Readiness

A Community Success Story

Ord, Nebraska, in rural Valley County, is not unlike many rural communities around the country. It has been losing youth to out-migration. The town’s population is shrinking and the percentage of older citizens is increasing. The community runs the risk of losing vast quantities of owned assets as they are transferred to members of the next generation, most of whom live outside the community. Other concerns include employment and under-employment, workforce development, lack of industry, government as a primary employer, and lack of amenities for both tourists and retirees.

The people of Ord and Valley County (pop. 4,647) love their community and believe in its future. Determination, good intentions, and money, however, are not enough to turn around decades of decline. Leaders in Ord realized they needed help to identify how best to use limited resources for the most strategic outcomes. They invited the Nebraska Community Foundation, the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development to become part of their team.

The first activity in Valley County was the development of the Valley County Foundation, formed to accept a bequest of $1.2 million. The first grants from this donation were made in May 2000, attracting a great deal of community attention to the idea of local giving and the potential impact of wealth transfer.

During 2001, the Valley County Foundation received additional gifts and expectancies partially in response to two training events with financial planners and an endowment-building workshop. In November 2000, local leaders worked hard to pass a local option sales tax that generates $250,000 per year for community improvement and community economic development. Their first action was to hire an economic development specialist/chamber director. They also adopted an extensive strategic plan with an emphasis on industrial recruitment. Difficulties with implementing this plan led them to seek other options.

In 2002, the Valley County Economic Development Council (VCEDC) began a partnership with the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, the Nebraska Community Foundation and the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. Together, these organizations launched a pilot project called “HomeTown Competitiveness.” In August of 2002, the partners worked with community leaders to evaluate the existing economic development plan, which consisted of more than 20 goals. Two goals were identified as priorities: facilitate small business transfer and assist potential breakout entrepreneurs. In addition, the group worked on goals for wealth transfer and community capacity building.

Also in August of 2002, the group began its Leadership Quest (LQ) program. The LQ program brought new energy and new leadership to the task of creating a sustainable and healthy community in Valley County. Workshops, group activities and class work helped participants learn new things about themselves and their community, develop and practice new skills, and recommit to building a better community. LQ has done more than develop the skills and talents of participants. More people in the community are volunteering to run for office, to serve on local boards, and to help with local projects. The Leadership Committee now offers the program yearly and orchestrates alumni reunions to keep the spirit of helping alive.

In September of 2002, the business development committee conducted business visitations and, as a result, they agreed to target specific businesses interested in growing. In addition, they found that a number of Main Street businesses were struggling with business transfer. During the following year, local leaders and economic development specialists began working with these owners to devise new strategies and options. This project already shows great promise and, since its inception, the community has celebrated several successes:

Valley County has exceeded its goal of capturing 5% of its predicted inter-generational transfer of wealth. It now has $6.7 million in charitable contributions and expectancies to support and sustain community and economic development.
Local banks are providing adult scholarships to a business boot camp, and 15 new business owners will sharpen their skills through the Nebraska EDGE program.
Elementary students meet once a week to develop prototype products and services, write business plans, and apply for real loans from real local bankers.
In three years Leadership Quest has graduated 70 youths and adults. A wealthy alum living in Arizona flies in to teach a class on growing entrepreneurs.
A young adult returned home to start an irrigation well business and another plans a local dental practice. Outside investors are renovating vacant buildings.
Even though Valley County is comparatively poor, residents are beginning to embrace asset-based economic development strategies. A one-cent local sales tax has created a fund that has made seven small business loans.
Numerous small businesses and entrepreneurs have been evaluated, and several of these businesses are ready to grow, prosper and generate new wealth.

These collective efforts are beginning to create positive momentum and attitude shift about the future prospects of living and prospering in Ord and Valley County.

Readiness Framework for Entrepreneurship Development

As the story of Ord shows, communities must evaluate readiness in two ways:

Are we ready for economic development?
Are we ready for entrepreneurship development?

The folks in Ord made a commitment of time, talent and treasure to the economic development process, ultimately hiring their first economic development staff person. Once their readiness for economic development was demonstrated, it was time to turn to the next issue—are we ready for entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship development is more than just building businesses in your community. It is also about establishing an entrepreneurial culture. It requires revisiting the “can-do” pioneer spirit of many rural towns and overcoming challenges and obstacles that may be encountered along the way.

