If you want to be successful,
it’s just this simple.
Know what you are doing.
Love what you are doing.
And believe in what you are doing.
Will Rogers
American Humorist
1879-1935
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Posts tagged as:
rural business
At the national level, we talk casually about billions and trillions of dollars.
And not too long ago, it was difficult to obtain small business loans for less than $250,000.00.
Which just goes to show, what a difference a few dollars can make in the lives of small business owners who want to better their lives.
Recently, fifty farmers in the western North Carolina mountains received funding to help them diversify their operations. A total of $225,000 was provided by the NC Tobacco Trust Commission and disbursed by Western North Carolina Agricultural Options in $3,000, $6,000, and $9,000 grants.
Since 2003, the Trust Fund Commission has supported WNC AgOptions, a N.C. Cooperative Extension program that provides resources to farmers diversifying or expanding their operations, particularly those transitioning from tobacco production.
Many of the farm recipients were seeking grants to add or expand related streams of income or stabliize year round employment. Grant recipients plan to transition farm land into U-Pick areas, expand existing herb and bee operations, or saw their own lumber to create outbuildings for agritourism activities.
You can read more about the creative business plans of these farms here.
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Here are a few interesting blogs and online articles published this week with news that relate to Rural Business, ending April 4, 2009:
This week the U.S. Senate confirmed by unanimous consent Karen Gordon Mills as the 23rd Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Several reports this week on the changing demographics of rural America, affecting who our customers, neighbors and employees might be. It seems that quite a number of U.S. veterans choosing to leave urban areas for rural America has increased more than 20 percent over the last ten years. One possible reason cited is that many veterans prefer to remain located around military bases after retirement, and many bases in urban areas (especially along the West Coast) have been closed. Apparently relocation to the southeastern US and to Idaho and Utah are the most commonly selected areas.
Earlier this week, I wrote about frustration in Great Britain regarding second home owners in rural areas, when their part time residence has effect on the ability of local businesses to survive year round.
And quite literally in a New York Minute, you can read an update on rural demographics across the country, and how our rural communities are home to residents who are older, more ethnically diverse, and more likely to be female than in the recent
past. The increasing racial diversity of rural areas, along with younger generations leaving and immigrant populations arriving, create challenges that most of rural America is already confronting. And even blogging about, as in Living Single in Small Town America.
Rural America received some news that sounded promising this week from Verizon Wireless, which announced plans to begin introduction of a wireless network in the 700 MHZ spectrum in 2010:
‘The licenses we bought in the 700MHz auction cover the whole US,’ says Tony Melone, a Verizon Wireless VP. ‘And we plan to roll out LTE [high-speed mobile service] throughout the entire country, including places where we don’t offer our [current] cell phone service today.’
Because the [700 MHz] spectrum is in a lower frequency, it can transmit signals over longer distances and penetrate through obstacles, and because the signals travel longer distances, Verizon can deploy fewer cell towers than if it used spectrum from a higher frequency band, which means it can provide coverage at a lower cost.”
However, there are those who say that the battle over rural broadband is just beginning and that Verizon, AT&T and other large wireless carriers and cable companies are actually blocking the Rural Broadband Stimulus:
“Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and other large wireless carriers and cable companies are behind lobbying efforts in state legislatures around the country to prohibit local governments from using federal stimulus money to build and manage their own broadband networks, critics contend. So far, they seem to be succeeding.
The federal broadband stimulus package provides $7.2 billion for projects that bring high-speed Internet connectivity to rural areas and towns in remote locations. The law gives priority to projects sponsored by governments in partnership with local Internet service providers (ISPs), but stimulus money can also go to national ISPs if there are no competing local projects.
Public interest groups and consumer advocates contend that incumbent ISPs are trying to prevent states from funding projects managed by local government entities, even in partnership with private companies.”
Just what we need, another delay to rural broadband. First no money, and now the money allocated to rural America is going to be fought over!
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The U.S. Senate today confirmed by unanimous consent President Barack Obama’s nomination of Karen Gordon Mills as the 23rd Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
As Administrator of the SBA, Mills will direct a federal agency with more than 2,000 full-time employees, with a leading role in helping small business owners and entrepreneurs secure financing, technical assistance and training, and federal contracts.
“Small business is the backbone of the American economy,” Mills said upon her confirmation. “The SBA has a vital role to play in supporting our nation’s small businesses so that they can be the key driver in getting our economy moving again. I look forward to leading this critical agency at this important time.
“I was there on the factory floor in Arkansas and Ohio working to weather the recession of the early ‘90s,” she said. “Those experiences give me a deep understanding of what our small businesses need today to survive this downturn and to prosper in the years ahead. Since then, I have helped grow companies in organic food, and women’s media, and spent time in rural Maine working with our boat builders and composite technology to help them compete throughout the globe.
“The sum of my experience is this: I am a believer in American small business. I am a believer in America’s ability to manufacture goods and services that are world class, and I am a believer in America’s spirit of entrepreneurship. This spirit is one of our country’s greatest assets and we need to cultivate it today, more than ever.”
As Administrator of the SBA, Mills will direct a federal agency with more than 2,000 full-time employees, with a leading role in helping small business owners and entrepreneurs secure financing, technical assistance and training, and federal contracts.
Mills holds a degree in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. Mills and her husband Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, have three sons. In 2007, Mills was named Chair of the Council on Competitiveness and the Economy in Maine, which was focused on attracting investment in rural and regional development.
Click here to read Mills’ complete Statement to the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
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According to a recent A.C. Nielson survey, customers have very specific reasons for choosing to buy in person at a “brick and mortar” store instead of online.
The most common reasons why people prefer to shop in a store are:
“58% of the people wanted to physically evaluate the product before purchasing.”
“52% didn’t want to wait for the product to ship.”
“43% didn’t want to pay shipping and handling.”
“27% wanted to talk to a sales person in person, before purchasing.”
“23% thought they could find a better price in store.”
“14% weren’t sure anyone would be home when the item was delivered by a third-party shipper.”
“11% wanted to support a local business.”
“5% listed none of the above.”
How can you use this information to increase your sales and local customers?
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