Smude Enterprises Receives Value Added Grant Award from USDA

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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PIERZ, MN – Drought,hard work, and economic development financing from Community Development of Morrison County, are all factors in the recent success of Smude Enterprises in Pierz, MN. With the recent award of $298,000 from the USDA, Smude Enterprises is poised to accelerate growth and sales of it natural sunflower oil.

Tom Smude, founder of Smude Enterprises, has been farming since he was 12 years old and in 1998 he bought his own farm and began raising cows/calf pairs. His passion for farming is mixed with an entrepreneurial spirit in the bio-fuel industry. And this unique motivation sparked Tom’s interest in making bio-fuel from soybeans. However, the bio-fuel from soybeans would not be compatible with modern equipment so he tried sunflowers, known for their tolerance to drought.In 2009, he started his cold-press sunflower operation and by 2010 he was producing, bottling and selling Smude Virgin Cold Press Sunflower Oil.  This natural oil offers a flavorful, healthy alternative to cooking oil and is on the shelves in 60 retail locations and available online

All of the effort has also paid off and been recognized by the Department of Agriculture.  On February 3, 2012, Smude Enterprises was a recipient of the Value-Added Producer Grant Award.

With the help of Community Development of Morrison County, Smude Enterprises has been able to buy machinery to move the Sunflower idea to reality. They are currently exploring a facility in the Pierz Industrial Park to meet their growing needs and are looking forward to working with Carol Anderson and Community Development once again.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF MORRISON COUNTY can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/cdc.morrison.mn.us).  Community Development of Morrison County provides assistance in many areas important to business expansion or new location such as attractive financing, identification of potential employees, employee training, local government support, identification of real estate and necessary support services for your company.

MORRISON COUNTY, MN is located approximately 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul, in central Minnesota at the junctions of Highways 10, 27, and 371.

SMUDE ENTERPRISES — Since 2009 Smude Enterprises has been producing its healthy sunflower oil.  This cooking oil alternative has led to additional growth and recognition for Smude Enterprises.  Honored in 2011 by the Minnesota Jaycees, Tom Smude has been recognized as and “Outstanding Young Farmer” and he prides himself on producing a totally green product.  Visit http://www.smudeoil.com to learn more about Tom and his enterprising company.

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Notes from IEDC Leadership Summit: Part II

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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A couple more notes from San Antonio.

I wanted to give a shout out to the newest group of men and women who received their CEcD license. After spending some time with Gabe Schlickau from Black Hills Energy, I got a sense of how much hard work goes into the CEcD license.  Hats off and well done! From what I understand, only 40% of the 24 who took the test this weekend passed.

Made some great connections this afternoon, and I was introduced into four potential speaking engagements for Golden Shovel’s Engaged Community workshop.  I look forward to continuing to bring education and social media tools to economic developers and their communities across the country.  If you are not familiar with the Engaged Community workshop, send me an email and I’ll send along further information: rkresha@goldenshovelagency.com.

During the sessions today, I had a chance to connect with Sara Carabias–well actually we connected on Twitter first as we retweeted each other’s posts and shared the session information. Using Twitter to follow the sessions helped me get the information from sessions I could not attend.  I encourage you to follow Sara online, she posts great information: http://twitter.com/SarahCarabias

At the conference the Triple Bottom Line Tool was unveiled and more information can be found at http://www.commerce.gov/.

The triple bottom line concept expands on the traditional methods for assessing the impact of development activities in a region to include environmental and social variables as well as economic inputs. While the triple bottom line concept is becoming increasingly more common among corporations to assess their bottom line, it is still rarely used by local jurisdictions to determine the impact of economic development efforts.‬

Hopefully, many of you can find the Triple Bottom Line tool useful.

The last session I was able to attend was the Ignite session where speakers had five minutes and 15 timed slides.  The presentations were fast and furious and gave some useful information.  Here is a quick rundown:

  • GIS Planning talked about the disruptive economic developer.  It is time to use big data and talent to make a difference in communities.
  • Todd McDaniel responding to globalization and talked about the role of globalization for mid to large-sized communities.
  • Gail Scott  from Leduk Nisku EDA. Local food initiative to remove barriers for sustainable growth of imports.
  • Daryl Phillips from Hickman TN gave a compelling presentation on using QR codes for economic developers. Do you want to get started with QR codes try qrstuff.com!

That is my quick rundown of the IEDC Leadership Summit and if you have feedback, please leave a comment so I can share the information I missed.  I am off tomorrow to meet with some great community members in Albuquerque, NM.

