Site Selection magazine has reported its top small towns for entrepreneurial start-ups or business relocation. They are:
Traverse City, MI
Plattsburgh, NY
Bowling Green, KY
Mooresville, NC
Danville, IL
Effingham, IL
Morristown, TX
?In Boomtown USA: The Seven-and-a-Half Keys to Big Success in Small Towns, author Jack Schultz cites the fundamental factors that separate Traverse City from the pack:
? Civic leaders adopt a can-do attitude that promotes change.
? Political leaders adopt and clearly articulate a vision for growth.
Infrastructure resources of the community are leveraged to encourage new and expanding industries.
? Strong leaders are grown from within.
? Leadership encourages an entrepreneurial approach to growth and development.
? Planners retain local control over industrial growth policies.
? Marketers build and leverage the community’s brand identity.?
These towns have all embraced change and not tried in vain to hang on to failing industries. When government enters into duplicitous relationships with businesses and industries and tries to prop them up when they begin to falter, not only will the companies fail anyway, but the town will suffer. Free markets and entrepreneurial wellsprings are what keep these towns vital and alive.
This report was sited in this week’s National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship.
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