Jerry Johnson issued a bit of a challenge in the comments, encouraging us all to brainstorm potential business ideas for young rural entrepreneurs. That reminded me of a terrific list of actual student businesses in Norfolk County, Ontario. It’s a list of real businesses started by kids in grades 6 through 12, part of their…
A reader wrote to me about an influx of low-income people into his town, using subsidized housing and other community services. He said a town council member had talked about them as “a drain on resources” and “dead weight.” I got angry when I read that. But it took me awhile to figure out…
“We just don’t have as many businesses as we used to.” It’s one of those rural myths that I hear variations of all the time. “Our downtown is all boarded up. All the businesses are gone.” “Census numbers show fewer employers.” “We did a business count, and the number of businesses is way down.” But…
I thought you’d like this, from a recent local economic development newsletter that I received: “We just finished our annual business count. We use this comprehensive employment database to drive our economic development, planning and to keep aware of trends….We don’t include home-based or mobile businesses.” Anyone else see something wrong with that or…
After we talked about the difficulties in finding good people for low-level jobs in rural areas, I wanted to follow up with a challenge Mike shared with us: “Getting people to live here or come here for the jobs we have open NOW!” Mike’s not the only one with workforce challenges. It was one of…
“How do I attract good employees for low-level jobs?” That was one of the responses to our Survey of Rural Challenges. You don’t. That would be my answer. You will have to re-imagine and remake those jobs. Let’s look at a lumber mill, a real one in a real small town that friends from Oregon…
Guest post by Deb Brown We had filmmakers from San Francisco in our town this month making a movie about us. They are telling the story of Webster City, Iowa, and how we’ve bounced back from the loss of a major manufacturer and the hundreds of jobs they took with them. It’s a big deal…
“Everything gigantic in American [retail] is about to get smaller or die.” James Kunstler wrote in 2013. He said big box retailers were on the brink of scale implosion, and that “every element of economic reality is now poised to squash them.” Fast forward to 2017, and we’ve gone over the brink. Washington Post reported last month…
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