Our experience has shown that communities are “ready” to engage in entrepreneurship development when certain qualities and characteristics are evident:

Particular capacities in human, financial, and physical infrastructure. The schools in Edcouch and Elsa, near the Mexican border in eastern Texas, have shown great success in using grants, youth involvement and organizational development to build capacity in this area.
A supportive business/entrepreneurial history. Farmington, Missouri, offers a collaborative group of organizations, such as the chamber, the economic development organization and regional councils, to support new business development.
A strong self-image with positive citizen and community attitudes. Watsonville, California, is a good example of an ethnically diverse community working hard to maintain citizen involvement and a positive image.
Open and creative community leadership, or leadership environment, that encourages and nurtures emerging leaders. Hobbs, New Mexico, used a leadership project to bring new and diverse populations into leadership roles.

You can arrive at a better understanding of your community’s readiness level by exploring each of these elements.

Infrastructure
When we think of infrastructure, we usually focus on our community’s physical plant—roads, buildings and utilities. However, for entrepreneurship development, you need to think more broadly, including human and financial resources.

HUMAN INFRASTRUCTURE. Citizens of successful communities take pride in their communities and are civic-minded and involved, as demonstrated through festivals and celebrations. They are taking action to make the community a better place to live, work and play. There is an atmosphere of “family,” with an air of inclusiveness that includes the newcomer as well as the oldtimer. These communities are accepting of entrepreneurs who may walk to the beat of a slightly different drummer!

Communities that are ready to pursue entrepreneurship development also have existing organizations that play an important role in the life of the community. Communities that have survived over time and are vital and vibrant have civic and service clubs, churches and their respective organizations, and a number of other groups. These groups provide valuable rosters of active community members and give evidence of a community’s willingness to work together, achieve and succeed. Many of these organizations may already be committed to supporting and nurturing entrepreneurs—they get it!

A community that is “ready” also displays an attitude of nurturing its citizens. Communities that are ready for economic development and entrepreneurship programs encourage flexibility and creativity in meeting new challenges and by so doing, tend to attract further resources and opportunities. These communities are able to retain their youth, or even attract new young people to move to town, stemming population decline. Communities that educate themselves about entrepreneurship and are willing to create an entrepreneurial culture not only attract entrepreneurial people, but frequently “grow” their own hometown entrepreneurs.

FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE. Communities that are ready for entrepreneurship development have an understanding of, and willingness to, invest. Remember our “rural community as corporation” example? A rural community with 5,000 residents will likely generate a $750 million economy. If your community were a $750 million company, how much would you invest annually to ensure your competitiveness? While some rural community programs can run on volunteers, successful entrepreneurship development programs need staff and dollars to support services and programs. By the same token, our research has shown that frugality is a way of life in successful small communities and expenditures are made carefully. People aren’t afraid to spend money when they believe they should. But neither are they spendthrifts. Expenditures are often seen as investments in the future of the community.

Financial capacity or the ability to find financing in communities is a vital component to an entrepreneurship development program. When a community is ready for such a program, flexibility or creativity in financing is evident, with the creation of non-traditional forms such as economic development funds or loan pools.

In addition to monetary resources, communities that are “ready” have existing and experienced business owners. They also attract individuals such as attorneys, accountants, and insurance and marketing professionals. Resource people from local or regional development boards and similar organizations are identified and utilized. Such communities usually have an active chamber of commerce.

PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE. The ready community takes into consideration its physical infrastructure as it begins to create an entrepreneurship development program. Traditional infrastructure, such as streets and sidewalks, water systems and sewage facilities, is important to maintain and improve. It is a fundamental necessity for any community. A community that is strapped with outdated, poorly functioning, or inadequately built infrastructure will find itself unattractive to the potential entrepreneur. Aging infrastructure is costly and may price your town out of the entrepreneur’s interest or ability to pay.

However, it is equally important that a community expands its concept of infrastructure, particularly as you engage in entrepreneurship development. In today’s economy, your community must consider citizens’ (and entrepreneurs’) desire for particular services and amenities, such as high-speed access to the Internet. Does the community, through local government or other organizations, have a web presence? Can people find a community’s businesses on the web? Douglas, Wyoming is a great example of a rural community that focuses on the need to be a truly “wired” community.