Cheers and thanks for the great conversations!

Ron

 

 

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Notes From the 2012 IEDC Leadership Summit

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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The 2012 Leadership Summit is being held in San Antonio, TX, and there is a solid lineup of speakers and topics.  I’d like to share some of the topics being discussed and some of the innovations I have come across.

The kickoff session on Sunday was Andrea McCarren from Washington, DC. Shortly after the inauguration of President Obama she was let go from her job as a reporter in Washington, DC.  With a whiff of inspiration she packed up her family in an RV and headed across America to see how towns are dealing with the recent recession.  Her stories were compelling and heartwarming.

Andrea shared stories from the tornado-stricken town of Greensburg, KS where the community rallied from the destruction and decided to rebuild a “Green” community. The new buildings were built with a green intent.  Amazing people with a stellar spirit of conquering the destruction of weather.

The next session was a presentation by Dr. Geoffrey West who surmised the question:  “Is a quantitative predictive science of cities conceivable? Dr. West applied the systems of biology and physics to see if the growth of cities can be correlated to certain known factors and predicted?  Dr. West put together an amazing amount of data and concluded the following:

  1. Cities grow like many organisms in nature and they certainly cannot grow at exponential rates.
  2. Cities exist because they are social networks and therefore innovation and adaptation is needed to combat the decline of cities.
  3. One million people a week are moving into cities.

All-in-all, the conference is interesting and I hope to pick up a couple more good tips and suggestions to share from today’s sessions.

Cheers!

Ron

 

 

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Is Google+ Poised for Growth with Aid of Presidential Support

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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On January 24th, at 9PM Eastern, President Obama will deliver his State of Union address to major networks and streamed on YouTube.  And, next Monday, he will further his presidential conversations on Google+.  Interesting.

In 2007 and 2008, Obama and his team mastered the Facebook and Twitter media channels and revolutionized the way Presidential campaigns can raise money and awareness.  His campaign used Twitter and Facebook in a way that absolutely negated many of the efforts of his opponents. He is about to do it again.

Google+ has been looking for a way to increase its user base.  Not that it is a bad system, but it has the hurdle of Facebook’s adoption rate.  There are so many people using Facebook everyday that Google has been challenged to get users to switch platforms.  If you use Google+, you will notice that it is really a compilation of Facebook, Twitter, and video sharing with friendly circles to quickly segment your friends.  Slick, but many people weren’t ready to abandon Facebook and Twitter just to pick up a new platform.

In 2007 and 2008, many people viewed Twitter and Facebook as a unnecessary communication platform.  Websites and television dominated the media channels.  Obama changed that perception.  His campaign made the Twitter and Facebook streams relevant and useful.  I suspect the Google+ folks are ecstatic.  This may be the excuse people need to get their Google+ account.

So to my friends in economic development and community branding, take note.  Google+ may offer the new place to be and the term Google+ “hangouts” will become more common.  Time to start adding friends to my Google+ circles.

If you are on Google+, please add me to your circles.  I’ll do the same.

Cheers!

Ron

 

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Does SOPA and PIPA Affect Community Economic Development Efforts?

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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There is a lot to digest from yesterday’s semi-coordinated online protest of the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation.  If you are not familiar with the debate, here is a primer.  The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced to the House of Representatives in October 2011.  The original intent of the bill is to extend the ability for U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to battle the online piracy of copyrighted intellectual property.  A similar bill, Protect IP Act (PIPA) is in the Senate.  This legislation, if passed, has the potential to be disruptive on a number of fronts to the Internet experience that the world has become accustom.

So why is stopping obvious IP theft and online piracy a bad thing?  At face value, the legislation appears to derive from good intent to protect the owners of IP and copyrighted material.  The problem lies in the lack of constraints to the U.S. law enforcement and copyright holder.  There are various actions that could be obtained in court orders.  For example, a court order might halt online advertising, censor Facebook pages, prevent websites from being accessed by blocking their DNS service, barring search engines from linking, etc.

So your community has a Facebook page, blog, and website.  On your sites, you or one of your followers posts a link to a video or picture that illustrates a concept or idea.  Maybe, a post goes up about the growing economic worries, and it is accompanied by one of the thousands of videos found on YouTube.  The video is copyrighted and you or your poster did not know, and suddenly the court order come through that allows any site linking to the copyrighted material to disappear until the infringement is corrected.

