No one creates jobs in a vacuum

No one creates jobs in a vacuum. 

• They need to connect to customers. 
• They need to connect to people at suppliers and service providers.
• They need to connect to people who help them think of the new ideas that generate new value that create more demand that lead to new jobs. 
• They need to connect to people who can fill those jobs. 

Innovation isn’t about a lone inventor sitting in a lab somewhere. Innovation is about two or three people putting together pieces of seemingly unrelated ideas to generate a new idea.

Innovation works best when people connect with people outside their usual network, people who aren’t exactly like them. 

Your town has different kinds of people. You have different businesses. You have people with differing ideas. 

When you bring them together and help them connect, you’re spurring innovation and generating future jobs. 

How can you do that, when you’re already overwhelmed with too many things to do? Add more deliberate networking to things you’re already doing. 

Do you hold a business fair? Add networking.
Have a conference or workshop? Add networking.

And acknowledge that what you’re doing is not just about people talking to each other. It’s about creating new jobs. 

If you want more detail on how to add networking and how to make it worth everyone’s time, Deb Brown and I will be focused on this in our webinar on Rural Jobs Creation Strategies. The live event is April 20, at 6pm Central time. It will be recorded. It costs $20. 

You can invite friends. In fact, we hope you do. We want you to do some networking and relationship building. You can hold several viewings of the replay, any time in the two weeks between April 21 and May 5, as long as you are personally present for each of them. 

PS – Last minute notice! You’ve seen the news about WalMart closing stores and seeing a decrease in revenue. Tonight at 7pm Central time, I’ll be talking with Tom Shay about how small biz can take advantage of WalMart’s stumbles.