**** Economic Development Trends ****
This page provides links to articles from other services.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71268-0.html?nid=2334&rid=722683867
Plastic could be made from a common form of sugar instead of petroleum if the industry adopts a new process developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison ...
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2006/sb20060612_043112.htm?link_position=link1&campaign_id=nws_innov_Jun21
The Best Place For Your Businesses
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2006/sb20060612_088445.htm?chan=smallbiz_special+report++--+best+places+for+entrepreneurs_best+places+for+entrepreneurs
http://www.energizingentrepreneurs.org/content/chapter_3/tools/1_000065.pdf
The six Community Readiness Factors:**
§ Openness to Entrepreneurship Is the community open to exploring
entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy? Central to such
a commitment is the firm belief that within your community there are
entrepreneurs who can create a new generation of successful businesses
and there are service providers and community leaders willing to help
them achieve success.
§ Balancing Business Attraction Does the community balance a
traditional economic development approach with a focus on local
businesses and on energizing entrepreneurs to create and build
homegrown enterprises? For 50 years the mainstay economic
development strategy has been business attraction, particularly the search
for industries. Supporting entrepreneurship requires a willingness to
broaden the economic development strategy beyond the traditional
recruitment model.
§ Entrepreneurship Programs Has your community had experience with
entrepreneurship programs already? Check any of the following
entrepreneurial programs that your community has experience with, either
currently or in the past:
Networking infrastructure for entrepreneurs
Mentoring programs for entrepreneurs
Efforts to improve business services for entrepreneurs
Micro lending or other business financing services
Entrepreneurial training programs such as “how to start a
business” seminars or courses
Business counseling services
Youth entrepreneurship education programs
Other programs specific to your community
§ Willingness to Invest Most rural communities have limited experience
with entrepreneurial programs. So do not assume you cannot create an
entrepreneurial development strategy if your experience with these kinds
of programs is limited. What is most important is a willingness to develop
and support these kinds of activities.
§ Leadership Team Can your community create a team that will work on
an entrepreneurial strategy? To be successful, a community needs a core
leadership team committed to building and supporting an
entrepreneurship program. Remember, as Margaret Mead once said,
“Never forget that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”
§ Beyond Town Borders Is your community willing to create partnerships
with other area communities to find the human and financial resources in
order to be in the economic development game? We in rural America love
our small towns. We value places where we know our neighbors. But in
today’s competitive world, we must collaborate to create enough scale
and capacity to support effective economic development strategies.
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