These are all “livability” factors that a community needs to consider. Design and planning for future development and growth should consider the needs of growing businesses. In addition, the built environment plays an important role in attracting and retaining individuals. A beautifully restored downtown, common sense traffic gateways, cherished coffee shops or libraries, and ample recreational opportunities are some of the amenities that provide space for social and economic gatherings. Good design can help create space where entrepreneurial ideas are hatched and worked out.

Community History, Self-Image and Attitude
Many rural communities were founded on, and still rely on, a deep sense of the pioneer spirit. Our experience shows that parallels exist between this deep pioneer identification and a community developing an entrepreneurial strategy. A pioneer spirit can be a valuable tool in entrepreneurship development with its “can-do” sensibility and its sense of self-reliance tempered with the necessity of creatively finding needed resources. For example, in northwestern North Dakota, eight counties and the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation incorporated the area’s pioneer history as an important value in developing the area’s collaborative strategic plan.

In this vein, the pioneer spirit is rethought and revived in a community’s ongoing commitment to investment in entrepreneurial efforts. Local entrepreneurs can find the assistance they need locally, from a business start-up fund, for example, and not search for capital outside of the region. When the entrepreneur succeeds, the investment remains in the community and helps fund the next entrepreneurial effort.

In addition, the “ready” community has some history of striving to develop its economic base. There is evidence of past community efforts to encourage business development. Some possibilities are business networks, mentoring programs, business incubators and/or training, counseling services, or other similar programs.

The “ready” community displays particular mindsets, or a willingness to learn new mindsets and attitudes. For example, if the community is open to exploring entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy, it must also be ready to consider what that program will require. The community must be open to making a commitment and making the decisions needed to begin the process. Central to such a commitment is the firm belief that within your community there are entrepreneurs who can create a new generation of successful businesses and that there are service providers and community leaders willing to help them achieve success.

In an era of scarce resources, entrepreneurship development also requires that your community be open to collaboration. Many communities will not have all the resources they need locally to support entrepreneurs or engage in another economic development activity. Is your community willing to create partnerships with other area communities to find the human and financial resources necessary to be in the economic development game? There’s little reluctance in successful rural communities to seek outside help, and many of them demonstrate their success at competing for government grants and contracts for economic development, sewer and water systems, recreation, street and sidewalk improvement, and senior citizen programs.

Although outside help is sought when appropriate, it is nevertheless true that thriving small communities believe their destiny is in their own hands. Successful entrepreneurial communities are neither sitting back waiting to die nor are they sitting around waiting to be saved. Instead, they are making or growing their own economic futures. Making their communities good places to live for a long time to come is a proactive assignment, and they willingly accept it.

Community Leadership
A community ready to embark on an entrepreneurship development program is able to create a team committed to an entrepreneurship strategy. Community leaders today play a different role than they have in the past:

They help their community through processes open to citizen participation. They articulate and then communicate a vision for entrepreneurship that most citizens can embrace with enthusiasm.
They match community needs with available community skills and accessible internal and external resources.
They develop realistic strategies that can be undertaken today to move the community in the direction it must go to transform today’s vision of an entrepreneurial community into tomorrow’s reality.

Finally, the community and its leadership should realize that leaders are made, not born. That means that leadership can be learned. A “ready” community seeks out and nurtures new, emergent leaders including entrepreneurs. One of the signs of a healthy and vital community is a leadership group that recognizes the need to recruit new members into leadership roles. Because of their visibility, current leaders are in an excellent position to draw new leaders into community activity. By sharing responsibilities, current leaders can recruit and train newcomers to the leadership pool.

There are, of course, other ways to nurture new leaders, including mentoring, coaching or leadership classes. In Oregon, the Ford Family Foundation uses a multi-session statewide leadership program for rural towns designed by the Heartland Center for Leadership Development. Emerging leaders are identified for and recruited into voluntary community roles, mentored through volunteer experiences and given guidance through coaching. Coaching generally involves taking time to help the emerging leaders reflect on what they are learning and what assistance they need to make the most of their voluntary service. This coaching process is particularly important for entrepreneurs who may be new to assuming leadership roles outside of their business. What’s important here is that existing leaders value and welcome new leaders as well as provide a number of ways in which people can participate in the process.

