Good idea for Stokes County

I received this from a friend this week. It fits in nicely with our efforts to improve the local economy. Let me know what you think.

THIS IS A GREAT THOUGHT



Christmas 2011 -- Birth of a New Tradition



As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods -- merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!



It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone -- yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?



Gym membership? It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.



Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.



Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plonking down the Benjamines on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.



There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn't about big National chains -- this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.



How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?



Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.



My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.



OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.



Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre.



Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.



Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.



You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine. THIS is the new American Christmas tradition.



Forward this to everyone on your mailing list, post it to discussion groups -- throw up a post on Craigslist in the Rants and Raves section in your city -- send it to the editor of your local paper and radio stations, and TV news departments. This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn't that what Christmas is about?








Shirley

Shirley Marquez
Vice President
Heritage Bank of North Florida

Others seem to be getting it.

Post found from lower MD paper on local job growth. Sounds like they were in our board meeting:

Creating jobs locally
The topic of the county’s annual economic development’s summit last week was “Harvest Our Own: Cultivating Growth and Job Creation From Within.” A development expert told those in attendance that government should spend less time in today’s economic environment trying to entice major corporations to come to town and instead spend more time supporting the businesses that are already here. Local consumers can offer the same kind of support by buying local whenever they can.

Many of the summit’s topics centered on and offered help for small businesses. The agenda featured sessions that offered good advice to small business owners and tips for survival in a down economy. That was a good start. But there are many resources currently available in Charles County that those considering opening a business or the new entrepreneur can readily take advantage of.

For starters, at the College of Southern Maryland, the Small Business Development Center can offer assistance to those considering starting a business. The professionals there can offer tips on how to get money, how to write a business plan and what kinds of skills you need, for example. The Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland has a workforce and business development office and programs available.

The business calendar in today’s paper on page B-7 lists nearly a dozen local organizations and networking groups that can offer invaluable help for anyone in business or starting a business. From the Charles County Chamber of Commerce to the technology council there are offers of networking events. In Wednesday’s edition, there was news of a Business Alliance of Charles County that is forming to provide legislative advocacy and community service opportunities and, of course, more networking events. There are plenty of people in the business community who are willing to share their expertise.

According to the Small Business Administration, 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first five years. Experts blame that statistic on several issues, some of them being that people who start their own business lack the experience and have insufficient capital to run their enterprises, conducted inadequate research, chose the wrong locations and often failed to ask for help when the going got tough.

It is a challenging time for those thinking of taking the first step into the business world as well as those who are already doing business here. The summit chose a great topic. No Fortune 500 company is coming to the county anytime soon, so the county’s economic development will have to depend on small businesses to create new jobs. The good news is that Charles County has resources to offer and most of them are relatively inexpensive to access.
ound the story below in my blog reading today. It sounds like they recorded one of our planning sessions and uses it at tgeir meeting. It is not about hunting buffalo, it is about building on and supporting the businesses in our community. Maybe if enough of us sound the charge we can make a difference:

Importance of Supporting Small Business and Buying Local

Working to maintain and assist with the growth of our existing businesses in Stokes County has been one of our four main focuses over the past three years. That support and our efforts to assist entrepreneurs with their endeavors occupies the majority of our time, energy and marketing budget for economic development. The report below addresses why this is important. Small businesses, which make up over 95% of all the entities in Stokes County are responsible for the vast majoirty of job growth that occurs. Buying Local is an important part of sustaining these businesses and helping them in their efforts to create new jobs and wealth in the community. Are you doing your part to make this happen. See our website to watch our buy local video and take the buy local pledge. Think Stokes First!

A bright spot for small businesses: Job creation
By Nin-Hai Tseng, writer-reporter November 1, 2011: 10:15 AM ET It's easy to blame the little guy for persistently high unemployment, but the reality is that many small businesses are actually hiring while big companies aren't.
FORTUNE – U.S. small businesses are often thought of as the engine of job creation. During the past decade, mom-and-pop shopkeepers, plumbers and the like created more than 60% of net private-sector jobs. So when the economy turned sour, it wasn't surprising that small businesses bore the brunt of the blame for high unemployment.

