Rural Matters

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From SHEILAH ROGERS
Redwood Valley

From the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (the trade association for domestic microenterprise development): On Wednesday, November 18, 2009 Connie Evans, president and CEO of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) participated in President Obama’s Small Business Financing Forum, hosted by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Small Business Administrator Karen Mills held at the Treasury Department. The invitation-only Forum included Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Grady Hedgespeth, SBA Director of Financial Assistance, Gene Sperling, Counselor to the Treasury Secretary, small business owners from around the country including a borrower from a micro lending institution, CDFI leaders, and bankers.

The purpose of the forum was to provide ideas to President Obama on what additional steps the Administration can take to improve access to capital to the small business community. Evans acknowledged the good relationship AEO has with both the SBA and the CDFI, and thanked both Administrator Mills and Secretary Geithner for their inclusion and attention to the smallest of businesses served by the microenterprise development community which includes both CDFIs and SBA Microloan intermediaries. Evans continued with these specific remarks when recognized from the floor:

“Our members are receiving ten times the number of bank referrals for loans per week as compared to before the economic crisis. They are spending more time providing technical assistance in making these loan applications viable. We ask that you allow technical assistance funds

Rural Matters

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From SHEILAH ROGERS
Redwood Valley

From the Rural Entrepreneurship Newsletter:

Global Entrepreneurship Week – November 16-22, 2009
Once again, people around the world are getting ready to celebrate entrepreneurship during Global Entrepreneurship Week, scheduled for November 16-22, 2009. Partner organizations are planning unique events for that week and there are plenty of resources for you to tap in support of a celebration of entrepreneurs – young and old – in your community. To access the many resources the organizers have gathered, go to www.unleashingideas.org.

For one week, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Countries across six continents are coming together to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.

From 16 – 22 November 2009, Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities, from online to face-to-face, and from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings.

Through this initiative, the next generation of entrepreneurs will be inspired and can emerge. In doing so, they will begin to acquire the knowledge, skills and networks needed to grow innovative, sustainable enterprises that have a positive impact on their lives, their families and communities.

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008 was a great success……in 2009, we aim to unleash young people’s ideas around the issues that matter most to society, from poverty reduction through to climate change, and to foster a global culture which recognizes entrepreneurs as drivers of economic and social prosperity.

Seven days, four goals

Inspire. We introduce entrepreneurship to young people under the age of thirty who otherwise might not have considered it as a career path.

Connect. We network young people and organizations across national boundaries to discover new ideas at the intersection of cultures and disciplines.

Rural Matters

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From SHEILAH ROGERS
Redwood Valley

From the Rural Entrepreneurship Newsletter: The Flipside of Brain Drain

In community conversations held by the US Department of Agriculture four years ago, the top-ranked issue across the nation was the exodus of youth, and thus the erosion of people and talent, from rural communities.  Often referred to as “brain drain” in the major media, young people in McCook, Nebraska have given this expression a new, healthier twist.

“When we talk about brain drain, we are referring to young people in focus groups downloading as many ideas as possible about how to improve the community, especially in relationship to youth interests,” explains Dan McCarville, one of the progenitors of the McCook Youth League.

Brain drain, McCook-style, may be the next best tool for reversing outmigration. In our new story, The Flipside of Brain Drain, written by Karen Dabson, you can learn more about how youth in McCook, through their own efforts, are generating activities for young people, gaining the interest and support of the town establishment, and making plans to stay or return as adults. Go here→

Baby Boom Migration and Rural America

The Economic Research Service (ERS) of USDA recently released a very important new study on migration and its potential impacts on rural America.  Our team at the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship has spent quite a bit of time digesting this research and its implications for other related migration research.  If you are interested in this topic, we strongly recommend that you take a look at this work by John Cromartie (ERS) and Peter Nelson (Middlebury College), www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR79/ERR79.pdf.

The focus of this research is on America’s Baby Boom Generation (typically Americans born between 1946 and 1964) and where they are going as they move from “work” to “retirement.”  Bottom line, this research is suggesting that the numbers of Boomers moving to non-adjacent rural counties will rise from 277,000 in the 90s to 362,000 in this decade and to 383,000 in the 2010-2020 decade.  The implications of this trend are huge for rural America.

Rural Matters

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From SHEILAH ROGERS
Redwood Valley

August 18, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino, North California

From “The New Crucible of Innovation”, a presentation by Brian Dabson/RUPRI to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in April, 2009

This is an extraordinary time for rural America to make new contributions to national prosperity in four main areas:

• § Growing and processing food – quantity, quality, and sustainability
• § Energy independence – extractive and renewable
• § Realizing economic value of nature’s services – stewardship
• § Protecting and managing rural experiences – natural, cultural

And the three powerful strategies:

• § Regionalism – cooperation and collaboration across jurisdictions, sectors
• § Assets – building on unique strengths, triple bottom line
• § Entrepreneurship – conversion of assets into economic opportunity

Editorial Comment: The ideas expressed above read like economic developments in Mendocino County during recent decades.  An example of each in order:

• § Farmer’s Markets throughout the county are supplied largely by local small farms and ranches and the diversity of products is growing
• § Feasibility studies are being conducted to assess the potential for biomass and pellet manufacturing
• § If initiated these technologies will contribute to fire safety and forest stewardship

Rural Matters

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From SHEILAH ROGERS
Redwood Valley

July 23, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino County, North California

From the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship: Regional Technology Strategies and its partner in the Alliance for Creative Advantage, Mt. Auburn Associates, has recently completed a series of reports in Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming and North Carolina that show how creativity and creative enterprises help rural regions develop their economies more effectively.