Overcoming Obstacles
In spite of the best planning, communities will encounter obstacles as they move forward with any economic development activity. Communities that are ready to embark on an entrepreneurship development program are cognizant of and have dealt with these obstacles and pitfalls. They have worked their way through them and have in place the people or mechanisms necessary to ensure action. Here are some obstacles you should be watching for:

Leadership is controlled by a group of elites who maintain their roles by excluding others. You should strive to have many stakeholders involved in the leadership of your entrepreneurship development efforts.
Strong individuals derail efforts by not working within a sense of community or leaders succumb to group think (a path of least resistance or conflict) or brute think (being bulldozed into accepting a solution just to be done with it). You should encourage debate and discussion from all stakeholders, keeping the community’s goals in the forefront at all times.
The decision-making process becomes mired or twisted, leading to the community choosing the wrong path or strategy. You should establish decision-making criteria and stick to them—alternatives are presented, all voices are heard, and you allow adequate time for decision-making.
Too many approaches or steps are included, overwhelming volunteers and threatening implementation. The process with the fewest steps is the best.
People fail to take action and the process simply dies. You should develop and commit to implementation plans that include who’s responsible for seeing that actions occur.

Tools for Readiness Assessment

Remember, a community that is “ready” for entrepreneurship development has made a commitment to economic development generally and has assessed its readiness in terms of these qualities and characteristics:

Particular capacities in human, financial, and physical infrastructure
A supportive business/entrepreneurial history
A strong self-image with positive citizen and community attitudes
Open and creative community leadership, or leadership environment, that encourages and nurtures emerging leaders

What tools can you use to assess your community’s readiness for entrepreneurship development? While there are many tools to assess readiness three tools are included under Tools for this section: 20 Clues to Rural Community Survival, Community Readiness Factors, and the Rural Community Entrepreneurship Survey. We also suggest ways in which you might want to use them in your community.

After the Assessment —Targeting Readiness Factors

A lot of new knowledge about a community’s readiness for an entrepreneurship development program has just come your way, and we have provided several tools for you to use in further assessing your community’s readiness. What happens next?

Through any means possible, avoid inaction. The three readiness assessment tools have given you lots of specific information regarding your community. Share what you’ve learned broadly throughout your community. Now’s the time to write that newspaper article or develop a brief presentation to share with civic groups throughout the community. This information can be used to generate enthusiasm for entrepreneurship development beyond the committed group of community leaders that initiated the readiness assessment process.

You have also identified strengths and challenges. Perhaps begin by focusing on the strengths and maximizing them. Celebrate your strengths as a way of generating some positive movement for entrepreneurship development. If youth entrepreneurship is a strength in your community, figure out a way for these young entrepreneurs to be celebrated at your next chamber meeting. And, taking it one step further, develop a mentoring network to link experienced entrepreneurs with these young people.

Most importantly, don’t let a low readiness score derail your efforts. Remember the story of Ord, Nebraska. Look for potential partners in your state or region who can help you build capacity for entrepreneurship development in your community.

Additional Resources

We have developed cutting edge and comprehensive information to help your community or region determine your level of readiness for moving to an entrepreneurial economy. This resource includes background information about the key elements essential to readiness. There are also tools and protocols you can use to help your corner of rural America get ready for an entrepreneurial future.

For further analysis on community infrastructure read two articles by Cornelia Butler Flora: “Enhancing Community Capitals: The Optimization Equation.” Rural Development News 21 (1): 1-2. www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/newsletter/mar97/enhance.comm.cap.html.

“Building Social Capital: The Importance of Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure.” Rural Development News 21 (2): 1-2. www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/newsletter/june97/build-soc-capital.html.

Clues to Rural Community Survival, by Vicki Luther and Milan Wall of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, provides case studies of 18 thriving rural communities, with insights on why they are succeeding. www.heartlandcenter.info/publications.htm.

For great research on the factors that influence successful community building and a good basic foundation for looking at community readiness check out Community Building: What makes it Work? by Paul Mattesich and Barbara Monsey. Second printing 2001. Published by the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. www.wilder.org

The Organization of Hope: A Workbook for Rural Asset-Based Community Development. Luther Snow. The ABCD Institute and the Blandin Foundation. 2001. Evanston, Ill. Based on the work of John McKnight in asset-mapping, this offers another look at rural community development based on strengths, not deficits.

The Center has more resources and can provide additional assistance to you as you support entrepreneurs in your community. To access Center Resources, click on our logo.