The problem?  The community site goes down  with little warning and YOU are now responsible for finding the link to bring the site back up.  And if you have ever worked with DNS you know that solving DNS issues can take days to resolve.  More importantly, the process will no doubt put community agencies on alert to make sure they are closely examining all the content.  More time, more headaches, and more costs, for little return.  I believe it will create one more barrier to communities who are trying very hard to come into the digital age with a strong online presence.

Additionally, I believe this debate has sparked another, even larger problem.  One that many people may not be fully aware.  Yesterday, Wikipedia and Google took steps to protest the legislation.  Wikipedia took its English version of the site offline and Google reminded visitors of the search engine page that this law resembled censorship.  So if these media giants, Google, Facebook, Reddit, Wikipedia will restrict access based on political debates, what else may cause them to take their sites down?

More to the point.  Google, Wikipedia, etc seems to be on the right side of the debate about censorship and this bill.  There is no doubt in my mind that the bill will create a more difficult Internet experience and more barriers for companies to do business online.  But what happens when one of these media giants feels they are being infringed and they decided to take action.  If Google suddenly shuts down, and not just its search engine, but its services, they could disrupt cell traffic, Internet browsing, document access, etc.  They have power, and they know it.

In my opinion SOPA and PIPA are symptoms of a larger problem.  Who really owns our access and resources on the Internet?  And I believe history tells us that when resources become scarce or regulated the costs go up to access those resources.  As a community developer who just wants to attract economic development activities and business to your area, can you afford some of the consequences of this legislation?

One more closing thought.  Imagine you have a large broadband initiative and are trying to attract data centers or other Internet intensive businesses.  In a more regulated world, you may have to provide all kinds of safeguards and compliance software filtering to your broadband network.  More expense. . . more hassle. . . less ubiquitous access to your network.

Cheers!

Ron

 

 

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Rural Communities Realize the Power of Shared Resources and Shared Success

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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Followers of this blog, know that we love to share community success stories. Locally, the economic development arm in Morrison County has helped numerous businesses with their start up efforts.  One of these companies, Little Falls Manufacturing Development Center, is a shining example of success.

 

Tom Elbert purchased empty manufacturing space a year ago and converted the empty space into a booming business development center.  With 14 current businesses, he one year ahead of his plans to fill the space.  The business center is attracting start-up companies, manufacturing companies, and other businesses who can benefit from shared resources.

 

Below is the official press release from Carol Anderson in Little Fall, MN.  If your community has a story to share, please let me know and we’ll post it here.

 

Cheers!
Ron

LITTLE FALLS, MN – Tom Elbert is pleased with the success of his business center in Little Falls, MN.  Currently, he is hosting 14 businesses and is one-year ahead of schedule with his plans to fill up his business development space. Furthermore, this success has allowed him to accelerate payment of the Community Development loan he received in 2011.Tom Elbert purchased vacant manufacturing buildings on January 3, 2011 with the help of Carol Anderson at Community Development of Morrison County. Tom has high praise for Carol Anderson and Community Development’s ability to assist with project:

“Carol has been excellent to work with.  She has been the catalyst of getting this project going and keeping it moving. Without Carol the project would not have happened in Little Falls.”

Many factors have come together to help the business center grow in Little Falls.  Elbert cites the growing business climate of Morrison county, efforts of Carol Anderson, and the willingness of the City of Little Falls to see this project move forward.  The combined success has put the Little Falls Manufacturing Development Center a full year ahead of schedule for filling up the building.

As a result of the accelerated success, Tom Elbert presented the City of Little Falls with a repayment check on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 for 50% of of his initial community development loan. This early repayment will allow for other companies to receive economic dollars.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF MORRISON COUNTY can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/cdc.morrison.mn.us).  Community Development of Morrison County provides assistance in many areas important to business expansion or new location such as attractive financing, identification of potential employees, employee training, local government support, identification of real estate and necessary support services for your company.

LITTLE FALLS MANUFACTURING DEVELOPMENT CENTER is located in Little Falls, MN and currently houses 14 businesses. The center is ideal for any business looking to reduce facility overhead costs. With shared equipment, Internet, phone service, and office staff, the Little Falls Manufacturing Development Center takes a lot of the hassle out of running a company. Contact Tom Elbert at teconst@isd.net for more details.

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Has Social Media Impacted Economic Development for Communities?

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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On December 22, 2011, Nigel Dunn published a very insightful piece on the impact of Twitter.  In his article, “If Twitter Shut Down Tomorrow, Would We Miss It?”  (found in its entirety at http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=172004), Mr. Dunn argues that Twitter or more broadly social media, is a simple phenomenon that would not be missed too terribly if it disappeared for businesses.

