Posts Tagged ‘Prince Edward Island’

4 Reasons to Interview Entrepreneurs

May 26th, 2010

Have you ever thought about conducting video interviews with entrepreneurs in your rural community and posting them to YouTube?

One organization to do just this is the Prince Edward/Lennox & Addington Community Futures Development Corporation (PELA CFDC).  I recently stumbled across a video interview (embedded below) with the owners of the Prince Edward County Lavender Farm.  It led me to discover a series of interviews with entrepreneurs on the PELA CFDC YouTube channel. 

PELA CFDC is a community based non-profit corporation focused on encouraging entrepreneurship and economic development. 

I’m not sure what goals PELA intended for the videos, but I’d offer the following 4 reasons your rural community should strongly consider interviewing entrepreneurs and uploading them to YouTube. 

1) Entrepreneurs deserve all the attention they can get. Being an entrepreneur is no easy task, and rural communities often forget to celebrate them. This is one easy way for you to help them receive the attention they deserve.

2) Asking their stories will help connect the entrepreneur to your community. Hugh Weber does a nice job of explaining how this works in a post titled “When their story becomes your story.” Hugh tells the story of being interviewed by Mutual of Omaha last summer, and explains how he “developed a fondness” for the company as a result of sharing his story with them. I think enabling entrepreneurs to share their stories will produce similar results. (source: Hugh Weber, “When their story becomes your story: Mutual of Omaha’s AHA moment,’ We Discover Stories, April 28, 2010.)

3) It’s a great way to showcase entrepreneurship as a part of your community’s brand. Many communities try to sell this concept by telling people, “Entrepreneurs love our community because we’re a great place to do business.” I’m seldom convinced. I’d much prefer to hear stories from the entrepreneurs themselves.

4) It’s easier to accomplish than you think. PELA CFDC hired a production company for their project and the videos definitely were well done. If hiring a production company is something you can’t afford, I’d encourage you to produce the videos yourself. Purchase (or borrow) a high resolution video camera, find a computer with free or low-cost video editing software, and teach yourself to produce a video. I’ve learned how to do it myself…and if I can do it, anyone can.

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Posted in Community Engagement, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (3)