It's true that the little guys drove more of the drop in employment during the recession. They also held back on hiring during the early stages of the economic recovery. But today small firms are doing better than most think, according to a Capital Economics report.

Even though widely cited surveys suggest they continue having a gloomy picture of the economy, small businesses are actually hiring considerably more than big companies. Since last March, firms with 500 or fewer employees have added 60,000 jobs a month to private payroll employment "while large businesses have added nothing," says Paul Dales, an economist with Capital Economics, citing ADP employment surveys.

This comes as President Obama focuses on giving small business tax credits and other incentives in his $447 billion jobs plan. It also comes as the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) paints a bleak economic picture. The small employer lobbying group's latest optimism index showed that "September was another bad job creation month," with the percentage of small firms with one or more job openings dropping to 14% from 15% in August. What's more, such firms saw a 5% decline in employment during the last three months and haven't seen an increase in jobs since December 2007.

"Things are pretty bad but they're not as bad as some believe," Dales says.

It's not to say that small firms aren't struggling like the rest of us. Unemployment remains high. And the housing market continues to constrain consumers' spending power, giving small business owners (and big companies) less reason to hire more workers.

Indeed, they're not hiring like they used to. But why all the excess gloom?

It could be that perhaps the smallest firms are having a rougher go of it. Think of your neighborhood hardware store with 10 or fewer employees. The NFIB says such businesses make up more than half (70%) of members surveyed for its index. By contrast, the ADP, which generally labels small firms as those having fewer than 500 employees, is seeing job creation.

The differences highlight that even though small businesses are often clumped together by everyone from politicians to policymakers, their potential to hire, expand and innovate vary widely. This is something that researchers at the University of Chicago recently pointed out. Erik Hurst and Benjamin Wild Puglsey say most surviving small businesses aren't particularly innovative. Nor do they spend much on research and development. What's more, they tend not to grow "by any significant margin."

More to the point: It's the difference between the Jack Dorsey's of the world versus the owners of your corner convenient store. Whereas Dorsey's Twitter has grown to 600-plus employees since it was created in 2006, the corner store will likely stay the same size at least for many years.

We've seen this with tech-start-ups, which naturally start out small and are the few firms doing much hiring today. As my colleague Dan Primack pointed out earlier this year, a survey of executives of early-stage companies in the software, hardware, life sciences and cleantech sectors show that startup hiring is on the rise this year. According to Silicon Valley Bank, two-thirds of respondents said that overall business conditions have improved during the past year, and three-quarters expect things to get even better in the next 12 months.

And so Washington politicos and policymakers – many eager to lend small firms a helping hand – may want to look deeper at the array of businesses out there. After all, just because they start off small doesn't mean they're created equal. And so they probably shouldn't be treated as such

Are you a value added person?

This question popped into my head as I was viewing a clip on the state of manufacturing in the US. In most cases, the greater the value that a company is able to bring to a product, the better their profit margins and the more successful they will be. I think that people can probably be judged in the same way.

To me, this means giving more back to the world than you take away. It may be as simple as a smile and pat on the back or a kind word. It could be helping someone get their groceries into their car (as a very kind young man did for my mother last week.) It could be stopping to help a woman who was frantic over her pet being hit by and car on a cold and rainy night (as my wife did this week.) It doesn't cost anything to be a value added person and the rewards in how you feel about yourself are tremendous.

I am sure you are asking yourself by this time: What has this to do with a buy local project? To me it is very simple: by shopping from businesses that are in our community, you are adding value to your friends and neighbors, creating wealth that stays in the county, creating jobs and growth.

Our retailers can be value added people as well, offering the best prices and service possible. Taking time to give their customers a smile and giving referals to other businesses in the county whenever possible.

By adding a little value to each others lives, we can make Stokes County an even better and more vibrant community in which to live.

Think Stokes First: The Arts Are Economic Development

Picking up where I left off with my last article, buying local and our effort to “Think Stokes First” is just a part of the process needed to help the county’s economy grow. It is an important part but by itself, it cannot sustain us alone.