“If Twitter never proposes to charge users any money then realistically all they are is a database company who will rent out the ‘space’ each user occupies to the highest bidders to attract those users to spend some money on products or services. Twitter and Facebook, in that sense are glorified TV channels with the IP addresses of all the users which is pretty good knowledge.”

He makes a good point.  Right now, as we see the current use of Twitter and Facebook it is simply a whole bunch of people occupying digital space and the real value, in terms of money, has yet to be fully understood.  However, his more important point comes later in the argument that what the social media channels are creating is a very, very large database of content.  This is the key.

The key to social media is not the money trail–directly speaking.  For me it is the knowledge and wealth of information.  Way back in 1980, Alvin Toffler published The Third Wave, a follow up to his 1970′s book Future Shock. In this book, he correctly identified the shift to an information age for industrial counties.  And I remember one of his more glaring predictions: The new world will not be segmented between the have’s and the havenot’s but by the those who know and those do not know.  Right on!

Social media is the extreme extension of people’s quest for information, not necessarily knowledge, but information that relevant and up-to-the second current. How does this apply to communities and economic development?

In a world where information is flying around at the speed of light, business owners and entrepreneurs are able to make split-second decisions based on their Twitter feed. And with the overwhelming nature of today’s information, the bigger skill is not deciding where to do business, but where NOT to do business. Therefore, as an entrepreneur seeking to establish my product or find a site to expand, the bigger goal is to limit my choices, not expand them.  The solutions, scour the social media world for information that fits the needs of the business.  Communities not using social media will be eliminated, quickly.

As Mr. Dunn explains in his article, the real power of social media will be the use of the knowledge and the targeted ads.  I also argue that for economic developers the real power of social media will come as networks are established and online brands are built.

Either way, social media will not go away.  In fact it will grow and control more and more of our personal space.  We are humans who love to share information.  And as Mr. Toffler argues, those who have information will prosper.  Those who do not, will struggle.

Cheers!

Ron

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Are You Ignoring the Largest, Fastest Growing Sector of Economic Base Activity?

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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Once again, I am excited to announce another webinar partnership with Mark Lautman from the CE Lab. Mark is an articulate, insightful economic architect and his presentations have been well received. As we begin 2012, the economic indicators still seem vague and open to many forms of interpretation. Mark, however, takes the stance of action in communities. Waiting for the correct economic forecast just doesn’t seem to be the right response. I am inclined to agree.

Many communities, rural and urban, are taking proactive steps to find economic assets in their community. One of these hidden assets is the “virtual” or home based worker. According to Mark:

People who work from home and export their products and services are part of the local economic base the same as those working for employers. Learn about a new program strategy focused on recruiting, expanding and starting up home based, economic base workers capable of adding thousands of new jobs. This new dimension to your economic development efforts might be the only viable way for rural communities to get back in the economic development game.

The home-based worker appears to be a timely discussion, and it fits into the mold of communities who are building online awareness to strengthen their brand and presence. Please accept my personal invitation to attend and share your thoughts with Mark. Registration details are as follows:

Author, speaker, and economic architect, Mark Lautman will be hosting a webinar for communities who wish to learn more about the home-based worker segment.  This is the third webinar in his educational series for economic developers wishing to deploy additional growth strategies for their communities.

The webinar is scheduled for January 19th at 2:00 pm CST and space is limited.  Please register at the following address: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/555949736

Cheers!
Ron

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Five Social Media Resolutions for Economic Developers in 2012

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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2012 is shaping up as a year of social media.  The presidential election, economic news and data, regressing recession, and emerging economic growth will be top content for communities to embrace in their social media channels. I am convinced this will be a year for communities to establish their social media channels.  Many communities have waited for the right time: 2012 is the right time.

Whether you are community who recently jumped into the social media world or an advanced social media user, here are some suggestions to help your 2012 social media impression become even more polished:

1. Review your 2011 posts

To move forward, first begin by looking back.  What posts drew attention last year?  Take a moment to look at the analytic tools available to you.  In your Google Analytics, look for trends.  Did you have a particular day where traffic was higher than expected?  What was the content for that day?  Where did the traffic come from and was it picked up by a blog or website that helped send traffic your way?

Look at your Facebook insights?  What posts generated “likes” and “shares” from your followers?  Are you using Hootsuite?  If so, the reports in Hootsuite can be very revealing and will help you see what type of content generated traffic.

