In a half-day seminar at the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday, officials from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis encouraged civic leaders from across Mississippi to grow small-town economies by focusing on local entrepreneurs and helping small businesses expand.
Mayors, chamber of commerce and Main Street association leaders, bankers and university officials from as far away as West Point, Water Valley and Jackson came to hear suggestions at the seminar, titled “Saving Your Small Town.”
“Having jobs in our small towns is a challenge,” said Daniel Davis, senior manager of community development at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. “Small businesses and entrepreneurs can be a really strong strategy when grappling with a lack of jobs.”
Davis and other speakers from the Fed spoke about some of the challenges facing small businesspeople and entrepreneurs trying to expand or strike out on their own. Top among them was access to loans or seed money to start — or expand — a viable business.
“Access to capital is so limited in many of our communities that raising funds is critical,” Davis said.
Davis and others from the Fed stressed the intense competition and slim chances of success for communities hoping to land a single large factory or corporate facility. Although no one dismissed pursuing large businesses as an economic development strategy, Davis and others encouraged the group to put resources into supporting and growing local small businesses.
Daniel Wilcox, director of the Center for Economic and Entrepreneurship Education at the University of Southern Mississippi, said he encourages many young entrepreneurs to set aside very small amounts — the $10 that many would spend each month on junk food — and use that money as start-up capital for mini-businesses.
Wilcox, who helps run the Southern Entrepreneurship Program, a series of competitions and teacher training courses throughout Mississippi, said many young people growing up in poverty see a lack of seed money for a business as an insurmountable obstacle.
Emily Roush Elliott, an Enterprise Rose architectural fellow who has been leading the Baptist Town Project, stressed the importance of quality, affordable housing to the group.
Speaking about her own community-based efforts to revitalize the impoverished Greenwood neighborhood, Roush Elliott said that access to quality housing has been shown to be a strong indicator of educational, financial and health outcomes for residents.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
