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by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Staff Writer
The face of rural America is changing, along with the opportunities
that exist around the remaining economic drivers that once made many
areas prosperous but are now in decline. The edges of decline
usually expose opportunities for creative entrepreneurs, and this
article will explore these opportunities along with the challenges
that exist too. The Internet, along with vast improvements in
communications capabilities, has opened possibilities that did not
exist before. We will discuss some programs that are trying to help
rural development and provide training and financial resources for
the small businesses willing to explore new thinking and unusual
opportunities.
First let me set the stage for this. Rural life is a wonderful
existence, and on this subject, I speak from experience. There is no
traffic congestion of the type found in even small cities. An
example of how country people view congestion happened a few years
ago in the small town of Bath, NC, the state’s oldest town. NC
highway 92 is the main street and there is one caution light and NO
stoplights in the entire town. Bath’s population is about 2,400 with
few business establishments; one of its claims to fame is it was
reported to be a major stopping place for the pirate, Blackbeard.
The small local library is located on the main corner, and closing
time had been 4:30 PM for as long as anyone could remember.
Apparently some residents wanted a little more time and requested
the board of directors to authorize remaining open until 5:00 PM,
which they did.
Guess what? The longtime librarian showed up at the next board
meeting with resignation in hand. She just could not handle the
awful traffic at five o’clock caused by heavy traffic from the
Pamlico River Ferry arrival every day at this time. The ferry’s top
capacity is 24 vehicles, about half of which go East away from the
library with the rest going past the library in Bath. Several of the
12 turned off before the library leaving, perhaps, nine cars. The
librarian was all to pieces because she had to wait for maybe nine
cars to go past at 35 miles per hour! The board returned closing
time to 4:30 PM. This is how rural people view congestion; I live in
the swamp, literally, so there are no times when I have to wait on
traffic until I travel at least 20 miles to a town with a stoplight.
It’s wonderful, the feeling of absolute freedom, but it’s not for
everyone.
Rural nights are a grand experience; stars are everywhere with no
city lights to subdue them. Meteor showers are unbelievably
beautiful during the times when they occur. And the full moon over
the Great Pamlico River, it’s just like noontime. If you awaken when
it is so bright there’s no way you can go back to sleep. It’s so
pretty you just have to walk outside and enjoy the beauty. But
again, this is not for everyone.
During the realtor part of my life, people from a lot of
metropolitan areas, including New York, City and metro areas of New
Jersey, joined people from local North Carolina cities like Raleigh
and Charlotte trying to find the ideal vacation spot that ultimately
would become their retirement home. Many would stay a day or two and
become absolutely captivated by the native beauty and the things
people do to make a living. When they left, they signed an “Offer to
Purchase” some property they liked and left an earnest money check.
Invariably most of them would call about half way back to their home
and instruct me to cancel the offer as well as their check and
return all documents to them. They decided this was just too
isolated; they could not live with going 30 to 60 miles for
significant shopping opportunities or 30 miles for movies. If you
need city life, you need to stay in the city.
Since the quiet life is not for everyone, many rural areas have
fallen on hard economic times, and it can be challenging to figure
out how to reverse this trend. One major problem that arises when
trying to help rural areas through these difficult times is
confusion over exactly what is meant by “rural.”
Here’s an example. A major mid-western venture capital firm
wanted to learn about rural areas and requested help from a
consulting firm. The company’s staff was asked to define rural
America the way they thought about it.
They said, “When we think of rural America, we think of places
maybe like Lincoln, Nebraska, and definitely Omaha, Nebraska.”
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Dickinson, North Dakota
Pop. 16,000
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Now let’s get this in perspective: Lincoln, Nebraska, is a city of
250,000 and the Omaha metro area exceeds 650,000! Actual Midwestern
rural areas are more like Dickinson, North Dakota (16,000), Mullen,
Nebraska (450), Fairfield, Iowa (9,500), or Douglas, Georgia
(10,600). Federal Government agencies go even further by defining
rural as open country and places with 2,500 or fewer residents. That
describes where I live and thereby qualifies me to write about rural
areas.
About 80% of the land area in the U.S. is rural by this
definition, and 55 million Americans call rural areas home. To city
dwellers, this is just a statistic, but it is a significant one
representing 20% of the population. Rural people have long depended
on traditional economic sectors like
farming, ranching, timbering, mining, energy production, and
fisheries, all involving natural resources. If these zones are
functioning properly, they create wealth and growing economies.
