“Helping towns” doesn’t mean towns under 30,000?! My answer

You might have seen the article from the New York Times that was going around with this headline: Helping Towns by Seeding Their Own Backyard With Start-Ups – “EforAll fosters local entrepreneurship by supporting aspiring small-business owners who have ideas but lack capital and connections.”

E for All sounds terrific, doesn’t it? Except they don’t really mean “for all.” And that headline that says “towns” doesn’t really mean “towns.” 

“Mr. Deshpande said he realized the limitations of the program. For instance, the model works only in communities with at least 30,000 residents. ‘If it’s a rural area of 500 people, it’s not going to do much,’ he said.”

And that’s where he’s wrong. That’s exactly the area where these ideas could work best. You just have to know how rural places work. These are exactly the places we focused on when we created our Innovative Rural Business Models and Rural Jobs Creation Strategies. 

You’ve heard the successes from Tionesta, Pennsylvannia, where they’re seeding entrepreneurship in their own backyard. They’re using garden sheds and connecting people with resources. Yes, in a rural area of 500 people. 

So forget about the big philanthropists coming to save your town since they can’t understand anything under 30,000. You’re going to save your town with the resources you have right now. If you need practical suggestions that work in small towns, we’ve got you.

Keep shaping the future of your town, 
Becky

PS – We’ve just opened our new learning resource called, appropriately enough, LearnTo.SaveYour.Town