Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

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Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

• Phone [phone]

Don Macke
www.energizingentrepreneurs.org
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Is Change Possible?

• Session 1
• September 13, 2009

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Change

• Change
• The world around us is changing and changing at
  a rapid rate. What young people want today is
  different than what pervious generations wanted.
  We must deal with change!

• Resisting Change
• It is common for many in our communities to
  resist change. Fear of the unknown is huge.
• But successful communities embrace change as
  they search for success.

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Visioning

• Visioning Success
• Research supports the view that communities who
  actively vision their future do better than those
  that do not.
• Heartland Center for Leadership Development, 20
  Clues to Rural Community Survival, 2009

• Small Visions
• Communities facing chronic challenges tend to
  lose their capacity for hope and their ability to
  dream. They begin to vision ever smaller
  undermining their very futures.
• HomeTown Competitiveness, Lessons from the Field,
  2009

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Is Change Possible?

• Unless enough people in our communities believe
  we can achieve meaningful change for the better
  it will be impossible for progress to achieved.
• A key to believing desired change (vision) can
  occur must be rooted in real evidence that it is
  occurring elsewhere in communities like mine.
• HomeTown Competitiveness, Lessons from the Field,
  2009

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Case Study Valley County, Nebraska
Meaningful Change
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Case Study Valley County About Valley
County. . . .

• Rural with 4,600 Residents
• Pretty Isolated
• Depopulation
• Rising Poverty
• Farm and Ranch Dependent
• Limited Economic Diversification

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Case Study Valley County Where They
Started. . . .

• Initial Assets
• Core Group of Champions
• Motivation for Change
• Available Civic Capacity
• Initial Challenges
• No Vision
• No Economic Development Game Plan
• Destructive Community Conflict

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Case Study Valley County Valley County
Chronology. . . .

• 1999 No Game Plan or Program
• 2000 Economic Development Board
• - Staffing Proposed
• 2001 Tax Support Passed
• 2002 Joined HTC
• - Focused Development Goals
• - Moved Towards Entrepreneurship
• 2004 Hired a Business Coach

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Case Study Valley County Bottom Line
Results. . . .

• Entrepreneurial Development System
• Opportunity Focused
• 2007/2008
• 110 Million in New Investment
• 120 New Jobs
• 30 Business Transition
• Linked People Recruitment
• Growing Youth Strategy

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Vision Begins with What If

• What if another community could do what Valley
  County has done?
• What difference would it possibly make?

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Are Better Futures Possible?

• Scenarios from
• Brookfield, Missouri

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Brookfield, Missouri

• City 5,000 residents
• County 12,000 residents
• Agriculture Manufacturing Trade Center
• In Decline Losing People
• Rural North Central Missouri

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Source Headwaters Economics
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Source Headwaters Economics
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Source Headwaters Economics
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Investment Package

• Focus on Youth Attraction Business Coaching
• 1 Development Budget Commitment
• Evidence from the Field
• Valley County, NE
• Fairfield, IA
• Barry County, MI
• Howard, SD
• Wisconsin Rapids, WS

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How Can this Happen?

• Heartlands
• Clues to Rural Community Survival
• 20 Clues are Documented, but
• Commitment Vision Action Knowledge
• But we must aspire for more
• Thriving Communities

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It Happens Because of Leaders
The Power of People Like You!
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1 Investment Rule of Thumb

• What we have learned is that successful
  communities invest in their development. Those
  that are investing upwards to 1 of their annual
  economy are doing better!
• RURPI Center Research
• So what does this really mean?

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Development at Scale!

• Community Size Development Funding
• 500 100k to 200k
• 1000 500k to 1m
• 10,000 2.5 to 5.0m
• Real investment into the
• development of our communities.