Finding and Keeping Talent

Entrepreneurs thrive in entrepreneur-friendly communities. What makes a community entrepreneur friendly? Community leaders, elected officials, and others who see entrepreneurship as an essential tool to strengthen rural America. The following information was compiled from the last installment of the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative Webinar series in December 2014.

Entrepreneurial Talent
Does your community have a wide and diverse number of businesses and social and civic enterprises? Do local people have an interest and desire in starting new businesses and nonprofit ventures?

Entrepreneurial Infrastructure
Is it easy to do business in your town? How much work is involved in getting a business license, paying taxes, and obtaining other services? Can local businesses count on top-class roads, broadband access and other needed  infrastructure?

A business or social venture is only as good as the entrepreneurs who run them. Effective entrepreneurs never stop learning and work to access the latest thinking and ideas about their companies, their communities, and the world. Does your region provide a wide array of local education, enrichment and training opportunities?


Youth Engagement
Young people are creative, entrepreneurial, open to new ideas and more willing and able to take risks. They are not always encouraged to think this way. Young adults are sometimes pushed to move away for economic opportunity, make it difficult for youth to engage in public activities or fail to provide them with entrepreneurial opportunities.  Does your community promote youth entrepreneurship?

Groups That Can Help
Several think tanks and researchers have produced guides for building entrepreneur-friendly communities.

• The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s E2 University on-line platform has great ideas and tips for building a business, or for building a more entrepreneur-friendly community.
   
• The Center’s Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities is also an excellent hands-on guide for community leaders with many examples from rural regions across the US.
   
• The Aspen Institute’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Diagnostic Toolkit helps community leaders better understand their local entrepreneur networks, and to design more effective strategies and tools to support them.
   
• Start up Communities, offers real world tips for community leaders, especially in regions focused on technology-based businesses.