Understanding that this is the case, our economic development efforts are very focused on retaining existing business and looking at every opportunity to help them grow. The EDC Board and the Board of County Commissioners understand that this is where the bulk of job growth will take place. “Think Stokes First” is just a part of this process, as is developing tourism, working with entrepreneurs, and whenever possible, recruiting new businesses to the area.

Our focus today is on the “Arts” and our artist community as an economic development engine. We are very fortunate to have a vibrant art community in Stokes County. The Stokes County Arts Council is led by a dynamic director: Eddy McGee. Eddy is supported by an extremely active board of directors. This small group strives to make art real for the entire community, from engaging our students in the schools, to hosting a winter desert theater, to providing venues all across the county for artisans of all kinds to practice their craft and to promote it to our citizens.

The arts and our artisans are essential to the health and vitality of our communities. They improve the quality of life in our cities and town. They enhance community development; spur urban renewal; attract new businesses and draw tourism dollars. Most artists and craftspeople are problem solvers and critical thinkers.

In addition, a healthy arts community acts as an economic engine for the county. A prime example would be the many live music events that take place during the year and the Stokes Stomp in particular. This year, the Stomp drew approximately 16,000 people to Danbury and for two days, transformed it into the largest municipality in the county and based on survey information gathered during the event spent about $1 million while they were in town.

While the other events of a musical or artistic nature do not have quite so dramatic an impact, all arts add significantly to the quality of life, which helps make this county an even more desirable location. The arts and crafts specific to our area define our unique characteristics, they attract tourists and other artists, they educate and keep alive our artistic customs and they contribute to the economic well-being of the community.

So if you are looking for a gift or a great way to pass some time this weekend, think about making the purchase from a local artisan or stop by that live music event at a local restaurant. It all comes down to “Think Stokes First.”

Buy Local Support

The Stokes County Board of Commissioners passsed a "Buy Local" Proclamation and it was signed on September 12 (see above). The Commissioners understand, as do I, that we must support local businesses for Stokes County to grow and thrive. I will be taking the campaign to all the municipalities in the county in the next few weeks as well as to anyone else that will stop and listen to the message. Help spread the word and stop by the Stokes EDC Booth at KingFest to sign your "Buy Local" Pledge. You can make a difference.

Think Stokes First

The Stokes County Economic Development Commission (EDC) along with assistance from the King Chamber of Commerce and the Walnut Cove Main Street merchants are embarking on a “Buy Local” campaign for Stokes County. The campaign, to be tagged “Think Stokes First” is intended to raise the awareness of why making purchase of goods and services is important to not only the businesses in Stokes County but for our residents as well.

Let’s start the conversation with a number: $397,030,630. That is the estimated gap or amount of retail purchases made by Stokes county residents (in this case residents includes businesses located in the county) outside of the borders of the county or 62% of all retail purchases. Why should this concern you, you ask? There are many reasons but the most important are:
• Sales tax is now reimbursed to counties based on where purchases are made, not on the population of the county. When you make a purchase outside of the county, your are in effect supporting the economic health of those counties, not where you live
• Choosing to make your purchases outside of the county takes away revenue from local businesses that are the heart and soul of the community. These are your friends and neighbors who support your schools, churches and local charities. If you don’t support them, they can’t stay in business and we all suffer
• Making a special trip outside the county to make a purchase probably costs you money. If you have a 40 mile round trip to make a purchase you should add at least $20 to the price of your purchase (IRS allows .555/mile so you can consider this as your break-even rate) plus the value of your time it take to make the trip, your $100 purchase suddenly cost the equivalent of $135, not much of a saving, is it.
We know that it isn’t as simple as this, a large percentage of our residents work outside the county and there are many products that we have less than an adequate supply. That is okay, we do not expect to capture the majority or even a large minority of these sales but think about this: a change of 5% would mean an additional $19,000,000 in revenue to businesses in the county and a significant increase in sales tax revenue. Before you make your next purchase, Think Stokes First, it will make a difference.