A mechanic story

Our van broke. More accurately, while taking our daughter to college, our van, loaded with her stuff, began overheating 90 minutes into the two hour drive. After stops for cooling, much fretting, some praying, and smoke coming out of the tailpipe, we got to the college, got her stuff unloaded, and parked it.

After catching a ride home with some friends, I sent an email to a friend who lives in the college town.

"Do you know of a mechanic like Jim's?"

Jim's Auto Care is a place that we both know. It's a place we both trust. It serves as a standard of comparison for family-owned, local, reliable auto repair. And David was able to tell me about a place that was just like Jim's.

The van is gone. Somehow, we weren't interested in putting a new engine in a 1997 van with 184,000 miles and a lot of rust. But Gary and Sheila gave us great service, even helping us sell the van for parts.

I have a feeling that there are a lot of places like Jim's in the word-of-mouth chain. Are you one?

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Who owns your online real estate

If you use a Facebook Page as your main business presence, you don't own it at all.

Photo by Paul Swansen

If you rely on your Google Places listing to tell people everything they need to know, you don't own that either. You can only add the information they say you can add. They choose what online reviews to display on your listing. They decide what order you'll appear in search results, and you have to appear along with competitors.

Should you ignore these services? Of course not! You should have a Page and a Place and whatever else makes sense for your business. Those are your outposts, built in someone else's territory. The main game is a home base. Build it on your own territory.

Only on your own site do you have room to stretch out and tell your story. Only on your own site can you build something of lasting value. Only on your own site can you bring together your other presences. Use the widgets or rss feeds from your many presences to enhance your main site with activity.

"But what about Facebook? Isn't it the future? I saw a Budweiser ad, and it directed people to their Facebook page, not their website. Shouldn't I follow their lead?"
[Based on an actual statement by a small business owner.]

Use Facebook for what it was intended for: to provide social interaction. (See the 6 Big Facebook Tips for Small Business.) Post things people want to share. If you post a photo of a customer in your ice cream parlor (Pride Dairy), they are more likely to share that with their friends. Same with stories about customers and other local stories. They are the type of thing that get people to click "share."

Where do you put your product notes, your founding story, your reviews, or your glowing testimonials? Those go on your own website. Facebook is not the right place for glowing testimonials. Glowing faces in photos, yes. Detailed product information, no.

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20 years of business success research

John Spence, author of Awesomely Simple, sent this to me. It's 20 years of his research on business success all boiled down to one word cloud.

What do you think the key words will be? Find out at The Pattern of Business Success.

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You deserve to join the brag basket

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from September 24 - 26, 2010.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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Online sharing as economic development tool

Can you turn people's tendency to share online content into an economic development strategy?

Site visitors are encouraged to select an e-card or video and share it with their professional networks and colleagues to attract new and diversified businesses to locate or expand in Lee County.

This press release popped up at the Place Marketing Group blog, among other places online.

It cites some "recent studies" that I was unable to find.

89 percent of U.S. adult Internet users send content to others; 63 percent do so at least once per week, and an amazing 25 percent share content almost daily.

But, will site visitors find the videos interesting enough to share? How well do e-cards fit into people's sharing habits? My initial reaction was, "not well."

That is only one part of a larger initiative that covers many methods. Stop by the Bring Them to Lee site to see more of what they are up to.


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What business are you really in

No matter what business you are in, there is another way of thinking of it.

I learned early on that the business I'm in is not hunting. The business I'm in is entertainment. Entertainment is a mindset of everybody that works for you.
Rickey Squires, Rawhide Creek Ranch

"No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business." ~Robert Allen
Quoted on Twitter by @copyblogger Brian Clark

What business are you really in?

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From 1 to 1000 employees

Ho-Chunk, Inc., CEO Lance Morgan tells how they grew from one employee to 1000 in a town of 1500 over the past 15 years.



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You lead the applause in the brag basket

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from September 17 - 19, 2010. I'll be away from the computer this weekend. Could you lead the applause for me?

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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Working together you can build it yourself

One of the speakers at the recent Midwest Rural Assembly started off by telling this story about a small town hardware store. (I think he said the story came from Kinky Friedman, when he was Texas Agriculture Secretary.)

The hardware store is where when you have a project, they will loan you a tool. They will sell you 3 or 4 screws, not make you buy a box of 500. The motto of the hardware store is where, working together, you can build it yourself.

The Midwest Rural Assembly,
working together. 

Working together, you can build it yourself. I keep thinking about that. Working together, you can build it yourself.

That sounds close to another recurring theme from the MRA discussions: the best solutions come from within.

As we discussed how to make progress on community development, I heard this over and over. The best solutions come from within, even when help comes in from outside.

"I think the best solutions come from within." David Baker, Farm Transition Specialist at the Beginning Farmer Center, Iowa State University Extension.

Steph Larsen from the Center for Rural Affairs said you have to work with the issues that people are putting energy into.

