Rural Business

Take it to the bank. A rural board meeting somewhere is grappling with the question of growth. These passionate discussions happen constantly in small towns. On one side are those who do not want their community to become a metropolis. On the other are those who want to see new infrastructure, services and economic opportunities.

Every community changes. Look back 10 years anywhere and the amount of change may surprise you. The question is whether that change has been positive. If a community is growth-minded and focused on improving its economy, programs and services; and helping its people – particularly its young people – thrive, there’s a greater chance the change has been good. However, if there is apathy or too many obstacles to growth, the local economy can stagnate, and the change manifests as deterioration of buildings, infrastructure, businesses and optimism. 

For a community to thrive, it must grow. The U.S. remains a land of opportunity boasting the strongest economy in the world and offering the greatest quality of life in history. The freedom to acquire property, establish businesses and build them up to provide for employees and their families is central to the economy. It creates vibrant communities that grow at a rate sufficient to provide opportunities for their residents, including youth who wish to stay.

The question then becomes how to grow. Leaders are wise to be leery of the golden goose promising to solve all economic problems and poised to change a rural town overnight. My family recently drove to Logan Springs – the former home of a mining community in southeastern Nevada. It existed briefly in the late 1800s after silver ore was found in the hills. The town boasted several buildings and a post office, growing to 300 people seemingly overnight. Then mining currents changed, and the town quickly turned to dust. Little remains today where Logan, Nevada once stood. Situations like these dot our history, where a single industry or company makes or breaks a town.

The best way to grow is from within. This makes sense when realizing most opportunities in America come from small businesses. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council reports that 62% of net job creation in the U.S. has come from small businesses since 1995. And “small businesses created 1.6 million net new jobs in 2019, with firms employing fewer than 20 workers generating 1.1 million net new jobs.”

As growth comes up in small towns, my hope is leaders ask how to support the people who are already there. Questions like these are useful: 

“How can we support existing small businesses?” 

“How can we help entrepreneurs start new ones that will enhance the community?” 

“What obstacles can we help remove?” 

“What does the rising generation need in training and opportunity to generate more homegrown success?”

That mindset will allow more rural communities to look back 10 years from now with gratitude at what they see – a flourishing town that still feels like home.

Rural Business in the News

Here are some rural business stories that caught my attention.

Greenhouse celebrates 45 years of poinsettia production

Business North Carolina profiles a family-owned greenhouse in Stokes County, North Carolina, marking 45 years of cultivating poinsettias. The business, known for its diverse selection of poinsettias, also grows other plants like geraniums and ferns. With no plans to slow down, the family business is expanding and continues its tradition of providing high-quality plants to the community.

News articles throughout the U.S. each Thanksgiving week promote “Small Business Saturday.” It’s the day following “Black Friday,” when consumers are encouraged to support local, independent retailers with their Christmas shopping dollars.  

Farm Bureau Financial Services (FBFS) reports that American Express launched the promotion in 2010 “to help small businesses gain exposure and inspire consumers to shop within their own communities during the holiday season.” Local, state and federal officials, looking to help small businesses work their way out of the Great Recession, quickly endorsed the idea, and an annual day supporting mom-and-pop shops around the country was born. According to AmEx, this has led to more than $200 billion in Small Business Saturday sales since 2012.

That’s cool. The more days and events geared toward strengthening small businesses, the better. This is especially true for rural businesses that serve limited customer bases and compete daily with multinational corporations for local dollars. I often hear reports from owners that Small Business Saturday and major community events are the difference-makers for their businesses.

But rather than a few days where we alter our shopping habits, why not permanently change them to help local economies thrive? 

That’s undoubtedly easier said than done, and it’s not all on consumers. We gratefully live in a free-market economy that rewards good ideas. Businesses large and small must provide products and services people want and can afford. Successful entrepreneurs continually assess how they can best serve their customers, not how they can make customers feel sorry for them so they’ll buy an inferior product. 

That said, consumers could significantly impact their local economy by supporting local businesses over large corporations. According to FBFS, for every dollar spent at a local small business, 68 cents stays within the local economy. That’s the money that supports school programs, parks, emergency services – you name it. I’ve found that some of the most generous people on the planet are small business owners. They are frequently approached to support the good causes of the community and are generally the quickest to write the checks.

Besides, a community with many thriving small businesses is a more enjoyable place to live. It fights off isolation and loneliness as we interact in shops, restaurants and community markets. It creates jobs and economic independence. It produces people with purpose – a community-minded bunch who work together to push their small towns forward. 

There are more opportunities to spend those dollars locally than one might think, but it does require a paradigm shift. We’ve been well-trained to find what we need online or at the big box, but as one chamber of commerce leader recently told me, nearby small businesses often offer the same products (or better ones) at reasonable prices. These businesses certainly need to find more ways to let consumers know they’re there, but all other things being equal, it wouldn’t hurt to ask this simple question when reaching for the wallet:

Should this dollar go to the corporate billionaire, or to that nice lady from the PTA? 

Or that gentleman from church. 

Or that local grower at the farmer’s market. 

I’ve got nothing against billionaires, but if I have a choice between funding their next trip to space or the next elementary school field trip – it’s a pretty easy decision.

Ben Rowley is a small-town news publisher and writes about Rural Business issues. Find more content at RuralBusiness.com. Have a Rural Business story to share? Reach out at contact@ruralbusiness.com.

Moab, Utah has seen its fair share of boom times. First it was the uranium boom in the 1960s and 70s, when prospectors flooded Moab to mine the nuclear fuel, and trailer camps dotted the desert landscape. Then it was the tourism boom of the 2010s, when the Mighty Five campaign drew visitors from near and far to Utah’s five stunning, red-rock national parks. 

However, these boom times have only led to bust for affordable housing. Like many other gateway communities, which serve as entry to the great outdoors, Moab’s housing market continues to suffer in the shadows of its nearby natural beauty.

“What happens is the housing stock that should be there for the locals gets turned into nightly rentals for tourists, or second or third homes,” said Rikki Epperson, executive director of Community Rebuilds, a Moab-based affordable housing nonprofit. “There are so many homes that are vacant most of the year.”  Layer on a pandemic and a major economic downturn, and the year-round residents of Moab — people like teachers, firefighters and healthcare workers — are left with minimal affordable housing options beyond the outdated uranium trailer homes. 

Transforming those trailer homes into affordable, energy efficient housing is exactly how Community Rebuilds found its footing. Over the past two decades, the nonprofit has built 73 homes across five counties, housing 91 people and teaching hundreds more about renewable energy and sustainable construction.