Texas Leadership Institute (TLI) Survey

TLI is now a program of TCRE and is about to offer courses on a regional basis across rural Texas. If you would like to receive notification of future TLI courses and other workshops and news related to leadership, community and economic development, please subscribe using the link on the TCRE homepage. In preparation for selecting courses to offer and locations that will make participation more feasible for folks around rural Texas, I have posted an online survey. When you have a few minutes, please provide your responses to this short survey as it will provide valuable guidance for future TLI operations. The survey can be accessed HERE and should not take more than 10 minutes to complete. Thanks in advance for your assistance. We look forward to seeing you at future TLI courses in your area.

Headed to Sonora in the morning to visit with the Concho Valley EDC Peer Networking group. Afterwards we will visit the Caverns of Sonora. Look at their web site at http://ping.fm/qviK5 Looks like it will be an interesting day.

TLI under TCRE getting quick start. Teaming with Texas Film Commission to offer Film Friendly classes around TX starting this fall.

Texas Rural Challenge

If you didn’t attend the Texas Rural Challenge in San Marcos the past few days you missed a great event. The conference was organized by many, but kudos go out to Gil Gonzalez, Director of the Rural Business Program at the UTSA IED for chairing the event and for the TEDC staff for their major contributions. We heard speakers address Community Planning Tools, Community Research Tools, Infrastructure Planning & Development, Capacity Building, Creating New Markets for Small Businesses, Entrepreneurship as an Economic Development Tool, Rural Resources and Capital Access. Outstanding keynote speakers included Brian Dabson from RUPRI, Bob McKinley from UTSA IED, Judy Canales from USDA-RD Washington, and Burt Chojnowski from Fairfield, Iowa. Looks like this will be an annual event so make plans to attend next year as it should be even bigger and better. The networking among the 250 plus participants was invaluable.  Watch future posts for links to presentations.

Developing Entrepreneur Ready Communities

For those interested in working with communities to become Entrepreneur Ready, there will be a free webinar 9-10 a.m. CDT on Tuesday, April 20. We will share background and criteria for the TCRE certification program. This will be on the TAMU Centra system…guest URL is http://165.95.250.7/GA/main/000000738e971101259941074c006d72 Please email gclary@ag.tamu.edu with questions or problems. Following is a program description:

Learn about what it takes for your community to be certified as an Entrepreneur Ready Community including:
1. Benefits of entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy
2. Organizing the effort including who should be involved and how to get started
3. Educational programs to build local interest and capacity
4. Assessments that guide identification of community and economic issues for remediation
5. Fostering key partnerships and networks to create a sustainable entrepreneur support system

Operating a virtual office

Alan Weinkrantz published an informative column in the April 6 San Antonio Express-News on operating a virtual office. With the tight challenging economic times business owners are facing, it seems imperative to do whatever possible to run your office more efficiently and at a much lower cost. I attended several seminars at RISE Austin several weeks ago and met several entrepreneurs that are working virtually and some that use communal office space rented temporarily from a provider. One of the seminars was actually held in an old house in East Austin that had been converted to accommodate several budding entrepreneurs that were bootstrapping their businesses.

Technology and cloud computing has made it much easier to run a virtual company. Several online tools are available that you might want to look into such as Google Apps, www.google.com/apps. You will find a comprehensive suite of online applications for work processing, spreadsheets, calendars, document sharing, communications and many others for very little cost per year.

Another site you might want to look at is Small Business Web (thesmallbusinessweb.com) as it has a directory of Web-based applications that include accounting, analytics, billing, customer relationship management, ecommerce, and many more. The great thing about all these software applications is that you do not have to own anything and never have to worry about upgrading. It is all done automatically on the various sites.

“Give me a computer and a cell phone and I can do business about anywhere I have connectivity” is commonly heard in entrepreneur circles. There is not doubt that technology is changing the face of how we do business. There is a steep learning curve for some of the applications and sometimes it takes a little creativity to fit them to your specific needs. However, it is here to stay and offers a considerable amount of efficiencies if we learn how to adapt the appropriate tools to our needs. I for one am looking at ways to help more people with less windshield time.

Making the case for supporting entrepreneurs

The first of what I hope will be many recorded programs aimed at developing Entrepreneur Ready Communities is listed at on the TCRE/Resources/Webinars page…first posting is Making the Case for Supporting Entrepreneurs as an Economic Development Strategy: a Historical Perspective. This is my attempt at being a little creative after thinking about the fact that entrepreneurship is not something new and that we should occasionally look to history as it offers many lessons that benefit us today. Enjoy and look for future installments on related topics as I get the technology kinks worked out. Any and all comments are welcome.

Entrepreneurial Communities Gathering

Over 50 attendees at the recent Texas Rural Innovators Forum at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center heard from four outstanding speakers share their experiences with entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy and with developing entrepreneurial communities.

Brian Dabson of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship provided an overview and backdrop for entrepreneurship as a way of developing local economies in rural America. Burt Chojnowski of Brainbelt Consulting shared a historical perspective on how his community, Fairfield, Iowa, came to be known as the number one hotspot for entrepreneurship in the U.S. Eric Turner and Paul Henderson of Plainview, TX then informed attendees about the challenges and lessons learned from the process of positioning their community to be certified by the Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship as the first Entrepreneur Ready Community in the state.  Information on certification programs can be found on the TCRE web site.

Pictures from the gathering are available at http://irishaggie.smugmug.com/Business.

Sessions were video taped and presentations will be made available on the web as soon as possible. Notices of events such as this and of resources available through TCRE can be tracked on this blog, by becoming a fan of the TCRE page on Facebook and by checking in on the TCRE web site.

Burt, Brian, Paul and Eric speak at TRIF

Bobby coordinates TRIF programs

Prepare for Value Added Producer Grants

It is anticipated that the 2010 VAPG program will be announced in late April or early May.  Several interested business owners and prospective business owners were looking for assistance in making application and in fulfilling the requirements of either the planning or working capital grant.  Some found the process was not right for their situation, was more time consuming than they thought or there was just not sufficient lead time to get a proposal together.  Now might be a good time to get started on your proposal, getting your questions answered and making your plans to line up your team to provide you the needed assistance.  The 2009 federal register announcement is still posted.  Further information can be obtained by calling Billy Curb, USDA-RD at (254) 742-9775.

Plainview Celebration photos

Just wanted to add a couple of pictures from the Plainview celebration.

From left: Greg Clary, Economist, AgriLife Extension and Chairman, TCRE, Main Street/CVB Special Projects Assistant Sarah Castillo, Mayor John C. Anderson, PEGA representative Paul Henderson of South Plains College, City Manager Greg Ingham and Main Street/CVB Director Eric Turner.

Greg Clary presents award to Mayor Anderson

People involved in PEGA and in the effort to get Plainview recognized as the first Entrepreneur Ready Community in Texas