Unfortunately, however, traditional resources are declining in many
places, affecting everything around them. Well-advised communities
seek ways to sustain their economies by developing new and different
kinds of industries. This is why closely associated with the natural
resources and open spaces found in rural America are processing and
manufacturing industries that need raw materials, unskilled and
semi-skilled workforces, and space to operate. These businesses are
now in decline just like the natural resources that grew them as
manufacturing jobs are transferred to countries with lower wage
scales and fewer environmental regulations. All these things tend to
drive people away from the wide open spaces they have always
enjoyed, but creative and observant entrepreneurs can find
overlooked opportunities around this decline which others only view
as a disaster.
Rural areas are located between more populated places and
therefore serve as transportation and communications sectors with
railroads, highways, pipelines, and fiber optics crisscrossing all
over America. These kinds of industries are all sources of economic
activity. In addition large tracts of land are owned and operated by
various government agencies. These include national forests,
military installations, prisons, and waste sites. Also involved are
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Nature Conservancy
which is trying to preserve important wild areas from development.
 To
develop opportunities in declining areas many, groups have sprung up
to train local people about developing proper attitudes toward
entrepreneurs and how to find required financing which is always
needed. Among these is RUPRI, the
Rural Policy
Research Institute. This was developed as a joint program of
Iowa State University, the University of Missouri, and the
University of Nebraska. RUPRI’s reach is national and international
and is one of the world’s preeminent sources of expertise and
perspective on policies impacting rural places and people. The RUPRI
Center for Rural Entrepreneurship is the focal point for efforts to
stimulate and support private and public entrepreneurship
development in communities throughout rural America. The Center,
with locations in North Carolina, Nebraska, and Missouri, conducts
research, evaluation of model practices, and training for community
and regional leaders. The Center’s mission is to enable every rural
resident to achieve his or her full entrepreneurial potential. The
reason groups like this are needed is because of the unique ways
rural communities operate.
Rural people have strong entrepreneurial attributes related to
independence, resourcefulness, and initiative. This comes from a
tradition of having to deal with unexpected and sometimes
life-threatening situations during ordinary daily life. These same
characteristics, however, may inhibit their willingness to network
and partner, both required of an entrepreneur.
Rural areas offer several other challenges to entrepreneurial
success. People in rural areas exist in a sort of fishbowl arena.
There are so few people that everyone and everything they do
immediately stands out in the community; there are no secrets. For
entrepreneurs, this lack of anonymity makes it harder to fail (or to
be wildly successful) without undergoing intense community scrutiny.
This discourages some from trying to be different.
In rural communities, one is expected to be involved in the life
of the community. This includes the simple obligation to wave or say
hello as well as the expectation of full community service. Not
being involved can bring on sanctions and marginal status. For a
rural entrepreneur who is completely focused on creating and growing
an enterprise, this focused behavior can be perceived as
disconnecting from the community subjecting the businessperson to
some ridicule and possibly being treated as an outcast.
Roles people are expected to play in rural communities are often
assigned. If the parents are farmers, it may be hard for the
community to accept the next generation in another role. These kinds
of expectations by others may limit the ability of a rural person to
try something new and undermine the community’s ability to support
new roles. It may be hard for an entrepreneur to thrive in such an
environment. Training of all members of the community by an
organization like RUPRI can help entrepreneurs to succeed in
difficult circumstances.
Rural orientation is toward the “group,” such as a church, the
downtown merchants, or a community service club. The implications of
this value for entrepreneurs are two-fold. If the group is
supportive, a very positive climate can be created for the
entrepreneur. If, however, the crowd is narrow in its outlook and
refuses to accept anything different, it may prevent the
entrepreneur from reaching outside of his or her group to network,
to find markets or create strategic alliances.
All these things have the result that rural communities may have
less growth, fewer high growth entrepreneurs, and a culture that is
less than supportive of entrepreneurial creativity. Those of us who
live and work in rural places must find the time to understand our
current environment better. By realizing the attitudes of those
around us we stand a stronger chance of building a more supportive
environment for our entrepreneurs.
So, what can rural communities faced with declining traditional
industries do to overcome cultural and economic barriers and
encourage creative entrepreneurial activities? The quickest thing is
to build on existing opportunities, the edges around the traditions
that are declining. The single largest economic force in rural
America today is suburbanization. We love what cities offer, but
more and more Americans are pushing further out into the adjoining
rural countryside to live and raise their families. In time, the
city catches up and incorporates these developing areas. This very
suburban movement creates many opportunities for the furnishing of
all the goods and services people need every day. Rural acreages,
subdivisions, and entire new communities are growing rapidly, not
only in areas close to population centers, but even in more remote
areas such as the Great Plains. Here are more opportunities for
small entrepreneurs to furnish all the things new residents will
need, especially in out-of-the-way places. People relocating to
these places include the single fastest growing demographic group in
rural America, those people 65 years of age and older. Most of these
are affluent and have resources, spending power and considerable
political power. The aging baby boom demographic (the single largest
group in American history) is driving the creation of entire new
industries to meet their needs.