If you don’t have Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Hootsuite, then the first suggestion is to set up tools so you can review your success this year.

2. Consider adding a page for your community on Facebook

Many communities started with Facebook before pages were allowed.  Thus, they have created an account and have used Facebook as a personal account. Facebook pages are rich with tools and features that allow communities to attract more followers. These features are not available to user accounts.

To determine if your Facebook is set up as a page or account, look to the left and see if you have a list of “friends” or a list of “likes”.  Facebook users “friend” each other and they “like” pages. Why is this important?

As a page on Facebook, you can create a location for people to “check in” when they visit your physical location. While there are countless other good features available to pages, the “check in” is one of my favorites.

When I travel, I always check my Facebook account on my phone and use the “check in” feature.  This prompts my Facebook account to list all the nearby geographical locations.  I like to check into the local communities that I visit or pass through.  Why?  Each time I check into a community on Facebook it is a vote of confidence for other users to visit the location.  If you do not have a Facebook page, you deny your visitors the ability to give you instant feedback.

3. Ask your local businesses to “like” your Facebook page and likewise “like” your local businesses.

As a community support organization have you encouraged your members to “like” your community resource on Facebook?  It is important to build a following to tap into social media networks.  Make it a point this year to ask your local companies to “like” your page on Facebook. In return “like” them back and help build a network.

Facebook has reduced our degree of separation from six to around two or three.  This allows your community to reach out to potential businesses and new members in ways that were difficult to achieve before electronic “friending”  It is free, and it works.

4. “Check In” often

Give your local businesses and groups the virtual support they need.  Smart phones are everywhere and easy to use. If you haven’t already, install the Facebook app and use it as an extension of your daily activities.

When you attend meetings, visit local businesses, or travel to communities, “check in”.  Let your followers know where you are and whom your frequent.  This builds credibility and activity to help your community grow online.

5. Make your content relevant

Every community I talk to has wonderful stories about the resources and people.  I hear them in every conversation.  The problem is that I am only one person.  Tell these stories online and share the successes with your social media channels.

When a company moves or expands, make sure everyone knows.  When a business promotes a new executive in your area, let everyone know.  If your community hosts a unique event or does a wonderful act of charity, tell the world.  No one can tell your story better, so let people know.  We live in a world of insatiable curiosity; I say feed the social media followers.  You know the saying:

Give a social media follower a “tweet” and they follow you for 30 seconds, give them a stream of “tweets” and they follow you for life.

These are some of the tips that I have found useful for our communities.  Please feel free to share this list with your followers and help to make 2012 the year of social media excellence.

If you have questions about your social media strategy or would like more information, please contact the Golden Shovel Agency team.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

Ron

 

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Lin Furniture of Little Falls, MN Credits Community Development of Morrison County For Successful Start

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Ron Kresha President and CEO
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Here is a great story that I came across the other day about a successful retail furniture store and positive impact  of the local community development agency. Enjoy!

Linda Burggraff understands that launching a retail furniture shop in a rural community requires passion, guidance, and funding.  In the late 1990’s, when Linda was ready to move from furniture store manager to the owner of a furniture store, she turned to Carol Anderson for assistance and guidance.

“When we got everything set, I still needed another avenue for money,” said Linda.  “That is when I started working with Carol Anderson at Community Development to get that financing.  I remember going in front of the board and being asked all the questions they needed to know and receiving a loan from Community Development. Carol was very pleasant to work with asking me questions that I felt I needed to be asked to make sure I knew what I was doing.”

Today, Lin Furniture is one of the key businesses that make up the downtown retail sector in Little Falls, MN.  With a wide selection, competitive prices, and convenient delivery, they are able to compete with the big box furniture stores in neighboring St. Cloud and Brainerd, MN.

Equally important, Linda Burggraff is not just a furniture store owner, she has taken her leadership talents to help the Linden Hills Mansion in Little Falls and is a board member for Community Development of Morrison County.  Once again demonstrating, that economic development doesn’t just make prosperous businesses, but helps improve the citizens.

LIN FURNITURE can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LinFurniture) or visit their website at (http://www.linfurnituremn.com). Dave and Linda Burggraff opened Lin Furniture in the historic downtown of Little Falls, MN in 1998.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF MORRISON COUNTY can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/cdc.morrison.mn.us).  Community Development of Morrison County provides assistance in many areas important to business expansion or new location such as attractive financing, identification of potential employees, employee training, local government support, identification of real estate and necessary support services for your company.

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