By the creative economy, RTS strays from the pop-economic notion of the “creative class” that too often sees metropolitan areas, with their high concentration of people with advanced degrees, as the only places where creativity is taking place.  Applying the creative economy to a class of workers rather than to an actual set of industries misses a crucial component of economic development. Rather, we define “creativity” to a select group of businesses that produce and distribute goods and services and for which the aesthetic, intellectual and emotional engagement of the consumer adds value to products in the marketplace. This can range to traditional arts and crafts made by residents to high-end manufactured products that depend on design for their appeal.  In particular, we see the creative economy being made up of:
•    Individual artists who are the talent and source of creativity
•    Non-profit cultural institutions and commercial businesses that take the original ideas of these artists

and produce creative goods and services
•    The businesses and institutions that bring the creative products to the marketplace
•    The institutions and commercial businesses that depend on creative talent to survive and prosper
•    The support system that nurtures and sustains the creative economy

Rural Matters

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From SHEILAH ROGERS
Redwood Valley

July 2, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

From the Intuit – IFTF Future of Small Business Project/Third Installment: The New Artisan Economy:

The next ten years will see a re-emergence of artisans as an economic force. Like their medieval predecessors in pre-Industrial Europe and Asia, these next-generation artisans will ply their trade outside the walls of big business, making a living with their craftsmanship and knowledge. But there will also be marked differences.  In many cases, brain will blend with brawns as software and technology replace hard iron and hard labor. Yet in many respects, the result will be the same as it was centuries ago; artisans will craft not only their goods, but shape the economy with an effect reaching far beyond their neighborhoods, even their nations.

Historically, artisans – valued for both their craftsmanship and knowledge – succeeded with skilled hands and savvy mercantilism. Not only did they assemble finished products, they also knew how to put together suppliers, other craftsmen, and ultimately customers. Long before “outsourcing” became popularized, they would turn to others to support parts of their labors. A carriage maker, for example, might purchase wheels from a wheelwright who, in turn, might receive iron rims from a blacksmith.  Much of this outsourced work was done in homes or small, shared shops…………

The new generation of artisans will be amplified versions of their medieval counterparts. They’ll be equipped with advanced technology, able to access global local business partners and customers, and will be capable of competing in any industry. Their firms will be agile, flexible, and will often partner with larger firms to accomplish their business goals. Most will be knowledge artisans, relying on human capital to solve complex problems and develop new ideas, products, services, and business models. These artisans will attract and retain highly skilled and creative talent by offering freedom and flexibility and, in many cases, highly competitive compensation.

Editorial/Connecting the Dots Comment:

Mendocino County is home to many artisans. Some of them already operate as described in the above projection… others will do so, as they spot new opportunities to ‘partner’ with suppliers, investors, new markets… West Company has worked with artisans in Mendocino County from Covelo to Laytonville to Hopland to Ukiah to Boonville to Point Arena to Mendocino to Fort Bragg since 1989, and can concur, that this is one of Mendocino County’s economic engines… it is one that embraces heritage and culture, eco and geo-tourism, and includes a range of small businesses and nonprofits that create individual and family income and jobs for crafters, fine artists, gallery owners, retail shops, wholesalers, exporters, performing artists.

From CAMEO, the California Association for MicroEnterprise Opportunity:  July is declared by the California State Legislature as MicroEnterprise Month in California… let’s celebrate and be customers of our locally owned micro and small businesses that operate in industries that include the arts; diversified health care; organic agriculture, food and beverages; building and systems construction and maintenance – those identified as the North Coast’s Targets of Opportunity for business growth and job opportunity as some of Mendocino County’s best opportunities for good paying jobs.
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Rural Matters

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From SHEILAH ROGERS
Redwood Valley

May 26, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

May is a busy month for networks, not-for-profits and alliances that are dedicated to the pursuit of entrepreneurship as the economic development strategy in rural communities throughout the United States.  Small and microbusinesses have, after all, created 2/3 of new jobs during the past 20 years and they are historically the first responder during economic downturns.

The National Summit on Entrepreneurship hosted by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity gathered in Washington, DC and announced two new partnerships: one with BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and one with Green for All, the national organization committed to the growth of living wage blue collar jobs in all ‘Green’ sectors.

A compelling interactive session at the National Summit on Entrepreneurship celebrated the unique flavors of particular rural regions and the emergence of deliberate entrepreneurial efforts that build upon those flavors.  Regional Flavor Strategies bring together stakeholders – microenterprise development programs (we have one – it’s called West Company), chambers of commerce, cultural and historic preservations programs, not for profits, educational institutions, Main Street programs, and many others to promote the assets and flavor of their region.

Entrepreneurs are supported to identify and respond to their region’s flavor and encouraged to think and act innovatively as they utilize the flavor of their region to grow and expand their enterprises.  Entrepreneurs from outside the area are attracted to these new vital centers for a place to locate their businesses.

Mendocino County and the North Coast region have identified Six Targets of Opportunity where there is demonstrated job growth, wage increases, competitiveness and career potential.  Three of the six are particularly flavorful in Mendocino County and may provide opportunity to develop a Regional Flavor for the region.