Resources

Community Economic Development

Energizing Entrepreneurs, http://www.energizingentrepreneurs.org/, is a program designed to help leaders and citizens in rural communities and regions across the U.S. embrace entrepreneurship as a core rural economic development strategy. The website offers tools, success stories, research, and other resources for supporting local entrepreneurs.

Hometown Competitiveness, http://www.heartlandcenter.info/htc.htm, offers a comprehensive approach to long-term rural community sustainability that focuses on four pillars: developing leadership, energizing entrepreneurs, engaging youth, and charitable giving.

Entrepreneurial League System, http://www.entreleaguesystem.com/, is “an innovative approach for transforming local and regional economies by developing entrepreneurs’ skills, creating successful companies and building entrepreneurial communities.” Modeled after the farm system in baseball, the program organizes individual entrepreneurs into teams according to their skill in creating or growing a business – Rookies, A, AA, and AAA. Entrepreneurs are then assigned to work intensively with Performance Coaches who are themselves skilled entrepreneurs.

Main Street Program, http://www.mainstreet.org/, is a community-driven, comprehensive methodology used to revitalize older, traditional business districts throughout the United States. “The underlying premise of the Main Street approach is to encourage economic development within the context of historic preservation in ways appropriate to today’s marketplace.”

Asset Based Community Development, http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html, contrasts the two approaches that troubled communities can take to rebuild themselves: the needs-driven “dead end” approach, or capacity-focused development that builds on existing assets.

Appreciative Inquiry uses a systematic set of processes to discover what works in an organization and to move towards inventing their most desired future. Visit the Appreciative Inquiry Commons to learn more, http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/.

World Café, http://www.theworldcafe.com/, offers a process for leading collaborative dialogue and knowledge-sharing, particularly for larger groups. This powerful conversational process allows communities to think together, evoke collective intelligence, and create actionable results.

Entrepreneurship

Boomtown Institute, http://www.boomtowninstitute.com/, builds on the successful book by Jack Schultz, Boomtown USA: The 7½ Keys to Big Success in Small Towns. The mission of the organization is “to provoke innovative thinking, encourage leadership and foster investment in communities across the U.S.A.” On the website you can sign up for the weekly e-newsletter, Agurban, which focuses on best practices in economic development Jack has seen during his Boomtown USA speaking tour. You’ll also find an extensive list of recommended resources.

Economic Gardening, http://www.littletongov.org/bia/, was first pioneered by the City of Littleton in 1989. It is an entrepreneurial approach to economic development that focuses on the three pillars of information, infrastructure, and connections. You can read about the history and principles behind economic gardening on the city's website. You can also sign up to join the econ-dev mailing list, which is a good way to keep in touch with other people interested in economic gardening.

The Kauffman Foundation, http://www.kauffman.org/, has produced a number of key research reports on entrepreneurship, including the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, 1996-2005 and the 2007 State New Economy Index. Most are downloadable from the website. The foundation also provides a portal to research on entrepreneurship, http://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship.cfm?topic=research_about_entrepreneurship.

Entreworks, http://www.entreworks.net/, is a consulting firm that “works with communities, organizations, and civic leaders to design, implement, and promote innovative economic development strategies, policies, and programs. We help create and publicize the best of new thinking about community economic development. Our work is based on a belief that entrepreneurship in all its forms is the key to revitalizing our communities, ranging from the booming technology hot spots to distressed rural and urban communities.” The website contains a number of downloadable reports on effective economic development strategies and around three dozen annotated links to key organizations.

Small Business Development Tools

Duct Tape Marketing, http://www.ducttapemarketing.com, from small business marketing guru John Jantsch, takes a strategic approach to marketing. His website offers a useful newsletter, an award-winning blog, and several downloadable resources.

Entrepreneur.com, http://www.entrepreneur.com/, has a vast array of resources on starting a business, buying a franchise, growing a home-based business, business opportunities, money and finance, sales and marketing, management, e-business, technology, and other topics.

SCORE, http://www.score.org, offers a host of resources for people starting, growing, financing or managing their business. One of the most valuable services offered is “Ask SCORE,” a database of retired business people who will provide free business advice. You can specify an area of expertise, for example, manufacturing, advanced technology, disaster recovery, or financial services, and also qualify your search by state.

Small Business Advancement National Center (SBANC), http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/, provides databases of local SBA offices, the Small Business Institute network, and a research archive of publications from 18 organizations such as the Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Marketing Management Association. The website also offers industry profiles, business plans, research articles, loan information, conference details, and international and domestic contact information.

Synergetic Systems LLC, http://www.synsysllc.com, offers workshops and programs teaching business owners how to make excellent people decisions and have employees whose strengths match company needs.

Web EG, http://www.webeg.net/, offers a two-day training that enables economic development and economic gardening staff to provide professional-level advice and assistance to local companies that seek to grow their business via the Web. As a result of the training, staff will know how to analyze company websites for high potential business opportunities on the Web, identify Web design flaws, and make recommendations to businesses about Web and search engine marketing strategies.