Whatever you believe
with your emotions,
becomes your Reality.
You always act in a manner
consistent with your innermost
beliefs and convictions.Brian Tracy
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Posts tagged as:
Rural Small Business
Here are a few interesting blogs and online articles published this week that relate to Rural Small Business, ending February 21, 2009:
President Obama signed the stimulus package this week, with much discussion on the funds allocated for rural America in installing rural broadband.
In Stimulus Stirs Debate Over Rural Broadband Access, you can get caught up on comments made this week by former FCC economist Michael Katz on National Public Radio (NPR), and the outrage that followed.
Katz feels that the $7.2 billion allocated to expand rural broadband could be put to better use, saying that rural parts of America are environmentally hostile, energy inefficient and even weak in innovation.
“The notion that we should be helping people who live in rural areas avoid the costs that they impose on society … is misguided,” Katz went on, “from an efficiency point of view and an equity one.”
In more hopeful news, two corporations announced their plans to provide broadband to rural America: IBM and Frontier Communications, America’s second largest rural telecommunications provider.
I.B.M. is working with rural electric cooperatives in Alabama to offer high-speed Internet service, delivered over power lines. Technology to send broadband over power lines has been around for several years, but it typically hasn’t been able to offer enough capacity at a low enough price to beat service from cable and phone companies.
Frontier Communications chairman and CEO Maggie Wilderotter says there is a growing demand for advanced services in rural America, and that providing quality broadband internet service is the key to shoring up a rapidly evolving rural economy. Frontier already provides telephone, television, broadband and wireless services to some 2.4 million customers, and is for many the only option for those services.
Wilderotter explained that rather than farming, most rural Americans own or work for small businesses. And those small businesses “deserve better” than what many telecommunications companies have offered them, Wilderotter said. Rural customers don’t want broadband service just for watching videos, she explained, but instead need it “for commerce and education - and creating and finding jobs.”
Rural consumers are just as eager for to make full use of broadband once they get a taste of its capabilities, she said.
And to once again encourage us to look on the bright side of life, take a look at Five Silver Linings (That’s Right) of the Recession in this week’s US News and World Report.
The five ‘rays of sunshine’ they identify to show us the economy isn’t as gloomy as many people think:
1. Recessions are good for start ups
2. Borrowing Costs are lower
3. There’s a Bigger Market for Outsourced Duties
4. Some industries grow in a recession
and lastly -
5. At least you’re in America!
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There will be lots of articles in the coming weeks that try to tell us exactly what was in the stimulus package that just passed and what it all really means, but here’s the coverage from the Associated Press published today. Supposedly the 7 billion in grants for rural broadband are intended for small town telecommunications firms, and not the big dogs, so we’ll see. While we’re waiting, at least we can see which rural areas across the country have broadband or don’t, and how much.
Becky McCray of Small Business Survival suggests ways we can constructively use any slower time we might have when our sales are down.
In Strengthening Rural Communities A Critical Issue In Need of Action Amy Rochkes of the Journal Gazette/Times Courier in Illinois looks at needed areas of improvement for rural communities, from schools to healthcare, and infrastructure including broadband. As Ms. Rochkes correctly points out, it’s pretty difficult for our rural small businesses to adapt in the high-tech information age without broadband internet access. She also highlights how difficult it can be getting our problems solved because of the way they are administered:
According to the Congressional Research Service, 88 rural development programs are operated by 16 different federal agencies. This broad reach makes developing a cohesive rural development strategy difficult. USDA Rural Development manages more than half the rural development programs and is authorized through the Farm Bill.
Between politics and loss of funding, some of the organizations that advocate for rural America announced this week that they are cancelling events or closing their doors for good. REWRITE$: Main Street, Media and the Recovery a conference on rural economic development scheduled for March in Alabama at Jacksonville State University has been cancelled for lack of registrants. The Southern Rural Development Initiative (headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina) and its efforts to promote racial and economic justice in the rural South will shut down February 20th.
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There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.
Indira Gandhi
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Operators of vineyards, farmers’ markets, roadside stands, u-pick-it farms and anyone else involved in the agritourism industry now have a new online tool to exchange ideas, ask questions and learn from others.
A discussion group specific to “agritourism” has been created on www.LinkedIn.com.
LinkedIn is a social networking site. The purpose of LinkedIn is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.
This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways, from building up your own direct connections, being introduced to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact, and for finding jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in your contact network.
Tourism writer and consultant Greta Lint, of Asheboro, N.C., came up with the idea while working on another agritourism project. “I needed to know more about some of the issues surrounding the operation of farmers’ markets, roadside stands and u-pick-it farms. Not much showed up on the Internet, so I created a platform for discussion,” she explained.
The group, called simply “agritourism,” is open to anyone who has an interest in that particular industry. “This includes performers, crafters, promoters, organizers and teachers. Eligibility includes people who manage fairs, festivals and tourism-based attractions or who teach agriculture and horticulture business classes. This portal should help tourism product developers and promoters too,” Lint said.
Those who wish to sign up for the group must first join www.LinkedIn.com. There is no fee to join. “And you’re not bombarded with spam or unwanted emails,” Lint explained. “Once you’re a member, you can then do a search for groups in agritourism and join in.”
For more information, contact Greta Lint at gretalint@embarqmail.com or 336-626-0527.
To learn more about LinkedIn as an online networking resource, here are a couple good posts:
7 Ways LinkedIn Will Improve Your Small Business
Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn
Top 10 Mistakes People Make On LinkedIn
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