Milan Wall, Heartland Center for Leadership Development, said when your are doing an interventional model, they have to own it. In other words, when you come in from outside to help with any problem, you have to leave ownership and responsibility with the people who are in the community.

Communities under stress can want you to just fix it, Jim Beddow of the Rural Learning Center said. But there is no, "follow this checklist and you'll be fine." it requires making each idea reflect the reality of each community.

The more you can ground this stuff in local assets, the more you'll see it be sustainable, and the more you'll get buy in, Wall said. There is tension between change being visionary enough to make it important, and incremental enough to make it last.

USDA Rural Development Iowa State Director Bill Menner said that because small town people have multiple roles, one person can be the center of several subjects. For example, the bank executive who is also on the chamber of commerce board and also involved with the arts.

Which brings me right back around to:
Working together, you can build it yourself.

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The 30 year overnight success of South Sioux City

When I visited South Sioux City, Nebraska, for the Midwest Rural Assembly, City Administrator Lance Hedquist gave a few of us a quick drive-through tour.

Student-designed cabin in the South
Sioux City RV Park

He started by telling us all the bad things about South Sioux's past, how it used to flood so regularly that no one would build a nice house there, how it had a high crime rate, and how it was seen as a bad place to live.

Lesson: always present the negatives first, then everything that follows seems like more of a miracle. And what follows in South Sioux City does seem like a miracle.

Today the town looks lively, is in full development mode, and expects 1500 new jobs in the next year or two. This in a town of 12,000 people. Hedquist said attitude was the key factor in turning it around.

They put in a development with mixed housing types: low income, moderate income, assisted living. Of course, "they" said that it was the end of the world, and it would be a slum. Today it's attractive, clean, and lively, from what we saw. I was impressed by the houses built for assisted living. Homes seem better than institutions for those who need some assistance.

All new developments are required to include bike trails. A resident of neighboring (much larger) Sioux City, Iowa, said South Sioux was not perceived well by those who still remembered the way it used to be. But she chooses to ride her bike in South Sioux, just because it is so bike friendly and a great place to ride.

The city owns, but does not operate, their recreation, like the dozen soccer fields. They do operate an RV park, beside the river. They have a cooperative project with a university for architecture students to build cabins as their senior projects. The city buys the materials, and the students make the cabins. Each is uniquely designed. As they continue to add new, funky, interesting cabins, I think they will become a bigger attraction, as people come just to stay in one. The city earns $150,000 per year from the RV park.

The city council is known for moving quickly and cooperatively. They started a cooperative project with the school in a matter of days. Innovative agreements have been struck with neighboring cities, too.

Industrial development is in full swing, with businesses expanding, adding on, and new ones moving in. The industries are starting to cluster, especially around ag/food processing.

There's more, but that was the starting point. Hedquist has worked as the city administrator for 30 years to get to this point. Another MRA participant who joined me on the tour said, looking at today's successes, you don't see the thousands of blocks put in place to get there.

I think when you hire a former regional economic developer as your city administrator, you get regional action and economic development for your city.

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Simple trick to measure social media efforts

How can you tell if your social media efforts are making any difference? Here's one simple trick that can make it clear.

Make a new page. It can be on your main site, or on a completely new domain name. Let's call it the landing page. This is where your new visitors will land.

Put analytics or site statistics code on it. Or use a service like Blogger with statistics built in.

Don't link to this new landing page from any other page on your existing site. Link to only it from your social media tools that you want to measure.

After a week, look at your analytics reports. All those visitors came from your social media efforts.

Of course, you can extend this idea to set up a separate landing page for each tool, like Twitter, or each campaign, like your big fall promotion, or any other way it makes sense to measure. And customize the page to move people toward your goal, whether that's bookings, sales, email sign ups, or purchases. Make an offer of some kind. Make a call to action.

That is the most basic use of a landing page. Now, take that idea and run with it.

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Idea: Alterations business

If you can sew, there is demand for alterations. As hand crafts of all sorts make a come-back, this is one opportunity you might not have thought of.

My local sew-er just told me she is swamped with business, always. People bring all sorts of clothing needing a hem, or sleeves shortened, or holes patched, to the dry cleaners. The cleaners hand the jobs over to her. She does no marketing, and has more demand than she can handle, from a town of 5000 people.

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Applaud each other in the brag basket

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from September 10 - 12, 2010. Since I'll be away from the computer, you can applaud for each other.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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Want more entrepreneurs? Grow your own

Looking to grow your own local entrepreneurs? See if you can take some inspiration from these entrepreneur contests.

First, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, with Launch L-A.

They are targeting young entrepreneurs with a prior connection to their county, but currently living elsewhere.

Does your idea have wings? If you’re a young entrepreneur just itching to launch your business idea, and you have roots in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, we want to hear from you! That idea that’s been percolating for weeks, months, or years could be worth more than $100,000! There are a few catches, of course: you have to be willing to locate that business in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine’s second largest community. This community has come a long way since you knew it five or ten years ago, and we want the world to know we’re throwing the doors wide open to young, creative entrepreneurs like you.

