Country Scribe’s Entrepreneurial Cry

The Center of Innovation at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks is run by Bruce Gjovig, a dynamic, innovator who understands the importance of entrepreneurism to states like ND. I read everything that he sends me and a recent email from him told me, “Eric Bergeson operates Bergeson Nurseries near Fertile, MN. He also writes a weekly column for rural newspapers in the area.” You can read his past columns and daily blog at www.countryscribe.com.

Here is part of Eric’s column on the importance of rural towns spending less time on recruiting in the next big company and instead spending that time on growing their local entrepreneurs.

“No, the businesses which have truly transformed a lucky few declining small towns into bustling, growing, vigorous communities have been home-grown.

Some local kid decided to stay around home and try out a crazy idea. A window factory. A snowmobile plant. An electronic parts distributor. A fishing-lure manufacturer. A curtain factory.

People thought he or she was nuts, but the dreamers just kept chasing their dream, sticking to it through thick and thin.

Perhaps they had a friend or two around town who helped them out and later became an employee. Perhaps some of the people down at the cafe resisted the urge to criticize and instead offered encouragement.

But when the business took off, after years and years of debt and struggle and trial and error and sleepless nights and failures by the dozen, the home-grown entrepreneur remembered those who helped him out.

He remembered the teachers who believed in him, so he set up a fund for the school. He remembered playing football on the old cow pasture, so he built a nice new field.

Most importantly, the home-grown entrepreneur sticks around. He is loyal to the town. He’s not going to demand tax breaks from the local municipality because he knows that paying taxes is one of his main functions, a way he can help sustain the infrastructure which he uses to make a living.

The home-grown entrepreneur isn’t so short sighted as to move to the first city which offers him a temporary break on taxes. He is stubborn enough not to sell out to the first mega-company which offers him millions to give up local control.”

Pretty good thinking on Eric’s part. I hope that you will bookmark his blog and check on it regularly.