Selecting online public participation tools 08 26 14
SB ecosystem spring 2015
1. Lead or Feed:
What We Can Actually Do To
Help Grow Small Businesses
in Our Community
Della G. Rucker, AICP CEcD
Principal, Wise Economy Workshop
Wiseeconomy.com
LocalEconomyRevolutionbook.com
www.wiseeonomy.com
2. Your Presenter
• All those letters?
• Economic
Revitalization/Public
Engagement
• Building: Communities
that work long term–
– Strong economy
– Resilient economy
– Invested people
www.wiseeonomy.com Barrygott.com
4. We have a problem.
How places work economically has
changed on us.
How we try to help places work better
economically… hasn’t.
www.wiseeonomy.com
5. We got a couple more problems
The tools we have gotten used to using we designed
for working with a few big businesses.
Now our local economies mostly consist of smaller
businesses.
They ain’t the same.
We need some new tools
www.wiseeonomy.com
6. How we try to fix local economies
(and often fail)
“We just need a better streetscape!!”
7. How we try to fix local economies
(and often fail)
“We gotta get rid of those vacant buildings!!
(Let’s give them money!)”
8. How we try to fix local economies
(and often fail)
We just gotta sell it better!!
9. Does it look like a nail?
When you try to solve complex local economic
issues with a small set of tools….
www.wiseeonomy.com
10. The Practical Matters
• More small businesses + less staff and budget = … a
big problem for local governments.
• More demand for transparency (read: everyone can
be their own investigative reporter) = higher risk in
“confidential” plans and deals.
• More economic dependence on small businesses =
more dependence on businesses that are
overextended, not always seeing the whole picture,
and often flying by the seat of their pants.
www.wiseeonomy.com
11. Therefore, we need to change:
• Small number of intensive interactions to large
number of less intensive “touches”
• Build self-reinforcing connections – networks
• Enable, within reason
• Open up.
• Partner.
• Focus on what we uniquely bring to the table
www.wiseeonomy.com
12. So What the Heck Do the Really Need?
(Especially if it’s not what we thought they
needed?)
www.wiseeonomy.com
A Brief Guide to
Understanding an
Entrepreneur’s Brain and
why they aren’t thinking
what you might think.
13. Not all small businesses are the same
www.wiseeonomy.com
14. The World of a Small Business
• Independence
• Over-capacity
• Speed
• Myopia
www.wiseeonomy.com
25. What does that sound like?
“Why do I need to follow that regulation/get that
permit/live by your rules?”
“Just get out of my way and let me run my
business.”
“You’re taking too long!”
“That’s what the regulation says.”
“You can’t have an exception.”
“This is the process.”
www.wiseeonomy.com
26. How does a business community
actually work?
• Brad Feld, Startup
Communities
– Startups need
“Ecosystems”
• We <3 Tech!!
• Boulder is da bomb
www.wiseeonomy.com
29. More from Feld
– “Government should
always be Feeder, not
Leader.”
– [Government and
community types can’t do
entrepreneurship right –
only entrepreneurs can]
– [Economic development
is a waste]
www.wiseeonomy.com
30. Hm.
• Della sez:
– Ecosystems aren’t just for tech dudes
– Community has a unique role, unique perspective,
unique assets. Needs to be part of the equation.
– Feeding does not equal useless. Everything needs
to eat.
www.wiseeonomy.com
31. The Big Secret
• Most of the time we can make a better impact
on our local economy and community if we
take a Feeder Role, rather than a leader.
– Feeder =/= passive or unimportant.
– Feeder = adding necessary energy to system.
• But in some situations, we need to be a
Leader. More on that shortly.
www.wiseeonomy.com
32. The Care and Feeding of Small
Businesses
www.wiseeonomy.com
33. Leaders |Feeders
• Recruitment
• Sales
• Star Chamber
• Confidential
• Small # Big Projects
• Large Money to
Small #
• Connection
• Share information
• Everyone we can get
• Transparent
• Large # Small Projects
• Small money to large
#
www.wiseeonomy.com
34. So what do government and community
groups “uniquely bring to the table?”
