Why small towns have to get down to business

Stop me if you've heard this one before.  View this email in your browser Howdy Friend,   I don't know all the problems and challenges in your town. I don't know your assets and best kept secrets. I don't know who gets in your way or who is right there with you every step. I don't know if you have issues to address or opportunities to seize in education or health care or arts or transportation. I don't know your town. But I do know business is the base. Your locally owned businesses determine your town's prosperity.  When you focus your effort on growing more businesses and more prosperous local businesses, you grow the local funds that make those other projects happen. You grow the volunteers that take on the challenges with you. You grow the broad-based political will to stand up to those who would oppose change. When you spend one hour helping a small business owner address a challenge in their business, you are investing in the future of your town. When you tear down barriers to entry and make it easier for more people to try smaller business ideas, you create the base that grows bigger local businesses. When you have a solid foundation of prosperous local businesses, you have a strong place to build up your other assets and opportunities. I can't help you decide if you need one more arts project or another walking trail or a new school building. But I can help you decide to offer help to one more local business and buy one more gift locally and tell one more entrepreneur how much you support them. It's the best way we can both contribute to the future prosperity of your town. Keep making your small town better, Becky PS - I'm working on a roundup of training materials for entrepreneurs, so I was excited to see these specifically for Latino entrepreneurs from Arkansas Extension.   If you have other training materials for entrepreneurs you want me to share with everyone, hit reply and give me a short description and a link. Thanks!