Besides the cash, winners agree to participate in a mentoring program. (Surely you have some local experienced business people who would make excellent mentors?)

And about that cash, don't feel like your town or county has to offer a huge cash prize. Think about smaller amounts, in-kind services, and even free working space.

Second, CrowdPitch, a series put on by Funding Universe. 

Think ´American Idol´ or ´shark tank´ — selected entrepreneurs will have 4 minutes to pitch their company to both a panel of experts & a live audience, followed immediately by a 3-minute Q&A session with the audience. Finally, we unleash the panel of experts to offer up constructive feedback.

But it's too big city. Let's make it work for a rural region. Longer pitch times. Less emphasis on the "pitch for investment." More emphasis on a solid business.

The prizes are pretty easy to adapt to small towns:

The winner gets $5,800 of services from our sponsors:

NOWAdvisors: 12 hours financial & accounting services, $1,800 value

FundingUniverse: startup services, $2,500 value

Amazon: web services, $500 value

CLI Law: legal services, $1,000 value

I'm sure you can convince the right local/regional attorneys, accountants, etc., to get involved.

Is your community using a contest to promote local entrepreneurs?

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How Rural Development works with Small Business

USDA Rural Development Director for Iowa Bill Menner explains how Rural Development relates to small business. 

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Progression of engagement

Pride Dairy's own ice cream parlor.
Photo from the Pride Dairy Facebook page. 

There is a progression of engagement between you and your customers. The further you progress, the more valuable you are to your customers and the more you are able to charge.

At the bottom level, you offer a commodity, like fresh milk. Milk is available all over, and most people buy it where ever it is convenient.

Up one step, you have an asset, like ice cream made from that milk.

Another step up is an experience, like serving that ice cream in your own ice cream parlor. This was the lesson I learned from Free by Chris Anderson, "Memorable experiences are the ultimate scarce commodity."

There is still one more level. Step up again, and you can transform that experience into a renewal. At this level, you and the customer work together to change something, like buying ice cream because you know it supports the only working dairy that makes its own ice cream in North Dakota. That would be Pride Dairy.

Special thanks to Diane Olson of Bottineau County Economic Development for introducing me to the Pride Dairy story, and buying me a scoop of Pride Dairy's Juneberry ice cream.

Here's another example. If you're advertising your town "as a great place to live," that's a commodity view; every town says they are a great place to live. If you talk about your wide open spaces, you've mentioned an asset that some places don't have. Many of your neighbors can make the same exact claim. When you talk about "the largest open rodeo in the west," you have something special to you that people can experience. And when you offer people a chance to "ride with the last of the working cowboys," you are making them part of your renewal. 

This idea grew out of an illustration I saw in an eco-tourism presentation years ago. I'm still thinking about all the ways you can apply it in business, but I think it is especially important in tourism.

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Stretch yourself in the Brag Basket

Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news, or congratulate a friend.

The basket is open all weekend, from September 3 - 6, 2010.

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or comment on Facebook. You tell something great about your week, or you give applause to someone who did good stuff this week. Or you celebrate something wonderful that you tried that failed.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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USDA's Victor Vasquez talks rural-urban connections

Victor Vasquez, USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development, made the keynote presentation at the Midwest Rural Assembly.

He started with the story of a road trip with a big city friend. As they reached a particularly empty stretch of land, the friend asked, should we turn back?

Turn back? Victor asked, why would we turn back?

The friend said, there's no buildings and no one around. What if we break down or have a problem?

Victor knew that someone would stop and help if they needed it. And that's the essence of rural life; we depend on each other.

Broadband
Broadband is not just technology, Vasquez said. Broadband is also what it will do. What it will do that is the most important is change the education for children with few opportunities. It will change their education and how they view the world, he said.

Rural Industry
As the American auto industry suffered major losses, the USDA looked at the potential impact on rural communities, he said.

"In rural America, we are participating in the supply chain of major corporations," Vasquez said.

Census Rural Data
Vasquez also participated in a round table discussion, answering questions from participants. One person pointed out that the latest Census did not collect income data for all communities. Many programs, especially through USDA, previously relied on Census poverty data. Most small towns that are covered by the less comprehensive American Community Survey will include projections based on a much smaller sample.

USDA and the Private Sector
When asked about the USDA's role with private sector businesses, Vasquez pointed out the Office for Women and Minority Business, which is mostly focused on procurement.

Vasquez also brought up an idea that he seems to have spent quite a bit of time thinking about. In order for smaller businesses to compete for larger government contracts, they could use a cooperative model.

He gave an example of a large multi year auditing contract. While no one CPA firm in, for example, the Texas-Mexico border region could handle that contract alone, there are hundreds of qualified CPAs in the region. If a group of them could form a cooperative, they could compete for that auditing contract. The goal of achieving 20% of government procurement from rural areas would be easier to achieve if smaller firms could band together in this way.

"We need to explore policies that explore that rural-urban connection," Vasquez said. "We have more similarities than differences." 

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