• Convening power
• Connector
• Attention-Getter
• Space owner
• Fair Rules Administrator
www.wiseeonomy.com
35. So what can we do? Connect
• Convene/Connecting events:
– Not just “Networking”
– Useful information
– Shared group exploration
• Your Role
– Host
– Structure
– Memory
www.wiseeonomy.com
38. Give ‘em a little Space (and/or a little
money
• Types of space
– Work space
– Selling space
– Meeting space
• Your role:
– Space finder
– Space promoter
– Space manager
www.wiseeonomy.com
40. Fair Rules Administrator
• Communicate permit/license/zoning/etc.
processes
– Communicate clearly – the how and the why
– They want to know what to expect
– Make it predictable
• Your role:
– Make it clear
– Make it consistent
– Make it fair
www.wiseeonomy.com
42. Other things you can do that they
might not
Pitch stories or collections to media
Lead development of meaningful brand/story for
district
Help arrange job/equipment/services shares
Show them stories of Good Ideas
Coordinate peer activities
Convene (and manage) discussion on how to
address a big issue
Put on community events
www.wiseeonomy.com
43. How do you know if you have to Lead?
• Your community needs entrepreneurs and
small businesses but they’re not thriving.
• Your small businesses seem dispirited, tired,
burned out or just worn out.
• No one else in the community is stepping up
to the plate
• Example: Kalamazoo, MI
www.wiseeonomy.com
44. Tips for Leading
• Don’t do it alone
• Pull in everyone you can get
• Share problem identification and
strategy development
• Share jobs
• Maintain long term horizon
• Test programs before big
investments
• Be ready to shift to Feeder
• Don’t worry if small business
people don’t show up right away
www.wiseeonomy.com
45. NOW: Your turn
• Get with 3 or 4 people (preferably not your
buddies/colleagues/coworkers)
• Choose someone to be the Recorder
• Choose someone to be the Questioner
• Choose someone to be the Reporter
• Make sure the Recorder has paper and pen
www.wiseeonomy.com
46. What’s Next?
• I’m going to give you a scenario that has a small
business/entrepreneurship problem.
• Your job: figure out how you can address that
scenario by Feeding. Identify
– Three things you could do
– Three potential good outcomes
– Three potential pitfalls
– Is there a conventional economic development way to
deal with it?
– What would you do?
www.wiseeonomy.com
47. Scenario 1:
We have several strip malls along the road
coming into town, and the storefronts are
emptying out. Many of our older businesses
have closed, and nothing is taking their place.
– How can you Feed
• Existing businesses?
• New businesses?
• Property owners?
www.wiseeonomy.com
48. Scenario 2:
We have a graffiti problem. Someone keeps
spray painting things on the buildings along the
commercial corridor. It looks bad, and the
businesses claim it’s scaring away customers,
but we don’t have the city budget or staff to stay
on top of it.
• How do you Feed:
– Business operators
– Building owners?
www.wiseeonomy.com
49. Scenario 3
Many of our small businesses don’t seem to be
run well. We see dirty store windows,
businesses that are closed on Saturdays (when
folks around here actually go downtown), and
inventory that doesn’t seem to move.
• How do you Feed:
– Businesses?
– Potential customers?
www.wiseeonomy.com
50. Scenario 4:
We have a number of small wood product
manufacturers and a few saw mills, but a lot of
them don’t seem to be doing very well. We’re
seeing building deterioration, a lot less hiring
than we used to and we’re hearing rumblings
that a few are planning to lay off employees.
• How do you Feed:
– The businesses
– The employees
www.wiseeonomy.com
51. Scenario 5:
We’ve identified that our town has potential for
adventure tourism, but we have two problems:
One, we don’t have any businesses that actually
cater to adventure tourists. Second, we don’t have
any money to buy magazine ads or television spots.
• How do you Feed:
– Tourism Demand
– Entrepreneuship around this opportunity?
– Existing businesses around this opportunity?
www.wiseeonomy.com
52. Is this a different skill set?
• Connecting
• Listening
• Building trust
• Managing logistics
• Communicating
• Persistence
www.wiseeonomy.com
53. What’s the downside?
• No one-shot answers
• Few Big Wins
• Slow and Steady
• Risk of being invisible
www.wiseeonomy.com
54. What’s the upside?
• Low costs
• Few big risks
• Opportunity to build broad
community support
• Lack of dependence on a few
businesses or sectors
• Building long-term health/capacity of
community.
www.wiseeonomy.com
55. Thank you!
For more information:
www.wiseeconomy.com
www.localeconomyrevolutionbook.com
Twitter: @dellarucker
Also on LinkedIn, Facebook, SoundCloud,
YouTube, etc.
www.wiseeonomy.com
