resources via distance learning capabilities.  Who knows, maybe Miner County and Van Buren County will become a great example of interstate cooperation given this new relationship between RLC and the South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce!             

What are some of the most important things you learned from the speakers at the conference? 

Coming together with a vision and a plan seemed to be a central tenet of Randy’s presentation.  It was a good affirmation for us as we look at our own economic development efforts.  Early on in our BRACE initiative we spent a lot of time sitting around the table identifying the direction and determining who needed to be involved.  Eighteen months ago we conducted a very effective Appreciative Inquiry process that laid the foundation for our vision and our program of work (strategic action items), and next month we will re-visit the strategic planning process and determine our direction for the next 18 months.

As a result of Randy’s presentation, we have 2 communities mobilizing efforts to work through the schools by using students to conduct a community survey.  I loved Randy’s Cashflow Analysis and remain hopeful that we can carry his survey process to the next level and show true benefit to our communities relative to buying locally.

With the good also come the tough times.  Randy did a great job of not just showcasing the successes, he was also willing to reveal the struggles that Miner County and the RLC have experienced.  The audience connected at a deeper level in recognizing and appreciating that we grow stronger and gain insight through this adversity.

 

Note:  Rachel offers an interesting idea:  “We are excited about embarking upon a journey to further develop our relationship with the RLC….  Who knows, maybe Miner County and Van Buren County will become a great example of interstate cooperation.”

It is always fun to speculate on where new relationships will take us.  Connecting with the folks in Van Buren County offers great possibilities.  Where that goes is yet to be defined.  At a bare minumum, however, we all have an opportunity to learn from the entrepreneurial efforts being developed in Van Buren County. Through BRACE, it would appear that the folks in Van Buren County are ahead of most of us in this part of the country in their efforts to bring business assistance providers together and create a systematic approach to small business development.   Hopefully, we get a chance to continue that conversation.

Photo Credits:Kelly Weber at Through Kelly’s Eyes www.throughkellyseyes.com

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