One survivor of traditional industry in rural areas is
recreational tourism. This is a diverse and complicated sector with
literally thousands of emerging niche markets. Although recreational
tourism tends to concentrate in traditional high-demand rural areas
like mountains, lakes, and coastal areas, it is also reaching more
diverse places that provide opportunities for visitors interested in
things like birding and other areas for the nature-minded in all
parts of rural America. There are a lot of entrepreneur niches
around this economic edge.
There are many more emerging possibilities to rejuvenate
declining resource economies. One such idea is the Lone Eagles, a
term coined by the Center for the New West that refers to
professionals who move to remote areas and conduct their work with
high tech tools. The trend line is clear and strong—many, many urban
Americans are moving to rural settings and making their livings via
the Internet. Lone Eagles may become the next generation of business
and community leaders, community philanthropists, and mentors for
emerging entrepreneurs and youth in our rural communities. Rapid
advancement of technology, particularly telecommunications, makes
this opportunity possible. Lone Eagles work from almost anywhere via
broadband access to the Internet. Main Street businesses tap
national markets by using advanced telecommunications. These
advancements make it easier for rural entrepreneurs to reach
regional, national, and even international markets while raising the
competitive stakes for rural businesses.
Corporate back offices could be the redemption of some rural
economies. Although creative, productive, and corporate centers
remain in America’s largest cities, more of the back office
operations are moving off shore and in some cases to rural America.
Back office operations range from call centers, to accounting
services, to paperwork processing and storage. Many firms are
finding a willing workforce and welcoming communities for this type
of economic development. The possibilities for local entrepreneurs
are enormous.
One aspect of globalization is standardization. While national
shopping malls only want well-known franchises, there is a counter
movement centered on uniqueness and artistic drive. Throughout rural
America, individuals are engaged in making arts and crafts. Often
small in scale, artisan activities are reaching industry proportions
through marketing associations, retail outlets, festivals, flea
markets, and cooperatives. Arts and crafts can also be marketed on
the Internet.
Entrepreneurs and this creative process we call entrepreneurship
play a central role in all our lives. Entrepreneurs create not only
better lives for themselves and their families, but they also
represent a driving force in our society and economy. They envision
and create businesses that meet our material needs in interesting
and more effective ways.
The difference between most small businesses and entrepreneurial
small businesses is the orientation and capacity of the
owner/operator with respect to innovation and growth. Most research
suggests that one in 10 American adults is actively engaged in
entrepreneurship, the process of starting a business. Research
strongly suggests that in communities with active support
environments, the number of potential entrepreneurs who move forward
in creating successful ventures rises. This reinforces the need for
groups like RUPRI.
A Gallup poll of high school students found that 69% of them
wanted to start their own business but 84% felt they were not
prepared to do so! Ewing Marion Kauffman (founder of the Kauffman
Foundation) often identified the difference between a business owner
and an entrepreneur in the following way: A business owner works
“in” the business while an entrepreneur works “on” the business.
Most entrepreneurs are not the same folks who developed the new
idea, product, services, resource or approach. Rather, they are the
ones who see value in new ideas and creatively take innovation to a
commercial plane.
So, we know there is an entrepreneurial spirit in rural areas.
We’ve also learned that organizations like RUPRI are available to
encourage small business owners, but how has this translated into
actual operations? Here is an example.
 One
42-year-old left his native Southwest Virginia region of rolling
hills and green valleys after high school because he saw no future
outside farming and mining. Now he is one of a growing number
bringing their professions back to small-town America, lured by
Web-based recruitment campaigns from rural regions who beckon with
quality of life opportunities. He sees this as a chance to help his
native area, and he likes being able to keep a fishing rod in his
office that he sometimes uses during lunch breaks. He feels this is
a safer place to raise his daughter. In isolated Southwest Virginia,
the program is called
Return to
Roots. Funded by the Virginia Tobacco Commission and private
grants, it lists job openings on its Website that include positions
in information technology, engineering, education and health care.
Similar Web-based efforts have been launched by states ranging from
Vermont to South Dakota. An Iowa site calls the state "more livable
than 88 percent of the U.S.," while Vermont promises "vibrant small
towns and cities and growing opportunities in high technology and
other information-based sectors."
This discussion has only hinted at the unlimited niche markets
being opened in the aftermath of declining traditional natural
resource industries throughout rural America. As a resident of one
of these areas, I can assure you it is a wonderful way to live. As
with any life changing relocation you consider, always visit your
prospective area many times and stay there for extended time periods
if you can. But, do give rural entrepreneurship a try; there are
many fortune-making possibilities here if you can see the big
picture.
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© Yank Elliott. All rights reserved worldwide.
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