ED-Central
Welcome to the inaugural edition of ED-Central, a monthly e-newsletter from the Economic Development Resource Library. A program of the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), ED-Central will provide practical advice and inspired ideas to the leaders and practitioners working to create sustainable economic prosperity in small, underserved and rural communities. In each issue of this monthly letter, we will offer an in-depth look at one topic relevant to economic development in small, underserved and/or rural communities. In addition, we will present a few of the more innovative ideas we’ve come across in small community development. Finally, from time to time, we will put the spotlight on one community, what they’ve been doing toward an enhanced economy and how it’s going thus far.

We welcome your comments and feedback, encourage you to share this message with your friends and colleagues and wish you the greatest of success in your economic development endeavors.

Respectfully,
Your friends at www.ed-central.com
info@ED-Central.com

In This Issue


Develop a practical and applied economic development approach for your community. Convert challenges into opportunities and leverage your most important assets: leadership & entrepreneurship.

In contrast to urban communities, rural and underserved communities in general face a completely different set of challenges when embarking on economic development activities. Most of the tools available for traditional economic development require a significant investment in time, infrastructure and financial resources – our small communities do not have the funding, specialized staff, and access to key local information that are inherently available to bigger communities. In many cases we are faced with the challenge of having to decide what grant to pursue not only based on our particular community needs but also based on the fact that we may not have the resources to apply for the grant, or worse, to manage the grant if awarded.

But with these challenges also come opportunities. We tend to enjoy a closer and stronger sense of community. We can make decisions faster and move on them rapidly, and, when needed, we can ‘get the word out’ and harness support for worthy causes. We do not have to contend with heavy layers of bureaucracy and we enjoy easy access to our community leaders. We live in a “known universe,” and somehow seem to always be able to inspire that unique individual with the entrepreneurial spirit needed to make things happen. Above all, due to current changes in population trends and technology developments – particularly those enabling telecommuting – we are observing that, for instance, people reside in many of our small rural communities not because they can’t afford to move to the big city but because they can finally afford to live and fully experience their small communities’ heritage, quality of life and small town values. They can depart from the problems inherent to big metropolitan areas, leaving behind traffic congestion, pollution and long commutes.

Granted, “converting challenges into opportunities” is easier said than done but when looking at what underserved communities all over the world are doing in order to prosper – mostly by out-of-the-box thinking and taking on opportunistic strategies – one thing is certain, it can be done.

In our experience and working with small communities and small businesses in particular, we’ve identified four critical steps in the economic development process.

Assess the Situation

Before setting out to create your economic development plan, it's valuable (if not critical) to first understand where you stand economically as a community and document your baseline conditions. A snapshot of demographics (current ones – not what the latest census tells us), income statistics, industrial base, existing infrastructure and financial status provides a base from which to build and eventually measure the effectiveness of your economic development strategy. We recommend that you include photography in your baseline report. These pictures will prove valuable in telling your success story as your proceed with your plan.

Develop a Realistic Plan

Once you’ve documented your baseline you’ll be armed with the information you need to educate local stakeholders, providing them with a realistic state-of-your-town report. We’ve found it is very valuable to present this information in an informal workshop setting and then invite community representatives (7-12 is usually a good number) to share what they love about the town and what they’d like to see change. Capturing dreams and aspirations, hopes and fears is a healthy exercise and quickly gets to core values of any community. These then form the basis of your economic development plan. We’ve found it works well to create a complete list of projects and then work with the workshop participants to rank them in priority order. In doing so, you create a community developed plan of action that is prioritized so you can easily identify which projects should receive your attention and resources. And of course, any good plan must include a timeline and budget. You won’t get these done during the workshop itself but taking the time to establish a timeline (complete with milestones to aid in measuring performance) and budget to guide your efforts is a key to successful implementation of your plan.

Execute Your Plan

In executing economic development plans, most underserved communities are going to have to seek outside support. You may need to seek technical assistance to conduct housing studies from an entity like TEEX, prepare grants to government and private sources or hire a professional services firm to develop your promotional strategy or design your web site. Whatever the case, as you execute your plan, be sure to assign specific tasks to specific resources – staff members, contractors, volunteers and you. Regardless of who steps up to take on a task, they need to understand expectations for timeline and budget for completion of the task or project and then be held accountable for getting the work done.

Measure Performance and Impacts

If you pay attention to the details in documenting your baseline and developing your plan, measuring performance will be easy. Check progress against milestones. If you’re hitting milestones in a timely manner, great. If not, ask yourself if your timeline was realistic. Did an unanticipated event get in the way? Maybe the resource allocation was off and you need to assign new staff. Whatever the case, make adjustments early to prevent major deviations from the overall plan. Document key performance indicators such as sales tax, hotel tax, hotel occupancy, employment rates, overnight stays, and visits to your web site. Over time, as you track these numbers you’ll identify trends that will prove valuable as you refine your strategy and charge ahead.

Assess Again

Once your plan is underway, periodic assessments will keep you on track toward achieving your goals. Look at your key performance indicators, stay on top of trends in your region and make the most of new opportunities by adjusting your plan, executing, measuring effectiveness…and so on.

About the authors. Jose Quintana, President, AdventGX Inc. & Joan Tatge, Communications Director, AdventGX Inc. AdventGX is a tourism and economic development consulting company based out of the Texas A&M University Research Park on main campus in College Station, TX – the authors can be reached at jose@adventgx.com & joantatge@adventgx.com respectively.